Richard and Chantelle Jolly have their sights on Melbourne again with promising filly All Banter.
The lightly-raced filly made it four wins from six starts and successive Melbourne wins when defeating the older horses in the Listed W J Adams Stakes at Caulfield on Australia Day – and a tilt at the $500,000 Group 1 Oakleigh Plate (1100m) at Caulfield is a possibility for the promising sprinter.
“I’m just thrilled with her,” Richard Jolly said of the $30,000 buy from the Perth magic Millions Yearling Sale in 2019.
“She’s always shown us really good ability but has just gone to another level.
“For a three-year-old filly to beat open sprinters in a stakes race, it takes a fairly good horse to do that, and she led them on the bridle.”
The stable gave the filly a light week and said racing the older horses in the Group 1 could be the ideal option given his doubts if she can be effective over much further.
“We’ll seriously look at running her in the Oakleigh Plate,” Jolly said. “The alternatives aren’t great.”
That means she also faces a lack of suitable options in Adelaide in the upcoming autumn carnival and more than likely draws a line through the Group 1 Sangster Stakes for fillies and mares over 1200m.
“I don’t think she’ll run a strong 1200m,” Jolly said.
“You could run in the Redelva or Irwin Stakes – we’re pretty restricted in what we can go to if she can’t run 1200m.
“But in saying that, it’s not a bad problem, because we know how good she is over 1100m.”
After withdrawing Kemalpasa earlier in the week, Jolly and daughter Chantelle have their All-Star Mile hopes in the hands of voters via Regalo Di Gaetano, who worked home well behind Behemoth in the Durbridge Stakes last Saturday.
“We’d like to try and get him in the All-Star Mile but he’s going to have to do a bit to get there,” Jolly admitted.
Jolly said the horse would next be aimed at a 1300m event at Morphettville Parks on Saturday week, before the stable “might look” at the $200,000 Blamey Stakes to be run over 1600m at Flemington on February 27.