By Michael Guerin
The big girl Beside Me is back at Addington tonight and she is ready to go. She is going to need to be.
One of our most talented three-year-old pacing fillies in a very deep yet even crop Beside Me looked like she could be the next big thing with a stunning Caduceus Club Ladyship Stakes win at Alexandra Park in March.
Soon after she was odds-on for the Northern Oaks but she was beaten by Arafura in the Oaks and Captains Mistress in a red hot Sires’ Stakes Final.
She returns in a Nevele R Fillies heat (R9, No.8 – 9.04pm) with the potential to still be our best filly of 2025 but plenty of talented young ladies standing in her way, many of them tonight.
“It is not going to be easy but I am confident she is ready to go,” says co-trainer Cran Dalgety.
“She is drawn wide with some good fillies inside her but her trial last week was really good and she is ready to be driven tough if she has to be.
“Sure, she will get better with the run but she can win.”
The Dalgetys also have Forever Dream and Bettor Than Lizzy in the heat but it is seriously stacked, with any one of Gone Surfin, General Jen, Queen Tyron, One For Jay, Celestial Sea and obviously Oaks winner Arafura capable of winning tonight without stunning punters.
Team Dalgety has multiple chances in all the age group pacing races tonight, including two juvenile fillies in their Dunstan Sires’ Stakes heat.
“Lizzie Borden is our best chance of our two and she has no luck up north recently.
“All Of Me is a half sister to Beside Me and she is improving but again it is a field with a bit of depth to it.”
For all the strength of those two races the juvenile boys pace might even be the highlight of the night, even minus Jumal.
Allamericanplayer (R8, No.4) is back after a great first campaign in which he beat Fugitive in both the Welcome and Sapling Stakes, the latter in 1:53.5.
They meet again tonight but are drawn outside Special Occasion (1) and Incentivise (2), both who look to have real Group 1 class.
“Fugitive will be better for his last start,” says Dalgety.
“And we have Eun Sogno in there for the TAB Racing Club and while he is still very much learning this should tell us where we stand with him.”
Add in northerners War Chief and Move It Lou and the Woodlands Sires’ Stakes heat is a little taster of what is to come but with Jumal and Zeus Lightning waiting in the wings for the winner as the juvenile boys season gets ready hot.
Team Dalgety also send Joyride north to Alexandra Park where she is odds-on to win the opener.
