Fireburn looking red hot for Queensland Oaks
Fireburn will be out to set the Eagle Farm course ablaze as heels turn for home in the Group 1 Queensland Oaks on Saturday.
She is a two-time Group 1 winner who has amassed over $4 million in race earnings, and trainer Gary Portelli will have her ready for the 2200m contest.
The race has attracted a field of quality fillies with Fireburn a $3.50 favourite on the top betting sites off the back of a tight victory in The Roses at Doomben a fortnight ago.
In work yesterday she ran over the 1200m and ran the last 200m in 10.1 seconds, which is sure to have put her rivals on notice.
In the way of Fireburn taking that third Group 1 is Affaire A Suivre ($6.50), trained by Ciaron Maher and David Eustace.
She comes into this contest off the back of three victories including the Group 1 Australasian Oaks at Morphettville last start, where she beat home She’s Fit and stablemate Jennilala.
2023 Australasian Oaks replay
Winner: Affaire A Suivre
Affaire A Suivre will be looking to build on her $361,600 in prize money while taking her second Oaks to add to the war chest she has collected over the past three months.
“She’s very much on track, she has come through the trial well and she is up here in Queensland now,” Maher said.
“She won’t be doing too much work because she is right to go, the fitness is there and she is a big, scopey filly who looks very healthy in the skin.
“I don’t think she has to improve really, she was big in Adelaide, she was wide, went early and sustained a strong gallop.
“If she can repeat that effort on Saturday, she will be right in this.
“To the eye and everything she has shown me at home, there’s no reason she can’t repeat that effort again.”
Maher and Eustace are in hot form after winning The Goodwood with Royal Merchant, leading the Victorian trainers’ championship table as they hunt for their first win of the Queensland carnival on Saturday.
Of the local hopes, Madame Odette ($26) leads the charge having not won since last September in the Toowoomba Guineas.
She will be looking to build on her second-placing in the Listed Princess Stakes two starts ago at Doomben.
“We have been struggling to draw a barrier with her, the plan was to roll forward the other day and she couldn’t sustain it,” trainer Tony Gollan said.
“I’m realistic about where she sits in the Oaks scheme, there are two or three fillies there that are really good apart from the rest.
“She is part of the rest.”
2023 Queensland Oaks final field
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