Houtzen heading towards the Everest after Valley win
HOUTZEN looks set to run in The Everest after taking out the Group Three Scarborough Stakes at Moonee Valley on Friday night.
Kicking away at the top of the straight, the three-year-old filly booted clear and left the field in its wake, returning $1.40 at Ladbrokes.
Mintha hit the line hard to return $4.70 at William Hill while True Excelsior held on well in a front-running position to deliver $3.10 Crownbet.
Houtzen’s trainer Toby Edmonds said he was happy with the three-year-old’s second up run after a third placed finish behind Russian Revolution on September 9.
“She hasn’t won by a big margin but she’s that type of filly,” Edmonds said.
“She’s got a high cruising speed … (and) she’ll improve a lot off that tonight.”
Jockey Jeff Lloyd said Houtzen’s run on Friday night was more indicative of the horse’s talent.
“She probably wasn’t, in all fairness, fully wound up last start,” Lloyd said.
“She was a little bit sluggish more so than she normally is … but (tonight) she showed her normal speed.”
The race boosts the hopes of taking the star sprinter into The Everest, where Houtzen is the $21 outsider at Ladbrokes to take out the world’s richest race on turf.
Despite the high hopes for Houtzen heading into inaugural running of The Everest, Edmonds said the race team is not 100 percent convinced the filly will take part in the race.
“We’re going to sit down and think about it, we’re not going to make a decision tonight,” the trainer said.
“The horse comes first, and if a better race comes up for her we’ll put her in that.”
While putting the horse’s welfare first is at the top of Edmonds’ list, the trainer admitted they had earmarked the October feature a long way out
“The Everest has always been her Grand Final, so we’ve left a little bit in the tank.”