Any belief that Lady Shenandoah’s best days were behind her has been shattered, as the Chris Waller-trained mare secured her second Group 1 victory in the span of two weeks.
After making a return to winning form in the Group 1 Toorak Handicap (1600m) at Caulfield two weeks ago, Lady Shenandoah added another top-tier Group 1 win to her resume, claiming the Empire Rose Stakes (1600m) at Flemington on Saturday.
This latest win marks Lady Shenandoah’s fifth Group 1 success, bringing her career total to seven wins from nineteen starts.
Sent off as the prohibitive $1.85 favourite under jockey James Mcdonald, Lady Shenandoah powered to a 1-½ length victory over Concord Connie ($6.50), with Idle Flyer ($18) a further 1-¾ lengths behind in third.
Lady Shenandoah provided Chris Waller with his second Group 1 success on Victoria Derby Day, as he and McDonald had previously combined to win the feature race with Stormy Marco.
Charlie Duckworth, representing the Waller stable, stated that the stable never lost faith in Lady Shenandoah, even during her period of winless starts prior to her Toorak Handicap triumph.
“You could have easily written her off prior to last start,” Duckworth declared. “She had been running well but just wasn’t winning. She was running in the hardest of hard races, from Everest’s to running against Autumn Glow and it’s not easy territory that she was in.”
“It shows how competitive these Group 1 races are and prior to today she had won four Group 1’s and $5 million and two weeks and a day ago, you would have said, is she really having a crack if you were outside the camp.”
“These races are so special to owners, to punters, to us. I know we all bang on about the money, and the money is great with these big prize money races, but you win a Derby, they are different.”
Mcdonald commented that Lady Shenandoah gave him an exceptionally easy ride.
“The only worrying part was that she jumped out so well and she wanted to get on with the job,” McDonald stated. “I had to give her just ‘a, hey, come back quickly’ instead of running through the bridle, but it was the only worrying part of the whole race.”
“It’s hard with Autumn Glow around the same sort of trip and Autumn Glow’s got her measure, but she’s just so honest, always races to a high level. You know what you’re going to get with her is a solid performance. You’d love to own her and I love riding her.”
The race was unfortunately marred by a fall on the home turn when Pondalowie crashed, unseating Harry Coffey.
Pondalowie regained her feet and cantered away, while Coffey was attended to by the medical team.
After being assessed, Coffey was transported to the Royal Melbourne Hospital with a suspected fractured collarbone. Coffey had been scheduled to ride Shockletz in the Melbourne Cup on Tuesday.
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