Carleen Hefel’s Sigh of relief after G3 Monash Stakes win

The four-year-old daughter of No Nay Never made it three wins on end this winter campaign when she dug deep to narrowly deny defending champion Mileva in the 1100-metre Group 3 weight-for-age event.

The result justified the call to run at Caulfield in preference to the Listed Santa Ana Lane Final at Flemington the previous Saturday, which Moody’s assistant trainer Katherine Coleman said was not a hard one with a mare who was going so well.

“In the end it was a relatively easy decision with this race being a Group 3, it does look better on her pedigree, and also with the (Caulfield) track today being more suitable for her,” Coleman said.

“When it was raining this morning, I wasn’t very happy about that, but thankfully it’s been a lovely day and the track’s played in fantastic order.”

Sigh ($7) stretched her record to six wins from nine starts with the head win over Mileva ($8.50) with General Beau ($7) one length further back third on the Soft 6 track.

Carleen Hefel, who also rode Sigh at her previous start at Flemington became the first jockey to ride the Yulong-owned galloper more than once in the Monash Stakes, which was her first win at Group level.

“It’s amazing, it’s such a privilege to get an opportunity like this, especially off a trainer like Pete and now Kat,” Hefel said.

“It’s very special. I’m obviously still an apprentice, so in these no-claiming races when he puts you on, you know he’s got the faith so you’ve just got to trust that.”

Hefel carried the winning feeling over to the final event when she scored another narrow win, aboard the Ciaron Maher and David Eustace and David Eustace-trained Flash Flood.

That extended her lead back out to three in the Melbourne Apprentice Jockeys’ Apprenticeship after major rival Celine Gaudray rode a winning double of her own earlier in the day.