Exford Plate set to determine spring for Legacies

The spring path is not yet set in stone for Legacies but the team associated with the classy filly hopes its plans will become clearer after Saturday’s $175,000 Listed Exford Plate at Flemington.

The daughter of Justify has the chance to book a spot in the Group 1 Flight Stakes later this month with a strong showing against the boys in the 1400-metre event.

The Rosemont Stud-owned filly is favourite for that 1600m event at Randwick on September 30, along with the Group 1 Thousand Guineas (1600m) almost two months later, while she was also among the entries the $3 million Group 1 Caulfield Guineas (1600m) when they closed on Tuesday.

“Hopefully she can stamp herself one of the better fillies going around and we can skip into a Flight Stakes with a bit of confidence,” Rosemont principal Anthony Mithen said on Friday morning.

“That would be her next mission if she comes through tomorrow OK and shows us that she’s good enough to be there.”

Legacies entered this season with big raps thanks to two wins from two starts at two, including the Listed Anzac Day Stakes (1400m), and impressed at her first run at three when second to leading Caulfield Guineas fancy Veight in the Group 3 McNeil Stakes (1200m) on September 2.

The Peter Moody and Katherine Coleman-trained filly takes on the boys again, which was preferable to an early trip to Sydney for the Group 2 Tea Rose Stakes (1400m), which will be run at Randwick on Saturday.

“First up was just a bit of ‘let’s just see where’s she’s at against the boys’, and knowing she was underdone we were going to offer her a bit of a concession if she could run well and finish in the top four,” Mithen said.

“She ran a bottler to run second and we know she’ll come on from that, so it was then a matter of finding a 1400 that would lead into the Flight Stakes and the only one that was on the schedule (in Victoria) was against the boys.

“Second up 1400 suited and we didn’t want to take her to Sydney twice in a matter of a couple of weeks and run in the Tea Rose.”

Legacies has the services of Jamie Kah and will start from barrier seven in the 16-horse Exford Plate.