Stryker Filly wins Caulfield Cup Day Opener

The first event on a star studded card at Caulfield on Saturday went the way of promising Stryker filly Andrioli, a $65,000 Inglis Premier purchase for Peter Carrick’s Lakeview Resources from the Three Bridges Thoroughbreds draft.

 

The Robert Smerdon trained filly led from barrier to box, with Craig Williams taking charge of the race from a wide gate and Andrioli doing the rest.

Placed at her last two runs, Andrioli was fit and hard for this assignment and found the line strongly to win the 1400 metre open fillies event by more than a length.

“It was an awkward draw, but she was able to do the work at the start and finish it off,” said Williams.

A good fourth in her last preparation in the Group III VRC Thoroughbred Breeders Stakes, Andrioli now has the record of two wins and two placings from seven starts with prizemoney topping $100,000.

“She took a lot of benefit from her last start at Bendigo, so we upped her workload and she’s coped with it well,” said Robert Smerdon, who will look to a Listed race at Flemington for Andrioli.

Named for a very attractive female Brazilian soccer player, Andrioli was bred by Three Bridges in partnership with Richard Pegum and is a half-sister to Group III placed Dehere Again from Group II winner Let’s Rock Again.

Andrioli is another bright prospect for young Fastnet Rock sire Stryker, who stands at Three Bridges at a fee of $11,000.

He also had another smart winner in New Zealand on Saturday with promising three year-old gelding Rangipo successful at Arawa Park beating older horses.