BENAGIL SENDS BALLYMORE OFF ON A GROUP 1 NOTE

Benagil gave Ballymore Stables a final Group 1 victory with a dominant win in Saturday’s Australasian Oaks at Morphettville.

Allowed to settle towards the rear by Mark Zahra as Too Darn Lizzie set a hot pace. Benagil began to take closer order with 800 metres to go before beginning a looping run around the field before the home turn.

With her momentum up Benagil swept into the lead and powered clear to score by one and quarter lengths over Sweltering.

In a poignant footnote, it is the first Group 1 win for Glen Thompson, just two months after the death of his more senior training partner Mike Moroney. Now, with a Listed Mornington Cup win and three further stakes placings in recent weeks, he can add a Group 1 to his record.

"It's been a tough few weeks, but I just tried to focus on today," Thompson told Channel 7 post-race.

"We just got her here in as good an order as we could. I thought she was spot-on today, and she raced like it. She's always shown a lot of ability, she come back as a 3YO in the spring, she was very unlucky in the Thousand Guineas and she's just gone to another level this time.

Having run so well to finish second to Treasurethe Moment in in the Vinery Stud Stakes in Sydney last time out, Thompson said the Morphettville race had always been the plan.

“It was always the plan to come here from a long way out,” Thompson said.

“She went to Sydney and ran so well, and there was a little bit of pressure to stay in Sydney and run in the Oaks, but this was a much better option for her.

“Phil Campbell, he’s the owner, he bred her and Richard (Byrnes) one of the other owners, it’s great to have them here and see it as well.”

Mark Zahra told Channel 7 he was confident a long way out.

“I was just smoking the pipe, looking at what was going on. I was very happy with the tempo, and I think if you could have been on any horse at the 600 (metres) was me. I was just jogging,” Zahra said,

“In these staying races, I don't like to disappoint them for too long. You've got to let them go when they're ready to go. I waited until we got them a straight, let her rip, and she had them a long way out and did a good job.

“Glen just done a great job with his filly, and she looked fantastic today.”

A daughter of Manhattan Rain out of Des Moines, who was also trained by Ballymore, Benagil was bred in partnership by Blue Gum Farm a year before Phillip Campbell sold the stud to Trilogy in 2022. She was retained to race by Campbell and his co-breeders.