The unstoppable Gai Waterhouse has masterminded another Group 1 boilover with Never Been Kissed upstaging her more fancied rivals to win the Flight Stakes at Randwick.
The filly’s victory came a week after Waterhouse and co-trainer Adrian Bott produced In The Congo to upset star colt Anamoe in the Golden Rose and brought the training partners full circle on their Group 1 journey.
“The Flight Stakes was our first Group One in partnership, so it will always be a special race for us,” Bott said.
“This is where it all started for us with Global Glamour.”
Never Been Kissed gave Waterhouse her tenth Flight Stakes win and Bott said the daughter of Tivaci wasn’t sharp enough to compete with the better fillies over sprint distances.
Her first test in better grade came in the Tea Rose Stakes last start when she stuck to her task despite racing wide and the filly relished a distance rise to 1600m on Saturday.
“We just thought she would be a nice filly once she got out to this sort of trip,” Bott said.
“She didn’t quite have the brilliance of these fillies, or wasn’t quite seasoned enough to be taking them on over the shorter, sharper trips. We were able to link in once she got over a bit further.
“I thought she ran well in the Tea Rose. Unfortunately, she was caught wide and covered plenty of ground. They weren’t making up much ground that day, so I felt she stuck on very well.”
Never Been Kissed ($41) settled handy to the speed and finished strongly to defeat Hinged ($20) by a short neck with Startantes ($4.40 fav) another two lengths away.
Tea Rose Stakes winner Four Moves Ahead finished sixth with jockey Nash Rawiller saying her wide gate didn’t help.
“She was very honest. The barrier draw went against us,” Rawiller said.
Mallory also started well in the market with her rider Hugh Bowman saying she failed to run out a strong mile.
The victory gave Regan Bayliss the first leg of a Group 1 double with the jockey claiming the Epsom Handicap a race later aboard Private Eye.