Boom filly Ortensia and Absolut Glam may be the benchmarks in Saturday's Group One Winter Stakes at Eagle Farm but Melbourne trainer John Moloney isn't hoisting the white flag with his underrated mare Amberino."Ortensia is the one to beat but I'm hoping she's had enough," Moloney said."Horses are not machines and maybe Ortensia has come to the end of her campaign."My mare is going well and if she can find her best form she's in with a great chance."Absolut Glam won this race last year but I'm no
Boom filly Ortensia and Absolut Glam may be the benchmarks in Saturday's Group One Winter Stakes at Eagle Farm but Melbourne trainer John Moloney isn't hoisting the white flag with his underrated mare Amberino.
"Ortensia is the one to beat but I'm hoping she's had enough," Moloney said.
"Horses are not machines and maybe Ortensia has come to the end of her campaign.
"My mare is going well and if she can find her best form she's in with a great chance.
"Absolut Glam won this race last year but I'm not sure if she is going as good this year."
Amberino is one of racing's great bargain buys, costing only $9,000 as a weanling in Melbourne and already earning almost $500,000 in prizemoney from nine wins and six placings in her 32-start career.
Unlike some of her Winter Stakes rivals, Amberino will race on for another season with a late Melbourne spring campaign and next year's Sydney autumn carnival pencilled in.
Amberino came to Queensland for the winter after the five-year-old won the Group Two Emancipation Stakes (1600m) at Randwick on Anzac Day.
The win came as no surprise to Moloney who sent her interstate for the first time at her previous start when she was runner-up to Winter Stakes rival Bird Of Fire in the Group Two Queen Of The South Stakes (1600m) at Morphettville in Adelaide.
Moloney believes Amberino is a little underrated and decided to press on to the Winter Stakes despite her less than spectacular Brisbane debut when 12th to Chinchilla Rose in the Group Three Dane Ripper Stakes (1400m) at Eagle Farm last month.
"It wasn't that good a run at Eagle Farm but she didn't handle the wet track," Moloney said.
"She's not a heavy track horse but she can get through the dead and slow.
"It was rated slow that day but they were really getting into the ground and pulling up the turf."
Moloney cannot fault Amberino since the Dane Ripper and is looking for an upset over Ortensia and Absolut Glam.
"In the last week she's really started to hit her straps," he said.
"It's her first time at Group One level and it's hard to gauge her chances but she's won a Group Two in Sydney and just missed out in another in Adelaide."
The daughter of Perugino will be ridden by popular Gold Coast jockey Jason Taylor in Saturday's 1400-metre feature, replacing champion jockey Damien Oliver who will partner Absolut Glam.