Bella Nipotina has this week been confirmed as Ciaron Maher’s first Everest runner, but his stocks in the $20 million showstopper could quickly bolster if I Am Me can salute in The Shorts.
The two mares have clashed three times and I Am Me has beaten home Bella Nipotina in each, most recently when nudging her out to claim the Concorde Stakes (1000m) first-up earlier this month.
A three-time Group 1 placegetter, I Am Me will be bidding to underline that form in Saturday’s The Shorts (1100m) and reaffirm her claims to an Everest slot.
“She has been a very good horse, she hasn’t won a Group One, but she has been Group One placed multiple times,” Maher’s Sydney foreman Johann Gerard-Dubord said.
“She won the Sydney Stakes last year, so we know she enjoys Randwick.
“She was probably a couple of lengths off the better ones (in the past), but she seems to have come back like she might have improved those couple of lengths and that could be enough.”
Gerard-Dubord revealed that Maher had also made some tweaks to I Am Me’s training regime, preparing her from his rural NSW base at Bong Bong rather than at Warwick Farm.
The six-year-old is thriving in the quieter surrounds and the stable is hoping to see that reflected on Saturday.
“We’ve got her at Bong Bong and she enjoys it there,” Gerard-Dubord said.
“She lives in a box at night, but she is in a paddock during the day. Once she has done her work in the morning, she goes in the paddock. Gallop days, she will go in the spa straight after she works.
“They’re happy horses and we’ve got some beautiful tracks there too. You can give them a good base of fitness and get them very fit while still very happy and enjoying life.”
I Am Me has drawn ideally in barrier two and has champion hoop James Mcdonald in the saddle.
Gerard-Dubord’s only query is the two-week break between runs.
“That’s probably the only question mark, two weeks between runs after such a good run first-up effort, but she’s not showing any signs she has gone backwards,” he said.
“She was very good first-up, she has drawn well on Saturday, she has found a dry track. She will be hard to beat again.”