This time last year Coeur Volante was being readied for the Tattersalls Tiara and while her days as a Group 1 contender might be past, there is still money to be made.
The daughter of Proisir, a last-start winner Sandown, will chase more of it in the $150,000 open handicap over 1400 metres at Caulfield next Saturday.
The five-year-old is almost certainly bound for Widden’s breeding barn later this year, where Zoustar will be waiting for her, but co-trainer Ben Hayes said there was no reason to not race her in the meantime.
“It’s a chance for her to make some more money before the new breeding season,” he said.
“She’s already a Group 2 winner and the only way you can improve the pedigree is winning a Group 1 and the only Group 1 left is the Tatts Tiara, which is next week and she’s not running there.”
“She’ll probably race into spring.”
Coeur Volante won the Group 3 Mannerism Stakes (1400m) for Mike Moroney and Glen Thompson less than a week before Moroney’s death in February last year.
Thompson then took charge of the $90,000 Karaka yearling, who earlier in her career won the Group 3 Champagne Stakes (1200m) at Moonee Valley and the Group 2 Thousand Guineas Prelude (1400m) at Caulfield.
She was a luckless fourth in the 2023 Group 1 Thousand Guineas (1600m), which was won by Joliestar.
Last year’s Tatt’s Tiara was her most recent Group 1 assignment, in which she finished second-last in the field of 18.
The previous owners offered Coeur Volante via Inglis Digital last November, where she sold to Widden and Bangaloe Stud for $500,000 and in two runs in her new colours she finished third in the Listed Bel Esprit Stakes before her win over 1400m at Sandown on June 13.
“It’s all worked out well with her and she was a nice, impressive win,” Hayes said.
“It was really good to get her back in the winner’s stall.”
