Sunrays owner Peter Moran confident star filly will be a warrior Princess when she resumes in Sydney this month
The Kelly Schweida -trained Sunrays will resume in the $300,000 Group 2 Silver Shadow Stakes (1200m) on August 23, the first leg of the four-race Princess Series for 3YO fillies at Randwick.
The daughter of Hellbent will then be further tested in Group 2 company next month when she contests the Furious Stakes (1200m) and the Tea Rose Stakes (1400m) before her grand final, the $750,000 Group 1 Flight Stakes (1600m).
'I think she's up to it,' owner-breeder Moran said of Sunrays, who has won five of six races and $364,000 in prizemoney since making her debut at Doomben on January 22.
'I think she's capable of performing well in a Group 1.
'She came up to Brisbane as a yearling from Widden Stud (in the Hunter Valley) and got a really bad case of travel sickness which knocked the stuffing out of her.
'We were very lucky we didn't lose her.
'She went from being broken in to going to Kelly and then she won three straight races.
'I saw her the other day and she looks enormous. I've bred a lot of horses in my time and she's right up there with the best.'
• Melbourne Cup champ Robbie Dolan wins race in Shergar Cup
Champion jockey Tommy Berry has been aboard Sunrays in past three races and has been offered the rides for the Princess Series.
Sunrays finished a distant runner-up to the Peter Snowden -trained Beadman in the Group 3 Ken Russell Memorial Classic on a bog track on the Gold Coast on May 10.
She then stamped her black-type credentials with victories in the Bill Carter Stakes (1350m) at Doomben and the Show A Heart (1500m) at Eagle Farm before going for a well-deserved spell.
Schweida, currently holidaying in South Africa, at the time described Sunrays' dominant victory in the Bill Carter Stakes as 'arrogant' while Berry said after the race the filly was 'bombproof and adaptable' with 'improvement to come'.
ðŸ'¥ HELLBENT 2YO STAKES WIN ðŸ'¥
She’s tough and she’s good! SUNRAYS (2f) made it back-to-back Stakes wins taking the Listed Show A Heart @EagleFarmRacing ðŸ'° 6 starts, 5 wins including two Stakes wins & second in a G3.. awesome for Kelly Schweida and owner-breeder Peter Moran! pic.twitter.com/l4WVVqPQkm
— Yarraman Park Stud (@yarramanpark) June 7, 2025
•
Beadman may have won the Ken Russell Memorial Classic by eight lengths, but it was in that race that Moran knew he had a Group 1 horse in the making, with Sunrays the only horse to make ground on a heavy track.
'Tommy Berry got off her that day and said 'I'd like to stay with this filly if I can',' Moran recalled.
'For one of the leading jockeys in Sydney to say that, I was pretty happy.
'He does a lot of riding for the big trainers like Chris Waller and I'm only a little fella with one horse but I hope he stays on her (for the Princess Series).
'It'll be a huge step for Sunrays, going from a Listed race at Eagle Farm to a Group 2 at Randwick against the best fillies in Australia.'
Given the filly's pedigree – Sunrays is the first living foal of Hiccups, an unraced granddaughter of the celebrated mare Staging – Moran is confident she can win a Group 1.
'She's a bit like Staging in that she's tough, easy to train and she eats her head off,' Moran said.
'She's going to be a lovely filly when she's completed. She'll have these four runs and then we'll give her a break before bringing her back for the Sydney autumn carnival.'
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