Ken and Bev Kelso’s stable star Legarto may be on the quiet list at the moment after straining a muscle earlier this month, but the Matamata couple still have plenty to look forward to this spring with exciting filly Alabama Lass. 

The three-year-old daughter of Alabama Express was an eye-catching winner on debut at her home track in February before finishing runner-up at the same track a fortnight later in the Gr.2 Matamata Breeders’ Stakes (1200m). 

She returned in impressive fashion when winning her 900m trial at Te Rapa earlier this month and continued that form into her opening race of the season at Taupo on Wednesday in the Taupo Pak ‘N Save 3YO Fillies (1100m). 

Alabama Lass jumped well and was taken straight to the front of the small but select field by jockey Sam Spratt and she didn’t relinquish her advantage, running out a 3-1/2 length victor, albeit racing very greenly down the Taupo straight. 

“She went up the straight like a drunken sailor,” Spratt quipped. “I think it was just because she was doing it so easy, she was doing it on her ear and got a bit lost. If she had a rail to follow it would have been much better because she has never done that before.  

“She was brilliant and did it easy and it was a smart field, she has got huge improvement.” 

Ken Kelso was just as pleased with the win and said she will take plenty of improvement from the run as they head towards her first major target of the spring, the Gr.3 HBPB Breeders’ ASSN Gold Trail Stakes (1200m) at Hastings on September 7. 

“You have got to be happy, she has won nicely,” he said. “She has run around a little bit but that is only her third start, so she is only going to keep improving. 

“She will go from here to Hastings for the Gold Trail and then we will pick a plan from there. How far she will get you don’t know, you just take one step at a time.” 

The Gr.1 Barneswood Farm 52nd New Zealand 1000 Guineas (1600m) in November, a race Kelso came close to winning with Group One winner Bounding in 2013, remains Alabama Lass’s ultimate spring aim. While the mile distance remains a query, Kelso thinks his filly is capable of seeing out the distance against her own age group. 

“She will definitely be nominated for the 1000 Guineas but whether she can get that far time will tell,” he said. 

“The way she relaxes in the running and on her pedigree too (I think she can see out the distance). She has got half brothers and sisters that have gone to a mile.  

“Bounding ran second, and probably should have won the 1000 Guineas, and she was an out-and-out sprinter later on. They can get it against their own age group, but until you try you never know.”