Kris Lees and Hugh Bowman have combined for another ‘black type’ success in Melbourne with Razeta scoring at Flemington.
Razeta showed a blistering turn of foot to take out the Listed Desirable Stakes (1400m) on Thursday.
Lees and Bowman first teamed together to claim the VRC Oaks with Samantha Miss in 2008 which also happened to be Bowman’s first Group 1 win in Melbourne.
Razeta’s win was the second year in a row a filly had travelled from NSW to claim the Desirable Stakes after Espiona scored a 6-½ length win in last year’s race.
Weaving a passage through the field, Razeta ($13) raced to a 1-¼ length win from the $5 favourite Grey River with See You In Heaven ($11) a further three-quarters-of-a-length away third.
Lees credited owner Bob Hannon with electing to run Razeta at Flemington on Tuesday and pick up all important ‘black type’ for her future as a broodmare.
“She was in at Randwick on Tuesday, in just a benchmark race, and Bobby Hannon, he pushed me into running,” Lees said.
“So, I’ve got to give credit to him.
“She’s a valuable filly with a nice pedigree and it’s just got a little bit better.”
Lees said he would not be delving too much further into the spring believing Razeta will be up to better company than what she faced on Thursday.
“I think we’re going to have a really nice filly in the autumn, so we’ll just see how she comes through today,” Lees said.
“I think she showed today she can measure up to the better fillies next time around.”
Bowman said he did not have too many options early in the Flemington straight and was forced to bide his time.
“I could see Blake Shinn travelling very well just to my inside and I thought I’d let him make his way through,” Bowman said.
“Then the run presented itself in front of me and when I got her into clear air, the response was outstanding.”