Sargent trains third Wakeful Stakes winner

Saturday 4 November 2017, 1:51pm

John Sargent has another Oaks in his sights after Luvaluva gave the trainer his third Wakeful Stakes win in five years at Flemington.

Sargent won the 2013 Group Two Wakeful (2000m) with Kirramosa, five days before that filly won the VRC Oaks (2500m).

He added another Wakeful a year later with Thunder Lady who then finished second in the Oaks.

Thunder Lady was ridden to her Wakeful win by Blake Shinn who was also aboard Luvaluva in Saturday's race for fillies and earned high praise, steering the three-year-old to a last-to-first victory.

"Blake's on fire at the moment," Sargent said.

"I said we'd probably have to go back and I just left it to him.

"That's how he rides and he rode Thunder Lady to win this race very similarly to this.

"He got back and weaved through the field and it will give the filly a bit of confidence. She hasn't been this way around. It's all good for Thursday, hopefully."

Luvaluva ($5) saved ground on the inside before bursting through and got home in the final strides to beat Glam Guru ($20) by a head with a nose to Rimraam ($8) third.

Luvaluva has firmed from $11 to $6 for Thursday's Oaks (2500m), with Aloisia the $1.70 favourite.

Sargent said Luvaluva was a big, strong filly and the Sydney trainer believes she is more of a staying type than his previous winners.

"She's shown it from the first trial I gave her as a two-year-old. We put her aside and aimed her for these two races this week," he said.

Along with a VRC Oaks win, Sargent has also won a Queensland Oaks with Quintessential in 2012 and the 2015 ATC Oaks in Sydney with Gust Of Wind, the last horse to have beaten Winx.

"He's been renowned for getting these three-year-old fillies to peak for these Oaks distances, and on Oaks day," Shinn said.

– 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 »