X-factor mare Le Melody has already got $10,000 worth of Kosciuszko tickets with her name on them.
If she runs up to her best again at Scone on Tuesday, she might be the first horse picked for the $2m feature at Royal Randwick on Everest day, Saturday October 15.
The Cody Morgan-trained daughter of Your Song burst into Kosciuszko calculations with back-to-back wins at Muswellbrook and Tamworth by huge margins and in slick time.
Le Melody had the dubious honour of being of the shortest-priced beaten favourites of the 2021/22 season when out of a place at $1.20 at Grafton on Ramornie day – but with a bagful of excuses.
“She got her tongue over the bit and the rest of the races after hers showed that the inside was off,’’ said Jeremy Azzopardi, who paid just $16,000 for Le Melody at the Scone Yearling Sale in 2020.
“We have still got the Kosciuszko in our sights so we have got some lead-up races that we are looking at for her.
“I think she has shown enough (to warrant a Kosciuskzo berth). Her times have been great and in those two wins she is running really good times.’’
Azzopardi and Morgan aren’t the only ones convinced that the Torryburn Stud bred mare is Kosciuszko material.
“People have called me and told me they have bought $10,000 worth of tickets and said if ‘we get a slot, we want Le Melody’,’’ Azzopardi said.
If Le Melody makes it to Royal Randwick on October 15, there will barely be room in the Theatre of the Horse for her huge and eclectic band of owners.
“They are not just from New South Wales, they are from all over Australia,’’ Group One Thoroughbreds founder Azzopardi explained.
“There are retirees, first time owners, experienced owners. We’ve got some female owners, male owners, young ones just starting families so it is a big mixture.
“The most important thing for us and why I enjoy being a syndicator is just bringing people into the racing industry and getting them to experience what racing is actually all about.
“I am solely a ‘country syndicator’. I only syndicate with country trainers and I have found that there are a lot of owners out there that they want to have some fun and it doesn’t matter where your horse wins, if it wins it’s always fun,’’ said Azzopardi.
A different bunch of Group One Thoroughbreds clients may very well have that winning feeling at Scone on Tuesday when the lightly-raced Smart Babe resumes in the SRC Xmas Party Maiden Handicap (1100m).
This one, also trained by Cody Morgan, was tipped out after a somewhat drama-charged debut at Scone on March 20.
“She had to run without race plates because her front shoes came off and the stewards said to us that you have to take the back shoes off or you will have to scratch,’’ Azzopardi explained.
“She has come back in fantastic order and is actually quite an exciting filly to be honest.’’