KEY POINTS:
MELBOURNE - The Moonee Valley 1000m course record is set to be challenged on Saturday with a quality field of sprinters to line up in the Victoria Racing Club's A$500,000 ($562,000) Lightning Stakes.
With the Flemington track undergoing redevelopment, Australia's only group one 1000m event has been transferred to the Valley with the nominations including California Dane, Dance The Waves, Magnus, Miss Andretti, Rewaaya, Strada, New Zealander Ticklish and dual group one winner Virage De Fortune.
The depth of entries suggests the current track record of 57.43 seconds, set by Step Ahead in December 2003, could be under threat.
Tarn Princess ran 57.13sec when she won over 1000m at the Valley on September 24, 2004, but the race was hand-timed and therefore her mark was not recognised as a record.
Gai Waterhouse will give highly-rated sprinter Strada his first look at the Moonee Valley circuit today ahead of his Melbourne debut in the Lightning in which he will be ridden by Chris Munce.
The Danehill 4-year-old is part-owned by Alan Bell, who raced former champion sprinter Schillaci.
Schillaci won the Lightning in 1992 and 1993 and was runner-up to Keltrice in 1994.
Another of Strada's part-owners is Nick Moraitis who raced champion Might And Power.
Strada has won four of his eight starts including a first-up victory in the listed Carrington Stakes (1100m) at Randwick on January 1 when he set a new race record of 1min 02.67sec.
Lee Freedman's hopes are with Moonee Valley specialists Miss Andretti and California Dane. Miss Andretti could easily add the Lightning to her already impressive CV.
Since being transferred to Freedman from her former trainer, part-owner David Mueller, the 5-year-old has won four races and hasn't been out of a place in six outings.
"Miss Andretti is going very, very well," Freedman told radio station Sport 927 from the New Zealand Premier Yearling Sales at Karaka.
"She's freshened well since the Salinger and she's already proven twice at the Valley. The 1000m is probably perfect for her first-up and she'll obviously be right in the race."
Stablemate California Dane's liking for the Valley will also put him right in the race according to Freedman.
"At times he's been in the shadow of Miss Andretti, but I think his ability at the Valley will give him a good chance in the race," he said.
California Dane has an outstanding record at the track where he has raced six times for five wins, including his latest appearance when he was ridden to victory by Kieren Fallon in the group two A J Moir Stakes (1000m) last spring.
Another of his wins there was in last year's Carlyon Stakes in which he posted a short-head victory over brilliant Queensland mare Virage De Fortune, who has been sent down for the Lightning by trainer Bruce McLachlan.
* A memorial service will be held today for Irish jockey Damien Murphy who died after a horrific race fall in New South Wales.
Murphy died late on Sunday night after doctors switched off his life support system at a Sydney hospital. Murphy, 23, had not regained consciousness after crashing to the turf when his mount Ajay's Luck clipped the heels of another runner nearing the finish of a race at Wellington in rural New South Wales on Friday.
Murphy was airlifted to Sydney but suffered a heart attack and slipped into a coma. He was kept on a life support system long enough for his mother and sister to fly from Ireland and be by his bedside.
Ajay's Luck broke down after the fall and was destroyed.
- AAP
