[NoChanceToDance]

Royal Ascot heroine Miss Andretti unlikely to defend King's Stand Crown


by Andrew O'Toole

AUSTRALIA MISS ANDRETTI seems unlikely to be on hand at Royal Ascot to defend her King's Stand Stakes title in 2008.

Lee Freedman, who trains the top-class sprinting mare, has indicated that Miss Andretti will not have a busy international schedule in future.

“I imagine it would beunlikely that she would do much travelling from now on,” said Freedman of Miss Andretti, who flopped last time out in the Hong Kong International Sprint behind Sacred Kingdom on December 9.

“We're a year down the track and it's a difficult and long undertaking to go to the UK. Going abroad may well rule out an early spring campaign for her in Melbourne, and that is her main aim at this stage.”

A proposed trip to Singapore in May was also unlikely, according to Freedman.
The trainer said that several factors contributed to Miss Andretti's out-of-character performance in Hong Kong.

He said: “The pre-departure quarantine at Sandown, coupled with two weeks at Sha Tin, did her no favours. Her demeanour altered somewhat and this added to the problemsshe had going right-handed.”

Flemington trainer Mark Kavanagh is hopeful of a British campaign for his multiple Group 1-winning mare Divine Madonna. She will “inevitably” be sold at auction at the end of her career said Kavanagh, who thinks this will be in either July or August next year.

“She has won four Group 1 races in Australia now, and we are just hopeful we can get her overseas somewhere and see what happens from there,” he said.

“I would rather go to England – they have got a straight mile race and races that are suitable for mares, so that would be a bit of fun I reckon.
I look all right in a top hat!”

“She is a well-known mare and they are a little bit keen to see her over there, so with a bit of luck we canget her there.”

Divine Madonna, a five-year-old by Hurricane Sky out of the Prego mare My Madonna, has raced 25 times, with eight wins and seven placings.

Her spring was highlighted by two excellent Group I wins in the Toorak Handicap (1600m) at Caulfield and the Meyer Classic (1600m) at Flemington.