Believe takes ATC Australian Oaks detour

Friday 11 March 2016, 12:40pm

Anthony Cummings will test unbeaten Believe at Group Two level to assess the filly's prospects for The Championships.

The winner of her only two starts, Believe was scratched from Friday's Group Three Kembla Grange Classic to run at Rosehill a day later.

She will be asked to step up from a provincial maiden win and a city midweek victory against fillies and mares, but Cummings rates her as a horse of considerable promise.

And his autumn plans for the three-year-old go well beyond the Phar Lap Stakes (1500m) where she will clash with several well-performed male rivals.

"She is headed towards the Oaks and I can't see why that won't be a good idea," Cummings said.

The Phar Lap has a habit of unearthing a future star, none more so than last year's winner Winx.

In a return to winning form, Winx defeated subsequent ATC Australian Derby runner-up Hauraki at Rosehill before finishing fifth in the Vinery Stud Stakes and a luckless second in the ATC Australian Oaks.

Cummings is going the same way with Believe, part-owned by John Singleton's bloodstock manager Duncan Grimley.

The Singleton-Grimley connection sets up potential Oaks clash between two of the most influential figures in Australian racing.

Singleton has two fillies directed towards the $1 million Classic at Randwick on April 9 after Happy Hannah's Warwick Farm win on Wednesday and the promising form of Daisy's Joy, a daughter of 2007 Oaks placegetter Tuesday Joy.

– AAP

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