A small field and a slowly run race made the red hot favourite Treasurethe Moment vulnerable in the $1million Group I ATC Australian Oaks (2400m) at Randwick on Saturday, but the gifted daughter of Alabama Express called on her champion qualities to overcome difficulty to win.
A homebred for Yulong trained by Matt Laurie, Treasurethe Moment won the Group I VRC Oaks last spring and added a second G1 victory to her resume last start when taking out the ATC Vinery Stud Stakes at Rosehill.
With Damian Lane in the saddle again, Treasurethe Moment settled off the pace set by the Joseph and Jones trained roughie Sun ‘n’ Sand, who was allowed to saunter along unchallenged in the lead for much of the trip.
The Pride of Dubai filly gave a great kick and made Treasurethe Moment work hard to earn her third G1 victory this season as she got the upper hand at the finish to win by half a length.
Matt Laurie was a relieved man after the win, his second of The Championships having won the Group I ATC Sires Produce Stakes last week with I Am Invincible colt Vinrock.
“The last month has been unbelievable… you have a plan, but you don’t expect things to go the way you dream. To have it work out the way it has for us is just unbelievable,” said Laurie.
“We had four races mapped out for her to win and to do it, is just amazing. She's got an incredible heart, so it's a great story.
“I mean, I don't know many that have gone right through from winning the Wakeful (G2) to winning today, but I guess there wouldn’t be too many of them.
“I'm not sure whether we'll be coming to this sort of distance range anytime soon.”
Treasurethe Moment has the overall record of nine wins and two seconds from 11 starts with prizemoney of $2.5million.
She is the best of two winners from Street Cry import Draconic Treasure (USA), who died in 2022 after producing just three foals for Yulong and the other two are also fillies, so there is a little bit of this family to go on with.
Draconic Treasure comes from an international family that has produced some notable horses including Group I winning sprinter Rich Tapestry and also Melbourne Cup winner Media Puzzle, so there is some real diversity on the page!
The first foal from Draconic Treasure is a Frankel filly called Kind Treasure that retired to Yulong unraced and produced a filly by Grunt last spring before visiting Alabama Express.
The second is the now four year-old Grunt mare Mihoko Takeo, who was bought by Tasmanian trainer Adam Trinder from Yulong at Inglis Premier in 2022 for $45,000 and ran with modest success for stable client Wayne Roser winning two of 14 starts. Her current stable return shows her in training with Bathurst trained Dean Mirfin in new ownership, but you can’t help thinking her real future will be at stud!
