Australia: Memsie first Group1 of Melbourne season

Inspirational Girl began 2020 racing and often winning overnight races in Perth, Australia. She ended the year a Group 1 winner with a record of 9 wins in 12 career starts.

This year will be different. Inspirational Girl has switched stables, and is now based with trainer Danny O’Brien in Melbourne. The first goal is Saturday’s Group 1 Memsie Stakes at seven furlongs at Caulfield Racecourse, the launch of an Australian spring campaign that may include starts in the country’s top races, such as the Cox Plate or Melbourne Cup.

Inspirational Girl, a 6-year-old New Zealand-bred mare, is part of a strong field of 12 in the Memsie. Caulfield has a nine-race program beginning at 10:20 p.m. Eastern, or 7:20 p.m. Pacific, on Friday. Wagering is available through DRFBets.com.

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Inspirational Girl is unbeaten in three starts at seven furlongs. Last November, she unleased her typical late rally to win the Group 1 Railway Stakes at a mile at Ascot Racecourse in Perth. She ended that campaign with a second in the Group 1 Kingston Town Stakes at 1 1/8 miles at Ascot, closing well but finishing about two lengths behind Truly Great. At the time, Inspirational Girl was trained by the husband and wife team of Grant and Alana Williams.

The $724,800 Memsie Stakes is the first Group 1 race at Melbourne-area tracks of the month-old 2021-22 season, and features several other prominent runners returning from layoffs through the Australian winter.

The 6-year-old mare Tofane won consecutive Group 1 races at seven furlongs at Eagle Farm Racecourse in Brisbane in June – the Stradbroke Handicap against males, and the Tattersalls Tiara Stakes against fillies and mares. The wins came months after Tofane was treated for a kidney infection.

Tofane is a major player in the Memsie field as a stalker.

Colette, a winner of 6 of 16 starts, is a four-time stakes winner, including the $5.1 million Golden Eagle Stakes for Southern Hemisphere 4-year-olds last October. She won the Group 2 Apollo Stakes at seven furlongs in February and raced in some of Australia’s leading races in the following two months.

Behemoth, who could be a slight favorite, will have the benefit of a recent start, winning the Group 2 Spring Stakes at six furlongs at Morphettville Racecourse on Aug. 14 in his first start since May.

Behemoth, a 6-year-old gelding, will need a new jockey. Jamie Kah, the leading rider at Melbourne area tracks in 2020-21, was summarily suspended for 14 days on Thursday, along with three other riders, for violating pandemic-related lockdowns in the state of Victoria.