For the second year running a Gooree homebred trained by James Cummings has won the $150,000 Listed Fernhill Handicap at Randwick and they certainly will be hoping the latest winner can match the first.
Last year Prized Icon won the Fernhill before future successes in the Group I ATC Champagne Stakes and Group I Victoria Derby.
Prized Icon's close relation Whispered Secret (High Chaparral) showed she had benefitted from her Newcastle maiden win by sitting three deep without cover under Jason Collett before proving too strong one and a half lengths too good for Toga Picta (Lonhro) All Too Huiying (All Too Hard) a length and a quarter back in third with the royally bred Earth Angel (Animal Kingdom x Miss Finland) running on strongly into fourth. (photos Steve Hart).
Winning trainer James Cummings said he will wait until later in the week before deciding whether Whispered Secret will be given her chance to emulate Prized Icon in the Champagne Stakes at Randwick next week.
"It's likely she'll be nominated but I won't have to make a decision until Wednesday morning so we'll see how she comes through today and have a discussion about what's ahead," Cummings said.
"She's a filly I've always had a lot of time for but like most young and inexperienced horses she's been learning her craft," Cummings said. "That's why I wanted her to go to Newcastle to lead into the Fernhill.
"I wanted her to learn something but I also wanted her to gain some confidence and a provincial maiden is normally in easier alternative than a stakes race."
While Prized Icon is by More Than Ready out of Tropical Affair, Whispered Secret is by High Chaparral (IRE) out of the Tropical Affair's stakes-placed granddaughter Zutara (Encosta de Lago).
Placed in the Group II STC Silver Slipper Stakes, Group III AJC Sweet Embrace Stakes and Listed AJC Reginald Allen Hcp, Zutara is out of the Group III winning Zabeel mare Matras.
Zutara has a yearling colt by Smart Missile and a weanling filly by Hallowed Crown. She was bred back to Smart Missile last spring.
Whispered Secret becomes the 93rd stakes-winner for High Chaparral (IRE) who died in December 2014.
