Cup winner’s sister chases St Leger

The three-year-old is a daughter of Dundeel and the Testa Rossa mare Geblitzt, which makes her a half-sister to Vow And Declare who, of course, provided O’Brien with his crowning glory as a trainer when he won the 2019 Lexus Melbourne Cup.

Litzdeel will chase a Flemington feature of her own this Friday when she runs in the $200,000 Listed VRC St Leger (2800m).

Genetic testing suggested, like Vow And Declare, she was going to be a stayer, which was backed up by what O’Brien saw in her early training, and he is excited about seeing her in the St Leger.

“She’s a filly that we were hoping to see do something once she got to these sort of distances,” he said.

“She’s a ‘TT long’, which is the extreme distance genome, so we always knew that she had that same genome as Vow And Declare, but she’s a completely different horse to him.

“He was quite a mature horse as a spring three-year-old, he won a Stakes race and at this time of his career he was on his way to Brisbane for the Queensland Derby, whereas she’s been six to 12 months behind where he was at the same age and we’re just getting her into these trips now.”

The VRC St Leger will be the sixth start for Litzdeel, whose career started with a fifth placing in a 1447m Geelong maiden last September.

She broke her maiden over 1600m at Bairnsdale the following month, after which she was put away and unplaced efforts over 1600m and 2000m at her first two starts this year were followed by an encouraging third placing in the Listed Galilee Series Final over 2400 metres on April 5.

That is a race O’Brien won with another product of Geblitzt, Star Witness gelding Lycurgus, in 2017 and he would love to maintain his perfect record with progeny from the now-18-year-old mare.

“We’ve had two Group (class) stayers out of that mare, Vow And Declare and Lycurgus, so it’d be nice if we could win a third one with one out of that mare, too,” he said.

“When she had been working her way through her grades it was always about trying to get her to a mile-and-a-half and further, so when she stepped out in the race at Caulfield and we were really pleased with her progress, this was the obvious race for her to run in.”

The VRC St Leger is a race that has a rich link to the Melbourne Cup, with Phar Lap among 14 Melbourne Cup winners to have also won the St Leger, which until 1980 was run at the highest level.

It was a Group 2 until 1990, Group 3 from 1991 to 2005 and while now a Listed event, it maintains a significant role on the VRC calendar as the feature of its traditional Anzac Day card.

It’s impact on the Melbourne Cup has waned since being downgraded – 2018 winner Runaway is the only St Leger runner in the past decade to also take part in a Melbourne Cup – but O’Brien said it maintains an important place on the calendar.

He is yet to win it, with Salto Angel’s second placing in 2021 his best result, but he likes the fact it is remains a pathway for the likes of Litzdeel.

“We don’t have a lot of horses that are suited by it, but you have to have something for these staying horses,” he said.

“A horse like Litzdeel is a perfect example. If she doesn’t get an opportunity against her own age to run over 2500 or further it makes it hard to even bother breeding those sort of horses, so they need to be on the calendar to be options for distance horses.

“This is a race against her own age in a staying race that’s been around for 100-plus years; it’s a big opportunity for her.” - Danny O'Brien

Litzdeel and Ciaron Maher’s last-start Mornington maiden winner Tel Aviv are the fillies who on Friday will strive to emulate Ahuriri, who last year became the St Leger’s first female winner since Exceptionally in 2010 and 11th overall.

The girls are among a field of 12 for this year’s VRC St Leger, favourite for which is the Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott-trained Format from Tsitsipas, who is a half-brother to 2010 Victoria Derby winner Lion Tamer.