Three-year-old Alizee has returned to winning form with a dominant performance amongst open fillies and mares company in the Group 1 Queen Of The Turf Stakes (1600m) at Randwick this afternoon.
Winner of the Group 1 Flight Stakes over course and distance in spring, Alizee continued to receive good attention from punters in the hours leading up to the Queen Of The Turf Stakes and eventually jumped an $8.50 shot.
Jockey Glyn Schofield elected to settle the filly at the tail of the talent-rich field and spotted her rivals up to ten lengths leading into the straight, but with only 54.5kgs in tow and clear running on the outside of the field from the 300, she was able to let down like never before and easily won the race by more than two lengths from Prompt Response and Heavens Above.
Schofield delivered a typically brilliant performance aboard Alizee to win the Queen Of The Turf Stakes, but was quick to lay all the praise on his talented mount and the efforts of trainer James Cummings and team.
“She’s a special girl,” Schofield said after the race.
“In the spring, she was really dominant against other fillies her own age but to do this now, fantastic.
“James has had this race in mind for a long time now and all credit to him and the Godolphin team, they’ve presented her in great order here today.
“She found that great turn of speed that was lacking at the beginning of her prep, but you can see how big she is and I think that she just takes a bit of racing to get really race-fit.
“It was impressive today. The turn of speed wins you races and she’s got that in spades.
“I wanted to be a little bit closer, but I assessed it for about one hundred metres after the start and they were pretty well stacked inside me, so I had to come back inside to get a spot a little bit closer to the fence.
“I didn’t want her to cover ground the whole way because I know that the sprint she’s got, if I allow her to keep that sprint for the end of the race, she’s going to give it to me and she did that today.”
A veteran of only fourteen starts, Alizee is a two-time Group 1 champion and a winner of more than $1 milllion in prize money.