Lady Shenandoah too good in Group 2 return

Arrowfield Easter graduate filly Lady Shenandoah, dominant winner of the Flight S. G1 last Spring, opened her Autumn campaign with an emphatic victory in Saturday’s $300,000 ATC Light Fingers S. 1200m G2 defeating Lady Of Camelot, Lilac & Lazzura in 1:08.81.

Along with New Zealand 2YO colt Return To Conquer, she gave Champion Sire Snitzel his second same-day Group race double in a fortnight, after victories by Blitzburg (Canonbury S. G3) & Return To Conquer (Colin Jillings Classic G3) on 1 February.

Snitzel is headed only by Dundeel’s son Super Seth on the current New Zealand 2YO Sires’ earnings premiership and tops both the Australian General & 3YO Sires’ lists by Stakeswinners & Stakes Wins. In fact, all but two of Snitzel’s 12 stakeswinners so far this season are from his 2020 & 2021 crops.  

And with 18 Group & Listed wins in the first 200 days of the 2024/25 season, Snitzel is building his stakes record at an even faster rate than he’s averaged across his entire career. 

One for the ladies! Lady Shenandoah absolutely smashes them in the G2 TAB Light Fingers Stakes and wins with her ears pricked!@ZacLloydx | @cwallerracing | @aus_turf_club pic.twitter.com/tfZu9PgjlC

— SKY Racing (@SkyRacingAU) February 15, 2025

Lady Shenandoah’s jockey Zac Lloyd said, “Happy I could get the job done, but she makes my life easier.

“In her second trial Mr Waller said, ‘close to a speeding ticket there’ but she just does it so easily you don’t really know how fast you’re going. She just glides over the ground, she’s got the most efficient action. She came around that bend and you just feel like it’s ‘game over’. She is a very nice filly.”

Lady Shenandoah’s performance has thrown down the gauntlet in front of Sydney racing’s other 3YO female star, the unbeaten Autumn Glow, and given their shared owner Hermitage Thoroughbreds and trainer Chris Waller plenty to consider as they plan the campaigns of both fillies. 

Add Arrowfield’s roles as the home of Snitzel, the co-breeder, with Planette Thoroughbred, of Lady Shenandoah and co-owner of Autumn Glow, and the scene is set for a fascinating Autumn!

Purchased from Arrowfield for $525,000 by Hermitage at Inglis Easter, Lady Shenandoah is the fifth foal of Star Pupil, a Paul Messara-trained winning daughter of Starcraft and the grand racemare & wonderful producer Ain’t Seen Nothin’, a multiple stakeswinner and Group 1 placegetter for trainer Barbara Joseph. 

Ain’t Seen Nothin’s 7 winning progeny include G3 winner Bachman, Listed winner Ain’tnofallenstar (dam of G3 winner Ain’tnodeeldun) & Singapore Horse of the Year Stepitup.

Star Pupil, also the dam of Hong Kong Group 1 winner & young sire Stronger (by Not A Single Doubt), has a Maurice colt for Inglis Easter 2025 and is in foal to Snitzel. Arrowfield is also breeding from Farsight (All American-Ain’t Seen Nothin’) who has a weanling colt by Hitotsu.