Lees pair to launch spring bids in Missile

Thursday 8 August 2019, 12:35pm

Sentimentally, Kris Lees would love to see history repeat itself in the Missile Stakes but realistically, he does not expect it will.

Lees will saddle up two of the five runners in the Group Two sprint, Invincible Gem and Le Romain, who ran one-two in the corresponding race two years ago.

The pair have both pleased their trainer in preparation for Saturday's first-up assignment at Rosehill but the presence of Godolphin's classy mare Alizee, who had the measure of Le Romain in the autumn, means Lees will be satisfied with competitive performances.

"At their best, there's not a lot between my two but I'm very respectful of Alizee and even Vegadaze, he looks a real up-and-comer," Lees said.

"Alizee and Le Romain have met a couple of times and she's always beaten him, so I don't know if he'll turn the tables at seven, but he'll run well."

Bookmakers also favour Alizee and have installed her as odds-on favourite to land her ninth win and press her claims for Godolphin's slot in the $14 million The Everest.

Le Romain sits on the second line of Missile betting, ahead of Vegadaze and Invincible Gem with Dissolute the rank outsider in the five-horse field at triple-figure odds.

The Lees-trained pair are both proven first-up performers and while he leans to Le Romain as the better chance, he is the first to concede he does not always get his assessments right.

"On their trials I'd say Le Romain of my two, but I said that two years ago and got it wrong," Lees said.

While Alizee and Vegadaze will both use Saturday's Missile Stakes to showcase their claims for an Everest slot, the race is not prominent in plans for Le Romain or Invincible Gem.

Le Romain will run in the Winx Stakes at the end of the month before connections weigh up their next move, while Invincible Gem will head towards the better mares races in either Sydney or Melbourne.

But in the wake of Le Romain's belated Everest call-up 12 months ago, Lees has learned anything can happen.

"I'd say it's probably highly unlikely for either. There's not many slots left so I wouldn't expect them to be in too great a demand," Lees said.

"But neither was Le Romain this time last year and he ended up running fourth, so you never know what happens with a bit of attrition."

– AAP

Latest News

Prime Thoroughbreds - We have a Host of Leaders in our Team

Tuesday, 29 June 2021

Prime Thor­ough­bred’s cur­rent rac­ing team is putt­ing to­gether quite a re­cord. We have 22 hors­es that have raced in our team at pre­sent. Six­teen of th­ese are win­n­ers in­clud­ing the Stakes win­n­ing trio Ru­bisa­ki, Fituese and Xtreme­time with Miss Di­vine Em and Miss In Charge run­n­ing 4th in Stakes races. This sees a stakes win­n­er to win­n­er ra­tio of 18.75% with a stake’s per­formed to win­n­er ra­tio of 31.25%. Th­ese are ex­cep­tio­n­al fig­ures.   More »

Freedmans land maiden Group One win

Saturday, 27 February 2021

Un­der-rat­ed fil­ly For­bid­den Love has emerged as an au­tumn car­ni­val smokey with a bril­liant per­for­mance to win the Sur­round Stakes at Rand­wick.  More »

Capriccio completes Damian Lane treble

Saturday, 27 February 2021

In a big day for coun­try-trained hors­es, War­r­nam­bool fil­ly Capric­cio has tak­en out the In­glis Dash for Daniel Bow­man.  More »

More news headlines »