True Self team eyeing more international targets

PA Sport Reporters
May 24, 2021 10:45 am

America and Australia on the agenda for Willie Mullins’ mare.

Willie Mullins’ globetrotting mare True Self is likely to be on her travels again later in the year having enjoyed a rare run at home on Sunday.

The eight-year-old arguably put up her best performance in Europe to date when a fast-finishing third to Helvic Dream in the Tattersalls Gold Cup.

Prior to that she had won a valuable prize in Saudi Arabia and also a second Queen Elizabeth Stakes in Australia.

Terry Henderson, chief executive officer for part-owners OTI Racing, mooted a trip to America before a possible Cox Plate challenge.

“She’s a remarkable mare. She’ll arrive back over here in Australia as a nine-year-old and she just seems to be getting better with age,” Henderson told Racing Pulse.

“We’ll most likely take her to a race in America like the Arlington Million (now run as the Mister D Stakes) and then we will come across here for the spring, where she may be more aimed at the Cox Plate.

“So, hopefully, those lovely people at Moonee Valley might send her an invitation.”

Horses from overseas now face stringent checks before being allowed to compete in Australia, but Henderson said it would not affect plans for True Self.

“We’ve got no reason to change what we normally do. If we can’t get past the Racing Victoria regulations with her (True Self), we’d simply go to the Breeders Cup in America and she’d be a very good bet in that 2000-metre mares’ race,” he said.

“However, she’s a very sound mare and we have no reason to suggest that she won’t pass Racing Victoria’s regulations.”