Velvet Lady in prime position to secure Summer Cup at Coffs Harbour

A rapidly improving provincial mare is set to take another step back towards group company when she tackles the feature Summer Cup at Thursday’s strong Coffs Harbour meeting.

Velvet Lady, a still lightly raced four-year-old daughter of Victoria Derby winner Tarzino and based with Kris Lees in Newcastle, has been earmarked for much bigger staying contests in the New Year.

She heads into the Coffs feature at Benchmark 66 level third-up and yearning for a longer journey.

Velvet Lady hit the line hard just behind the placegetters when resuming in a more than handy BM 66 at Port Macquarie nearly seven weeks ago before working home late in a much deeper Heat of the Provincial Summer Series over a mile.

She drops in class and gets out to 2013m at Coffs in a race that looks at her mercy, especially with top-notch country hoop Aaron Bullock back in the saddle.

Velvet Lady made such progress back in autumn she was tossed into the Group 1 ATC Oaks over 2400m at Randwick where she was beaten a long way on heavy ground before tackling Group 2 The Roses at Eagle Farm in late May.

It shapes as a big day for this leading trainer/jockey combination, with high-class mare Terrameades also looking very hard to beat second-up in a BM 66 Hcp over 1313m.

The Irish-bred four-year-old signalled she was in for a good prep when storming home into third place when resuming in a stronger affair at Wyong, with the horse that finished behind Terrameades than winning a metro BM 72 at Randwick on Boxing Day.