Katherine Coleman accepted the trophy on behalf of Peter Moody after Sigh’s Group 3 win at Caulfield on Saturday, but there is a chance she could play an even more prominent role in a bigger win later in the year.
Moody and Coleman have applied to Racing Victoria to form a training partnership before the start of the 2023/24 racing season on August 1.
Moody has many top-level performers in his Pakenham stable, but none better than I Wish I Win who this week was confirmed as a starter in The Everest at Randwick on October 14.
That 1200-metre event doesn’t carry Group 1 status, but does boast a $20 million purse and Coleman is trying not to think too much about the prospect of having her name in the racebook as a co-trainer of a runner in the world’s richest sprint race in her first few months of training.
“It’s pretty surreal at the moment,” Coleman said.
“For me, until it’s all official, it hasn’t really sunk in yet, so we’ll wait until everything’s all ticked off by Racing Victoria before I get too excited about that side of it.
While not yet thinking of herself as co-trainer of I Wish I Win, Coleman has been an integral part of the Moody Racing team since the son of Savabeel arrived from New Zealand midway through last year.
After a win in the $10 million Golden Eagle last October, he was set on a sprint path earlier this year and after placing in the Black Caviar Lightning Stakes (1000m) and Newmarket Handicap (1200m) the four-year-old scored a brilliant win in the T J Smith Stakes.
The success of that campaign gives Moody and Coleman confidence of knowing what gets the best out of I Wish I Win over sprint trips.
“We’ve got more confidence knowing what we did with him last preparation worked so well,” she said.
“We’ve got the recipe there, so we’ll just follow the same thing again and hope for a similar result.”
That is likely to include a light preparation ahead of The Everest, in which the Waikato Stud-owned gelding will run in the Trackside NZ slot.
“He’s a few weeks off having his first serious gallop for the preparation and another few weeks off his first trial, but we couldn’t be happier with him,” Coleman said.
“He’s bigger and stronger and he’s very exciting to have in the stable.
“He’ll probably look to have one lead-up run before the Everest and we’re still finalising just what that will be.”