Flit returns to the scene of G1 success for All-Star Mile

A difficult choice between Saturday’s Australian $5 million, ungraded, All-Star Mile at Caulfield or the G1 Coolmore Classic at Rosehill has gone in favour of the former for the brilliant filly Flit.

After weighing up the options, trainer James Cummings chose the Caulfield race with an eye to the filly’s prospects in the G1 Doncaster Mile at Randwick next month.

“It hasn’t been a simple choice to make between the two races,” Cummings said

“We gave a lot of thought to the Coolmore Classic, but if she’d won that race she’d have been liable for a penalty for the Doncaster, but she wouldn’t get a penalty for winning the All-Star Mile.”

As a three-year-old filly, Flit (Damian Lane) would be handicapped on around 50kg in the Doncaster. In addition, she has only 54kg in the All-Star Mile in which she receives weight from each of her 14 opponents.

Cummings is also mindful that Flit’s best win came in last spring’s G1 Thousand Guineas over the same Caulfield 1,600m course.

“As a G1 winner she is quite well-placed here with 54kg, which is one of the more compelling aspects of the All-Star Mile,” he said.

Flit followed her Thousand Guineas win with fourth place in the G2 Wakeful Stakes last November before resuming from a summer spell with a commanding victory in the G2 Light Fingers Stakes at Randwick. She then finished sixth, 1-1/2 lengths from the winner Probabeel, in the G1 Surround Stakes at Randwick on Feb.29

“I’d like to think she’s improved from the Surround. It strikes us that she’s thriving more and more since that race,” Cummings said.

The All-Star Mile, a race whose entrants are chosen by both invitation and by public vote, has brought together a field that includes the 10-time New Zealand G1 winner Melody Belle, the outstanding three-year-old gelding and winner of 10 races, Alligator Blood and the multiple G1 winner Black Heart Bart.

Cummings believes Flit is far from being out of place in such exalted company.

“The All-Star Mile is a race of prodigious strength, but she’s something of a prodigy in her own right. She can run a race.”

Meanwhile, a strong, last-start clue that a return to winning form was imminent has lifted stable confidence in the prospects of the talented mare Pohutukawa (James McDonald) in Saturday’s G1 Coolmore Classic at Rosehill.

“She surged home in the Guy Walter last time out and her first-up run before that was solid,” said trainer James Cummings.

“She hasn’t won for 12 months, but on the other hand it means she is well-weighted in this race.”

“She’s also gone close in a G1 during that time and has run well in another couple of G1s. I could certainly make a case for her on the strength of those.”

Pohutukawa revealed herself as a quality performer when winning the G3 Kembla Grange Classic last March, the victory earning her a promotion to G1 level at which her best performance has been a close second in the Tatts Tiara in Brisbane.

A breakthrough Stakes win is also within reach for Cascadian (Glyn Schofield) in the G2 Ajax Stakes ahead of a possible start in the G1 Doncaster Mile.

“This will be a vital run for him to put his Doncaster credentials on the line,” Cummings said.

“He got involved in a scrimmage at a vital point last start when he showed he was moving toward a win.”

A significant step-up in class confronts the 2YO filly Thermosphere (James McDonald) in the G3 Magic Night Quality, but Cummings believes she is up to it.

“Her job this week is to step up,” the trainer said.

“It’s a case of turning up the temperature and turning on the performance.”

Elsewhere, the considerable promise shown by Asiago when she won the G3 Spring Stakes at Newcastle last spring can be confirmed when she appears in the G3 Kembla Grange Classic at Kembla on Friday.

Asiago’s Newcastle win was the fourth in a five-race sequence for the filly and indicated considerable staying potential.

At her only start since she finished third when first-up in a restricted race at Rosehill, a performance that has encouraged trainer James Cummings to again step up to Stakes company.

“Her return this prep was excellent considering how much improvement was expected from her,” Cummings said.