Warwick Farm trainer Greg Hickman will target the Group One Queensland Oaks with Shabana following the filly's first-up win at Canterbury on Wednesday.Shabana ($8) came from near the tail of the field in the Ruse Tavern Tipsters Handicap (1200m) and dived through late to defeat Red Letter Daze ($9) by a long head with another short head to Hot Stash ($8) in third place.Shabana was having her first start since December and recorded her first win at her fifth start."We're aiming at the Queensland
Warwick Farm trainer Greg Hickman will target the Group One Queensland Oaks with Shabana following the filly's first-up win at Canterbury on Wednesday.
Shabana ($8) came from near the tail of the field in the Ruse Tavern Tipsters Handicap (1200m) and dived through late to defeat Red Letter Daze ($9) by a long head with another short head to Hot Stash ($8) in third place.
Shabana was having her first start since December and recorded her first win at her fifth start.
"We're aiming at the Queensland Oaks," Hickman said.
"We've got to do a bit of a funny step up in distance somewhere along the way because she's probably a run short, but I'm sure she will relax."
Hickman said the filly may need to jump from 1200m to 1600m at her next start.
Shabana, who finished second to Faint Perfume in a midweek race at Warwick Farm last year, was sent for a spell in January after becoming fractious in the barriers prior to a race at Newcastle where she became cast in the gates.
"She's always shown heaps but there's always been something not go right," Hickman said.
"We had that issue at Newcastle but we brought her back and did some education with her."
Shabana was second last on the fence after jumping from barrier one and Tim Clark elected to remain on the inside in the straight and ride her for luck.
The gap appeared and the filly found the line strongly for a narrow victory.
"It's the first time I've been on her but I was impressed with her and she'll go on," Clark said.
The Queensland Oaks (2400m) is on June 5 at Eagle Farm.
Meanwhile, two-year-old filly Upon This Rock also looks like she's booked a trip to Queensland for the winter carnival with her strong win in the Freeway Hotel Artarmon Handicap (1100m).
The race provided a quinella for trainer Gai Waterhouse with Upon This Rock defeating stablemate Gunbarrel by a long head with three-quarters of a length to Hurrara in third place.
Waterhouse labelled Upon This Rock a filly to follow after she raced three wide from the outside barrier but still fought on strongly in the straight to win.
"She's a really good filly in the making and we'll probably take her to Queensland," Waterhouse said.
The trainer said she didn't have a program mapped out for Upon This Rock but there were plenty of options in Queensland, particularly with winning jockey Nash Rawiller saying a step up to 1400m and 1600m shouldn't pose a problem.
"I was even thinking of running her last Saturday in the Listed fillies race (Keith Mackay), that's how highly I think of her," Waterhouse said.