Storyville is back where she belongs on centre stage for the Group 1 Railway Stakes (1600m) at Ascot this Saturday.
It’s a seven-day turnaround for the Grant and Alana Williams-trained homebred mare following a Group 3 victory in the Bob Peters Stakes (1500m). Williams Racing stablemates Watch Me Rock ($4) and Western Empire ($4.20) head Railway markets while Storyville has opened at $17.
The Bob Peters Stakes result was twelve months to the day since Storyville won the G3 Champion Fillies Stakes at Ascot before backing up a week later to beat the boys in the G2 WA Guineas (1600m).
Given the run of the race by Willie Pike on Day 1 of The Pinnacles, she saved ground along the rails for a narrow victory over Demolish (Rich Enuff) and NZ-bred Cosmic Crusader (Maurice). “The Railway will be her hardest race ever,” Grant Williams predicted. “Last season we backed her up in the Northerly Stakes and it flattened her for this year’s winter prep.
“She can be handful and we needed to take the edge off her today.” Pike knows that only too well and he will hand over the Railway reins to Fred Kersley. “She’s difficult but at least she’s worth the hassle! I will just tell Fred to take a deep breath. She’s better coming from behind and then going through the gears.”
Storyville (4m Overshare – New Orleans by Time Thief) has won 5 races in 14 starts for prizemoney totalling $657,000. Her dam was bred by Peters Investments and was sold as an unraced 3yo filly for $4,000 at the 2016 Magic Millions WA Winter Sale.
New Orleans foaled the black-type performers Crescent City (Fiorente) and Axeman’s Jazz (Dundeel) first-up for Grant and Alana and they also have her 2yo filly by Overshare, yearling filly by Toronado and filly foal by Pride Of Dubai.
Storyville brought up a treble for Williams Racing on Saturday. The Forest View Farm-bred Fast Harry (Harry Angel) opened their account in the Drummond Golf Hcp (1400m) and Lynward Park’s homebred mare Summer’s Legacy (Bondi) landed the second-leg in the PKF Perth Hcp (1800m).