Fickle Folly ready to return from setback
Fickle Folly is back on her black-type quest after plans to target the Listed Starlight Stakes were thwarted by a luckless lead-up run.
The four-year-old mare returns from a let-up to run over 1000 metres at Benchmark 85 level Randwick on Saturday when Tamworth trainer Sue Grills hopes to see positive signs ahead of the Scone Cup carnival in May.
Grills had hoped to run Fickle Folly in the Starlight on December 3 but she pulled up lame after being knocked about during a Benchmark 96 Handicap at Rosehill in November.
“She didn’t get the best of runs. We had a little bit of a hiccup so she had a freshen-up,” Grills said.
Grills believes Fickle Folly, who was third in last year’s Group Three Maurice McCarten Stakes (1100m) at Rosehill, can win at Listed level.
“I don’t think it’s beyond her. Her work has been good, she seems back on track again,” she said.
Grills said with no Listed races to suit Fickle Folly in the near future, she would target the Denise’s Joy Quality (1100m) at Scone, a race she ran seventh in last autumn.
“We’ll see how she goes. I just take it each race at a time with her. She’s only a little mare,” Grills said.
Although her work has been solid, Grills is concerned about her drawing the outside gate in the field of 11.
“That’s what happened last start. She drew wide, got too far back and then she got buffeted around,” she said.
On the plus side, Fickle Folly has veteran jockey Robert Thompson back in the saddle.Thompson was aboard for the mare’s last win at Randwick in October.
“He always does a good job. Robert will have her comfortable, that’s for sure,” she said.
Fickle Folly was the $4.80 second elect behind the Kris Lees-trained Guard Of Honour ($2.60) in the TAB’s opening markets on Wednesday.
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