Flying filly Swats That will serve as inspiration for the juvenile sprinters heading towards March’s VOBIS Gold Rush (1000m), which forms part of the money-spinning 2020-21 Premier Race Series.
Swats That started her sparkling career with an eye-catching debut win in the 2019 VOBIS Gold Rush at Bendigo, showing a very smart turn of foot to beat Bella Nipotina by almost two lengths.
Since then, the Leon and Troy Corstens-trained speed machine has collected two further wins – both at Stakes level – with her run in the Group 2 Percy Sykes Stakes (1200m) on an unsuitably heavy Randwick surface the only time she has finished outside the top three in six career starts.
Her last outing, a runner-up finish behind Chris Waller’s filly September Run in the Coolmore Stud Stakes (1200m) at Flemington, came after her connections reportedly turned down the offer of a start in The Everest.
The winner of the $250,000 VOBIS Gold Rush, which returns to Bendigo on Saturday, 27 March, will therefore have big horseshoes to fill. With $30,000 of Super VOBIS bonuses also on offer, the 1000m contest – one of the feature races on Bet365 Golden Mile Raceday – could prove a very lucrative payday for connections of the winner.
Similarly, a total of $230,000 is up for grabs in prizemoney and bonuses in the VOBIS Gold Reef (1600m), which will be run at The Valley on All-Star Mile Raceday (Saturday, 13 March). And the meeting at Echuca on Sunday, 7 March will now stage the VOBIS Gold Eldorado (1200m), which carries a prize purse of $100,000 with an additional $30,000 in bonuses also on offer.
The 2020-2021 Premier Race Series offers a grand total of $4.7 million in prizemoney and bonuses spread across 18 races.
View the full race schedule here.