Foxplay claims G1 Coolmore Legacy

Foxplay winner of The Coolmore Legacy. Photo courtesy Daryl Duckworth.
Foxplay winner of The Coolmore Legacy. Photo courtesy Daryl Duckworth.

On a day when the queen of the turf, Winx, again asserted her dominance, a filly dubbed “Winx Junior” has shown her class to win her first Group One race.

The Chris Waller-trained filly Foxplay outgunned the older mares to win Saturday’s Group One Coolmore Legacy Stakes (1600m) at Randwick, less than an hour and a half after stablemate Winx won the Queen Elizabeth Stakes.

Waller has had faith in three-year-old Foxplay being a Group One filly and was delighted to see her achieve it having decided to go for the shorter race against fillies and mares rather than stretching her to 2400m of the Australian Oaks on the same program.

“She’s been a very special horse to us,” Waller said.

“We call her the Winx Junior, but there’s a lot of similarities.

“She started off with a winning bang and has sort of been a bit forgotten and had a few hard luck stories go against her.

“And funnily enough she ran in the same race two weeks ago that Winx ran in prior to running in the Oaks.

“Winx didn’t win the Oaks and I didn’t really give it a lot of thought but I decided not to run this filly in the Oaks because I still think she’s got some brilliance and some speed.”

Winx and Foxplay both won the Phar Lap Stakes (1500m) during their autumn three-year-old seasons before running in the Vinery Stud Stakes (2000m) in which Foxplay was fourth while Winx was fifth in the race two years ago.

Winx’s second in the Australian Oaks on the corresponding program to Saturday’s two years ago is the last time the champion mare has been beaten.

She won Saturday’s Queen Elizabeth by 5-1/4 lengths.

While Foxplay has a long way to go to reach anywhere near those heights, Saturday’s win was important and also gave Waller his first Group One win for syndicator Denise Martin’s Star Thoroughbreds.

Foxplay ($7.50) raced wide under Kerrin McEvoy but held off the finish of runner-up Zanbagh.

She defeated Zanbagh ($20) by a half length with Dixie Blossoms ($5.50) the same margin away third.

By Mathew Toogood

SYDNEY, April 8 AAP

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