LIGHTLY-raced sprinter Shamal Wind would be only the third three-year-old filly in 30 years to win Saturday's $400,000 group 1 Oakleigh Plate at Caulfield if she was successful. With Me (1991) and Miss Kournikova (2001) managed to beat their older rivals, with Miss Kournikova smashing the track record and With Me overcoming barrier 18. But Shamal Wind's trainer, Robert Smerdon, is not daunted by the scarcity of fillies to have won the Oakleigh Plate, or the fact that Shamal Wind is having just h

LIGHTLY-raced sprinter Shamal Wind would be only the third three-year-old filly in 30 years to win Saturday's $400,000 group 1 Oakleigh Plate at Caulfield if she was successful.

With Me (1991) and Miss Kournikova (2001) managed to beat their older rivals, with Miss Kournikova smashing the track record and With Me overcoming barrier 18.

But Shamal Wind's trainer, Robert Smerdon, is not daunted by the scarcity of fillies to have won the Oakleigh Plate, or the fact that Shamal Wind is having just her fourth start.

''They were very good fillies, but I think Shamal Wind has deserved her place in the field. She is getting a very nice weight (50.5) and she has got that weight because she is the age she is,'' Smerdon said. ''It's a group 1 and her form is faultless and she won't get into the race next year when she is four with that weight.''

Bookmakers have installed the daughter of Dubawi at $5 second favourite behind boom West Australian Barakey ($3.50). (www.theage.com.au)