All Too Hard filly Cristal Eyes is ready for a return to stakes company following another clear-cut victory at Moonee Valley on Friday evening.
Lindsay Park trainer David Hayes predicted it would be the stepping-stone for a black-type campaign and that’s how it panned out in the Benchmark 70 over 1200 metres. Settled midfield in the running line, she peeled wide on the corner and had the field covered before being geared down by Damien Oliver.
Cristal Eyes (3f All Too Hard – Champagne Run by More Than Ready) had won first-up at Pakenham after a below-par spring campaign. “She was stakes-placed at Flemington in the autumn but didn’t come up last prep,” assistant-trainer Ben Hayes said. “She’s owned by our good friends Alan Green and Brian Singer and it’s great to see her beginning to fulfil that potential.”
A $100,000 buy at the 2017 Inglis Easter Yearling Sale, she is a three-quarter sister to All Too Hard’s Sandown Guineas Gr.2 winner Villermont. Her USA-bred dam Champagne Run is a Keeneland-winning daughter of Vinery’s Coolmore Classic Gr.1 winner Bollinger (Dehere).
“The stable has a high-opinion of this filly and it was a long, sustained run tonight,” Oliver said. “She’s taken time but now we can step her up for a black-type race with confidence.”
Vinery sire All Too Hard leads Australia’s third-crop sires this season with 79 individual winners of 115 races. His Melbourne Premier draft started on Sunday with a Vinery colt from Extension Of Time (Lot 178) that made $110,000 to the bid of Neerim Lodge.
