Makybe yes, Eagle or King, Cox just maybe
Flemington G1 a major decider as Sheza Alibi’s big-race targets reach forked road
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Sheza Alibi (Luke Nolen) winning the Group 1 Randwick Guineas (1,600m) on March 7. She then claimed the Group 1 Doncaster Mile (1,600m) on April 4. She contests the Group 1 Makybe Stakes (1,600m) at Flemington on Sept 12.
PHOTO: RACING AND SPORTS
MELBOURNE – Peter Moody is yet to lock in the second half of Sheza Alibi’s spring campaign, but he is sticking to the plan of a second-up run in the Makybe Diva Stakes with his stable star.
The four-year-old mare will have her first start in her adopted home state since her first-up win in the Group 2 Angus Armanasco Stakes (1,400m) last preparation in the A$750,000 ($685,000) Group 1 over 1,600 metres at Flemington on Sept 12.
It will be her second start at Australia’s most famous racecourse, having won the Group 3 The Vanity over 1,400m second-up on Derby Day in 2025.
First-up from her spectacular win in the Group 1 Doncaster Mile (1,600m) at Randwick on April 4, she resumed with a second place to Autumn Glow in the Group 1 Winx Stakes (1,400m) at the same track on Aug 22.
Moody pointed to her dominant win over Autumn Boy in the Group 1 Randwick Guineas (1,600m) on March 7 as an example of the improvement she can make between starts early in the campaign.
“She had a week down at the beach after the trip (to Sydney), had a good gallop on Tuesday morning and she’ll have another one this week,” said Moody.
“She won the Guineas second-up at a mile last prep then won the Doncaster a month later at a mile.
“She doesn’t need racing to hold her fitness.”
How Sheza Alibi performs this weekend will help Moody and co-trainer Katherine Coleman formulate a plan on what to do next with her.
The daughter of Saxon Warrior is odds-on favourite for the A$10 million newly-Group 1-elevated Golden Eagle (1,500m) at Randwick on Oct 31 and rated the main danger to Autumn Glow in the King Charles III Stakes (1,600m) at the same track two weeks earlier, but Moody said a rematch with Autumn Glow in that A$5 million Group 1 was no guarantee.
The Group 1 A$20 million The Everest (1200m) at Randwick on the same day as the King Charles III was also bandied around as another alternative at one stage, but Moody has already ruled out the world’s richest turf race.
“You’ve got the King Charles, but it’s only two weeks before the other one (Golden Eagle) and I hate the thought of two trips, because I won’t leave her there,” he said.
“If I run her two weeks before I’ll maybe even do it here, if I think she needs it.”
The only option for Sheza Alibi in Melbourne on Oct 17 is the Group 2 Tristarc Stakes, an A$300,000 set weights and penalties event for mares over 1,400m, while the A$1 million Group 1 Toorak Handicap (1,600m) is at Caulfield seven days earlier.
The indecision around her campaign means Moody will keep alive the option of a start in the A$6 million Group 1 Cox Plate (2,040m) on Oct 24. While she was an unlikely starter she was paid up for when first acceptances were taken on Sept 8. RACING AND SPORTS