Shane and Cassie Oxlade could launch a two pronged assault on the Group 1 Oakleigh Plate after Queman continued their stunning run in Melbourne at Caulfield last Friday.
The Strathalbyn stable is headed to the $750,000 Group 1 feature with Sghirripa and Queman put his name up for a Group 1 debut with a dominant 1.25 length win in the Listed W J Adams Stakes with Harry Coffey in the saddle.
Despite the hype surrounding Sghirripa, Shane Oxlade said Queman deserved his chance at the top level having now won eight of 20 starts and just shy of half a million in prizemoney.
“He’s a pretty good galloper in his own right,’’ Oxlade said.
“He’s a genuine racehorse. They might both go to an Oakleigh Plate,’’ he said.
Sghirripa return to their Strathalbyn stable last Wednesday following his Group 3 Standish victory at Flemington and Oxlade said the horse continues to thrive.
“He went to the paddock for his usual seven or eight days,’’ Oxlade said.
“The best past about him is he does so well, he loves eating.
“He’s a good horse at home but I think he’s even better when he goes away,’’ he said.
Oxlade said he was keeping his options open with Sghirripa with the $1.5m Newmarket Handicap at Flemington in March also on the radar.
“He’s got a start in both the Oakleigh and the Newmarket,’’ Oxlade said.
“A lot of people keep telling me I have to go to the Newmarket, but either way he’d had to have a run between then.
“If you bypassed one there is no guarantee in the other, so at this stage I think he could have a crack in both,’’ he said.
