SUN GIFT REBOUNDS TO GROUP 2 SUCCESS

Danny O'Brien's plan to back-up Sun Gift from Wednesday's Kyneton meeting into Saturday's Group 2 Matriarch Stakes (2000m) paid big dividends as the tough mare scored her first black-type success.

The daughter of Savabeel had finished sixth, beaten seven lengths in the Kyneton Cup, but O'Brien said the mare didn't appreciate the heavy conditions.

A decision to push ahead to Flemington – and the fact most of the predicted rain never hit the track – saw Sun Gift given the conditions she needed as the mare held off against a desperately unlucky Too Darn Discreet, who was finishing hard late.

"I always intended to back her up," O'Brien said after Sun Gift ($51) fought hard to win by three-quarters of a length from Too Darn Discreet ($3.30 favourite), with Perfect Ten ($20) in third place.

"I thought she could win on Wednesday, and then it just rained for the two hours before the race, it became a real tough surface.

"She didn't get through it at all, and effectively just had a 1400m gallop down the straight without getting knocked around.

"So she's been bright in the last 48 hours. Even at seven o'clock this morning, (assistant trainer) Michael Bromley and myself were tossing it up and thought, ‘No, no, we're running'."

Jockey Michael Dee said he had expected to hear on race morning that Sun Gift would be scratched and was surprised when the mare wasn't.

t meant emergency Superfabulistic missed a run in the Matriarch Stakes, but Gai Waterhouse's mare got the consolation win earlier in the Ronald McDonald House Mile.

"I wasn't in on any sort of plan," Dee said of Sun Gift's back-up.

"I expected to wake up this morning and see a line through her name, and to my surprise, she was still in, and I'm very thankful for that.

"What a good training performance to (have her) run at Kyneton and run down the track on heavy ground, and then turn up here three days later and produce that."

Sun Gift will now head to the paddock to rest up for the autumn, with her breeding page looking even better for owners/breeders Waikato Stud.

Story by Glenn McFarlane for Racenet

Pics by Racing Photos