Sunshine Coast-based trainer David Vandyke can’t wait for the Crown Oaks 2016 to roll around as he confirms a run in the fillies’ classic at Flemington for his Cox Plate placegetter Yankee Rose.
Cox Plate placegetter Yankee Rose will shoot for a third Group 1 career win in the 2016 Crown Oaks on November 3. Photo: Steve Hart.
The daughter of All American will shoot for her third elite level title when she jumps short-priced favourite on Thursday, November 3, in the $1 million Group 1 Crown Oaks (2500m).
“We can’t wait for the Oaks to roll around,” Vandyke told Racing Ahead on RSN 927.
“It has been remarkable.”
Her record to date is imposing consisting of four wins, two seconds and a third from eight career runs.
Already having won over $2 million in prize money, Yankee Rose posted her first Group 1 win when backing up from a Golden Slipper second to take out Randwick’s Inglis’ Sires as a two-year-old in the autumn.
Things went amiss for her first-up when sixth in the Golden Rose, but it has been a whirlwind even since for Vandyke.
She enjoyed a freshen-up to come back and run second in the Group 1 Flight Stakes (1600m) at Randwick, beaten as the odds-on favourite by subsequent Thousand Guineas winner Global Glamour.
Yankee Rose was quick to atone stepping up in distance to make history and beat home the boys in the Group 1 Spring Champion Stakes (2000m) on October 8.
Vandyke then went into the Australasian weight-for-age championship – the $3 million Group 1 W.S. Cox Plate (2040m) – with confidence of a top three run.
It was Yankee Rose’s first run in Melbourne and the race was dominated by record eight length winner Winx, but Vandyke got the third place result he was after.
Brave in defeat, Yankee Rose crossed just three-quarters off the Cox Plate runner-up Hartnell who is favourite to take out the 2016 Melbourne Cup, in a run that was even more impressive than it looks on paper according to her trainer.
“You can see on the aerial view of the race, she copped quite a severe check just past the 800m,” Vandyke said of the Cox Plate run.
“The jockey [Stephen Baster] that caused that interference was subsequently suspended.
“Some of her momentum was taken away then.
“She was pretty much off the bit from the 800m to the finish.
“She was the widest runner, but I’m not saying that was too much of a disadvantage as the track was OK out there.
“But she did cover that extra ground after the interference, and you could see her making ground all the way up the running.
“To do that, when they’ve run over four seconds quicker than the race after the Cox Plate was an amazing feat.”
Yankee Rose will now back-up in the Crown Oaks over more meters back against her own kind, but Vandyke said win or lose she had done enough already.
“She’s in good shape. I’m really amazed at how she’s bounced back off that tough run on Saturday,” he said.
“Two months ago, I was questioning whether she’d win a race again at any level.
“To see her perform so well, win a Group 1, second in the Group 1 Flight, and third in that amazing field, and to finish right next to the Melbourne Cup favourite Hartnell, it’s such a credit to her.
“We’re just so proud, irrespective of where she runs in the Oaks.”
After her incredible recent form, she unsurprisingly dominates the pre-field Crown Oaks odds at Ladbrokes.com.au paying a short $2.
The last Crown Oaks winner to come off the Cox Plate was Samantha Miss (2008) who, like Yankee Rose, ran third in the Moonee Valley lead-up.
Yankee Rose will reunite with Blake Shinn in the Cox Plate after being ridden by Dean Yendall for her two last starts.
The 2016 Crown Oaks final acceptances close at 9:00am (AEDT) on Monday October 31, the day before the Melbourne Cup steals the show on the first Tuesday of November.
To back Yankee Rose to the list of Crown Oaks winners in 2016 at the right price, head to Ladbrokes.com.au now!
