The 1000m A$100,000 New Year Plate at Flemington was supposed to be the winning debut of Australian superstar Black Caviar (Aus) (Bel Esprit {Aus})'s first foal, the 2-year-old filly Oscietra (Aus) (Exceed And Excel {Aus}). However, the Darren Weir-trained Limestone (Aus) (Helmet {Aus}) hadn't read the script and saluted as the 4-1 second choice, 1 1/2 lengths ahead of Miss Wahoo (Aus) (Master of Design {Aus}) with 2-1 crowd's pick Oscietra–who races for the same ownership group as her dam–relegated to third another 1 1/4 lengths back (video).
The field split into two groups from the bell, with Oscietra–a hair keen–leading the group up the center of the course, while closely shadowed by former Racing Victoria chairman David Moody colorbearer Limestone. Traveling the first 400 metres in :24.88, the pace sharpened noticeably thereafter, as the bay clocked :21.62 for the second quarter-mile and was tackled by an enterprising Limestone under a canny Damian Lane at the 200-metre mark. Oscietra kept plugging away, but she could not match the turn of foot of her roan challenger, or the rallying Miss Wahoo and settled for third. Limestone filled that spot at first asking in the William Hill Plate going this trip at Mooney Valley behind Catchy (Aus) (Fastnet Rock {Aus}) Dec. 9.
“I feel like the bloke who shot Bambi,” commented Lane to Racing and Sports. “Limestone is a nice filly and very progressive. She's still very green and there's a lot more to come. As for the [G1] Blue Diamond [S. at Caulfield Feb. 25], it all depends on how quickly she progresses. Whether she's ready for that sort of pressure I'm not entirely confident, but she's a nice filly and definitely going places.”
Continued Lane, “It [Oscietra] really ran along in the first half of the race. She gave my filly a beautiful chance to settle and when the time was right, she had plenty of petrol left in the tank.”
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