Hill-trained filly upsets in Silk Road Final at Addington

By Michael Guerin

Larissa Beaudiene has a fair way to go to prove trainer Brendon Hill right.

But after her stunning win in the Hill, Lee and Scott Silk Road Final at Addington on Friday she might get the chance to live up to Hill’s early faith.

The three-year-old filly came from last to beat the older mares, which didn’t totally surprise Hill even if it rocked punters at 35-1.

At the start of the season Hill was suggesting Larissa Beaudiene wasn’t far behind stablemate Cath, who has of course since won the Pascoes Northern Oaks.

“I did say that back then and it might have sounded a little silly to a few people,” smiles Hill.

“But while she hasn’t got to Cath’s level yet she also hasn’t had a lot of luck either.

“It has been hard to find the right races for her against the older mares in winter but we have also changed her training and that has helped.

“We have started cantering her a lot more between her runs and it really seems to be helping.

“We have been cantering a few of ours in work lately and while the odd one doesn’t like it we find it helps them not having the hopples on quite so much.

“We actually used to do something similar with Monkey King at different stages of his career and at one stage he was flat out galloping in the sulky.”

Hill’s stable star Cath has been back in work for a while after having exactly one month off after her excellent Alexandra Park campaign and he says when Cath goes chasing a second Oaks at the back end of the season Larissa Beaudiene might join her.

“If she can keep racing like she did tonight then she might deserve to be set for a race like the Oaks and we will see how close she can get to it,” says Hill.

Larissa Beaudiene was undoubtedly the star of the Addington programme on a night when recent form held up well.

Scrunch added another win to his strong winter after Riley Harrison got the tactics inch perfect in the night’s main handicap pace while Joey Arden caused a minor upset in the two-year-old race.

The son of Lazarus led and held off a brave Fundraiser after the latter sat parked while the winner’s stablemate and favourite Plutonium Boy did himself no favours by trying to use all parts of the passing lane in the run home after trailing.