A couple of sharp pieces of trackwork have convinced Adrian Bott to add Reachin’ Out to Tulloch Lodge’s Silver Shadow Stakes arsenal, the filly joining well-performed stablemates Agrarian Girl and By Choice in the opening leg of the four-race Princess Series.
Bott said they were looking at a softer first-up target for Reachin’ Out following her two recent trials, but her work over the past week had changed their minds.
“We originally had her pencilled in for some tougher tasks first-up, then we settled on some easier tasks after her trials,” Bott said.
“Then we saw the nominations and after her work on Saturday, we thought she deserved to kick off there.”
Bott and co-trained Gai Waterhouse will have three of the 11 runners in the Silver Shadow Stakes (1200m), a race the stable has won a trio of times in the past 20 years, most recently with Autumn Ballet in 2023.
Agrarian Girl also kicks off her campaign in the feature after a two-start juvenile campaign that yielded a debut win and a second to top filly Chayan in the Reisling Stakes (1200m).
Made an emergency for the Golden Slipper, she didn’t get into the field and was spelled, but Bott expected her to sprint well fresh.
“Agrarian Girl, she’s a natural speed filly,” he said.
“She has trialled up well on two occasions. She had limited opportunities in her two-year-old campaign, but she was really good the times we saw her.”
Multiple stakes placegetter By Choice will also make her seasonal return at Randwick having been off the scene since finishing third behind Saturday’s rival Pembrey in the Magic Night Stakes (1200m).
Bott expects her to appreciate more distance, and says she will come into her own during the latter stages of the Princess Series in the Tea Rose Stakes (1400m) and Flight Stakes (1600m).
“By Choice, she’s the most seasoned of them all,” he said.
“She will be better suited getting out to 1400 and 1600 metres this prep. She will stay in the Princess Series, but she may just find them a little sharp first time out.”
All three Tulloch Lodge fillies have drawn alongside each other with Reachin’ Out, to be ridden by Regan Bayliss, in barrier six, Agrarian Girl (Tim Clark) gate seven and By Choice (Rachel King) barrier eight.
