Global Glamour Takes Flight for the 'Girls'

Trainer Gai Waterhouse notched a ninth Flight Stakes (Aus-I) success when Global Glamour led all the way to take the Aus$500,000 race Oct. 1 at Randwick. 

Global Glamour's half-length triumph over closing Yankee Rose marked the first win at the highest level for the filly as well as her young Widden Park-based sire Star Witness and Waterhouse's new training partner Adrian Bott.  

Global Glamour opened a clear led in the stretch but Inglis Sires (Aus-I) victress Yankee Rose closed in with ground-gobbling strides, just missing a second group I triumph.

With Tim Clark aboard, Global Glamour covered the 1,600 meters (about one mile) for 3-year-old fillies in 1:34.73 on turf rated as good, earning her second win from four career starts.

Clark told racingandsports.com.au that a barrier blanket kept Global Glamour calm before the race. Barrier blankets are fairly recent development, used to help horses that are difficult to load, according to glossary on racing gear compiled by JustRacing.com.au. The blankets, which weigh about 40 kilograms, are placed over the horse as if it were being stabled for the night. A blanket gets tied to the back of the starting gate and remains on the horse until it jumps from the gate. Renowned resistance-free horse trainer Monty Roberts is credited with promoting barrier blanket use.

"The start was all important today," Clark said. "It was a masterstroke by Gai and Adrian to put the barrier blanket on her. It helped keep her calm. She began pretty well and in the small field I was able to control it."

Global Glamour is owned by It's All About the Girls racing syndicate, whose membership of nearly 40 owners from seven nations includes Anna Seitz of Brookdale Farm near Lexington and an employee of Fasig-Tipton.

Agent James Bester and It's All About the Girls Syndicate bought Global Glamour for Aus$65,000 ($53,320) at the 2015 Magic Millions Gold Coast yearling sale. An earner of $338,500, she is from the winning Testa Rossa mare Spectacula.

Saturday's card also included Aus$1 million Epsom Handicap (Aus-I), won by Godolphin Racing's Hauraki (Reset), and the Aus$750,000 Metropolitan Handicap (Aus-I), captured by Waratah Thoroughbreds' Sir John Hawkwood (Sir Percy).