Into You (Image: Racing Photos)
In terms of the media spotlight Ballarat trainer Shay Keating would prefer the focus wasn’t on her but she realises her three-year-old filly Into You possesses the ability to ensure that could happen as soon as Saturday.
Keating has the three-year-old filly in the Group 2 Alister Clarke Stakes (2040m) at The Valley on Saturday and the also in Group 1 The Vinery (2000m, 3yo fillies) the following Saturday.
Keating’s aim is The Vinery but she has worked out the only way she is getting into that is if she can increase her prize money earnings. That’s where the Alister Clarke Stakes entered her equation.
“I don’t think she has enough stake money to get into The Vinery. If we waited until then and she didn’t get in that would mean she hasn’t raced for three weeks,” Keating said.
Keating said Into You had proven to be a ray of sunshine for her as she won at Ballarat only nine days after her mother Valma had passed away due to pancreatic cancer.
Keating has had Sebastian The Fox represent her in the Victorian Derby and the South Australian Derby but she said Into You was at another level to him.
“It’s a big deal for someone like me with a small stable to have a throw at the stumps at these big races but she’s only three once,” she said.
“I don’t know whether we will back her up in The Vinery but if we can get some prize money then we can have that option.”
Although Into You finished sixth at her last start in the Kewney Stakes at Flemington, Keating said she didn’t have a lot of galloping room in the straight.
“I look at Basilinna who finished second in that race. She went to the outside and we went to the inside otherwise I think we would have gone to the line together. She’s short in the betting and we’re at big odds,” Keating said.
Into You is $26 with Sportsbet and Basilinna is $6.50.
Keating said in the Kewney Stakes, Into You drew barrier one and she would be going to the opposite extreme at The Valley as she had drawn barrier 16.
“A better barrier would have helped. At Flemington she had no luck from the inside draw as she couldn’t get any galloping room but it was a good learning curve for her to race inside horses,” she said.
“As much as I thought we would have finished closer I came away thinking it was a good experience for her.”
Prior to the Kewney Stakes, the lightly raced Into You had three starts for a third at Sandown at her debut followed by wins at Ballarat and then at Sandown.
In the late 1980s Keating was an apprentice and was indentured to her father Daryl Brown and she outrode her country claim in the space of two years before weight curtailed her riding career.
She then worked for IRT horse transport and travelled the world with most of her time spent in the United States and Singapore.
She took out a trainer’s licence in 2014. Her father was also a successful trainer but he also passed away from a cancer battle in 2019.