| Former
brilliant three-year-old filly Lady Mulan was the talk of Sydney about 18 months ago when
she was staking her claims for the AJC Derby with a fighting win in the Adrian Knox
Stakes. Tomorrow the Bob Thomsen trained mare will be
back in the headlines as she makes her much anticipated return to the racetrack after
serious injury.
Starting a 6/1 chance in the Group One AJC Oaks at Randwick
in which Rose Archway gunned down Tempest Morn, Lady Mulan suffered what could have been a
career threatening injury.
"She got a major tendon injury in that race,"
Thomsen recalled on radio this morning. "At the time I thought she was a really high
class race filly."
Connections have showed a great deal of patience as the
filly was given twelve months in the paddock before returning to the stable.
"We've had her back in work for four months now,"
Thomsen said of the Adrian Knox Stakes winner.
Thomsen, who's stables also are occupied by Group One star
Shogun Lodge and the exciting juvenile Thorn Park, is not expecting the now rising
five-year-old mare to make a winning return.
"I'd be expecting her to be run off her legs early and
her best work should be coming in the final couple of hundred metres," Thomsen said.
"If she was to win that would be great, but you just can't go out there expecting to
do that."
Lady Mulan was originally handicapped with 60 kilograms for
the William Inglis & Son Flying Handicap (1200m) at Randwick tomorrow.
Thomsen has chosen to give the mare a weight relief by
engaging the apprentice rider Robbie Brewer, who is able to claim two kilograms and get
Lady Mulan in with 58 kilograms.
There is a great deal of quality in the race with Might and
Power's brother Matter of Honour, and proven sprinters Glenrowan, Notoire, Marwin Gold and
Future Force in the field. |
