Sisstar is ready to shake her “sister of” tag in the Group 1 TAB Classic on the opening day of the Adelaide Racing Carnival next week.
The Tony and Calvin McEvoy-trained sprinter collected her second black type success by winning the 1100m Listed Bel Esprit in brilliant style at Caulfield last Saturday, and could be ready to step out of the sizeable shadow cast by her champion sister – and former stablemate – Sunlight – in the 1200m fillies and mares feature at Morphettville.
“Well, 1200m is new territory for her; all her form has been under that,” McEvoy Sr said.
“But looking at how strong she was at the end of 1100 the other day, I’m very pleased to be going there, and yeah I think she’ll be very competitive.”
Sunlight was the McEvoy stable’s flagship horse for a couple of seasons, winning 11 races, including two Group 1s and amassing over $6.5 million in prizemoney before being retired last year.
Being so well-related has meant extra attention for Sisstar, who set a new Moonee Valley course record over 955m recently.
Last Saturday Sisstar triumphed despite causing plenty of problems for star hoop Willie Pike by racing fiercely for much of the journey.
“She’s incredibly tough,” McEvoy said.
“She got flattened early by Ancestry, and it just fired her up and got her doing it all wrong, which is not unusual for her.
“So, for her to still finish it off like she did was incredible.
“She’s normally very fired up and very aggressive but she is getting better as we go along.”
In further good news for connections, the Wizard of the West will again ride Sisstar at Morphettville.
“Willie rode her well, he liked her,” McEvoy said.
“And he was quite amazed how tough she was. We’re very pleased to have him stay with her.”
Meanwhile the stable saddles up runners in two of the three features at Morphettville tomorrow, with Renegade contesting the Listed Holdfast City of Adelaide Handicap (1400m) and Valentigra lining up in the Group 3 2YO feature, the Breeders’ Stakes.
The latter has raced only once, for a short-neck victory at Port Lincoln, edging out Roxy Blue, who subsequently ran second in a Listed race at Morphettville last month.
“Yeah, it’s a bit of a jump, isn’t it?” McEvoy said.
“But she did really well at Port Lincoln and then the horse she beat came out and ran second in the stakes race at Morphettville.
“So that kind of made us reassess our thinking with where she sits. Saturday will tell us a lot more about her.”
Buy tickets to the opening day of the Adelaide Racing Carnival here.
IMAGE: racingandsports.com
