Group 1 Ladyship Mile hopes for Voodoo Lou

By Jordan Gerrans

On the back of two straight Albion Park victories, trainer Gemma Hewitt feels Voodoo Lou deserves a chance to step up to the qualifiers of the Group 1 Ladyship Mile later this month.

The daughter of Betterthancheddar returns to NSW this Saturday evening as one of four Queensland hopefuls at Menangle, as well as Pelosi, Colt Thirty One and Uncle Shank.

Voodoo Lou heads to a Ladyship Pace over a mile, to be driven by Hewitt’s father Bernie.

The five-year-old mare has sprung to life once again over the last fortnight with the Group 1-winning trainer thinking she is ready for the next challenge.

“She really impressed me with her win last Saturday night at Albion Park, that brought her to a Band Three so I thought together with Dad was the best option to go back down there at this stage and tackle some of the nice mares races that are coming up,” Hewitt, who drove her mare to victory at her last start, said.

“She has gone through her mares grades quite nicely now on Saturday nights in Brisbane.

“The plan is for her to head back to Sydney and have a go at the mares races there at Menangle for a while, before having a break and then coming back to Brisbane for the winter carnival.”

Being a QBRED, Voodoo Lou was able to come to the Sunshine State and collect her bonus through the back end of 2021.

The 29-year-old trainer believes Voodoo Lou’s two recent victories have come following her better settling into her new environment in Queensland after spelling in the Sunshine State from the back end of August last year until the middle of December.

“We will see how she goes this Saturday night and whether a fortnight after that she goes to the qualifiers for the Ladyship,” she said.

“It is going to be a big step up in grade but I think she is good enough to go into the qualifiers.

“With her improvement over the last two weeks, she has really hit her straps and while it is going to be a big step up, it is her time to take that chance.”

With Voodoo Lou having Ladyship Mile ambitions, so does the Anna Woodmansey-trained Pelosi, while million dollar earner Colt Thirty One will head towards the Miracle Mile qualifiers through the NSW carnival, with Uncle Shank on a path towards the Chariots Of Fire.

On her Queensland stable of horses, Hewitt says she is going through a quieter period of actually being at the race track, working with some babies at home, with some of her better stock – including Kash Us Back – coming back from a break in the near future.

“Hopefully in the next four to six weeks we can have a good team of race horses,” she said.

Hewitt has set up shop at fellow former Bathurst-based trainer Jack Butler’s Logan Village stable with a team of eight horses after making the move north in 2021.