Classic Shot For Guineas Winner

While no 3-year-old filly has ever won the G1 Myer Classic against older mares, few have tried, so the last-out G1 Thousand Guineas scorer Stay With Me (Aus) (Street Cry {Ire}) will attempt to write a new chapter in the history of the race Saturday. The daughter of the classy Miss Finland (Aus) (Redoute’s Choice {Aus}) is three for four this season and was much the best in the Oct. 10 Thousand Guineas, so is sent here as the favorite and will carry up to 17 fewer pounds than her rivals. She will have a tall task, however, seeing off Royal Descent (Aus) (Redoute’s Choice {Aus}), who rarely runs off the board but looks to bounce back from a last-place finish in the G1 Caulfield Cup Oct. 17. The 6-year-old has won just once at the highest level, in the 2013 Australian Oaks, but has been placed in Group 1 company eight times since. In her two outings prior to the Caulfield Cup, she was second in both the G1 George Main S. and G1 Turnbull S. May’s Dream (Aus) (New Approach {Ire}) has not won since taking the G1 Australasian Oaks last April, but the 5-year-old appears to be rounding back into top form, having finished a narrowly beaten third in the G2 Let’s Elope S. Sept. 12 and second to Fenway (Aus) (High Chaparral {Ire}) the G2 Stocks S. Oct. 2. One who appears to be rounding into her best form is 5-year-old La Passe (Aus) (Street Sense), who has won three from five this season. She earned her first black-type score in the G2 Blazer S. over this course Oct. 4, and added Caulfield’s G2 Tristarc S. two weeks later. The lightly raced 4-year-old Azkadellia (NZ) (Shinko King {Ire}) arrived on domestic shores a year ago after breaking her maiden in her native country and has since finished out of the top two just once in seven starts. She enters this off a second in the G3 G1x.com.au S. over a mile at Moonee Valley Oct. 24.