Jason Lee is hopeful his filly Jilliby Illuminate can negate a tricky draw to pinch Saturday night’s John Gibson Memorial NSW Oaks.
The Margaret Lee-prepared filly charged home from a wide gate to finish second behind Rickie Alchin’s star Lux Aeterna in a heat of the series last Saturday night, and has another difficult barrier to overcome in the $200,000 final this weekend.
“From the draw we had to swallow our medicine early and go back. She is probably more of a speed filly,” Lee said of the qualifier.
“She is best if she doesn’t have to do too much work. She is really fast and she had to peel (wide) a little bit earlier than we would have liked, but she was super.”
The trip from the Terang stable to Menangle hasn’t affected the filly out of The Arch Nemesis.
“Lochie Cook and Liam Mason were in charge of taking her up and they took her up last Thursday morning,” he said.
“They took her up to Chris Judd’s barn at Menangle. We would like to thank Chris (Judd) and Will Rixon for allowing us to stay with them.
“They were really happy with her and she travelled really well. The main thing was she ate up. We took a travel companion with her in Jilliby Adore, and they both get along really well.
“Lochie is in charge of everything up there. He is happy with her, and if he is happy, we are happy.”
Jilliby Illuminate has drawn eight for the Group 1 showdown, with fellow Victorian and winner of heat one, the Emma Stewart-prepared Very Pretty, to start from six.
“It would have been nice to draw a better gate,” he said. “Something would need to go wrong to see her (Very Pretty) getting beat, but it is a horse race and you have to be in it to be any chance.
“The draw hasn’t fallen our way. We are just going to have to rely on a bit of luck and see what happens.”
Completing the trio of Victorians vying for the lion’s share of the $200,000 prize pool is the Michael Stanley-prepared Soho Honey Rider.