Gypsy Goddess on a Sydney Group 1 path

By Jordan Gerrans

For emerging apprentice Kyle Wilson-Taylor, he is desperate to have a star galloper he can stick with for the long-term.

The 22-year-old rode Caulfield Cup champion Incentivise before he went on his dazzling winning streak – and during it – and he has found another potential Group 1 horse in Gypsy Goddess.

Like Incentivise, Gypsy Goddess will be partnered by another more experienced rider when she chases her higher honours – Western Australian gun Willie Pike in the short term – in NSW.

While Wilson-Taylor has plenty of time in front of him in his career to find another star in the making, he is not giving up hope of getting back on the unbeaten David Vandyke-trained filly in the near future. 

The boom young rider has stayed close with Vandyke and the filly's major owner - Robert Jones – if the ride was ever to be available again in NSW, or if she was to return to the Sunshine State for feature events during the 2022 TAB Queensland Racing Carnival.

“They have been great, all the owners in Gypsy Goddess, especially Mr Jones, giving me the opportunity to ride her when she broke her maiden and they were really good to put me back on last week,” he said.

“We were able to get the job done there.

“They filled me with plenty of confidence in putting me back on her.

“You want to be associated with these great horses and these owners have been good enough to put me on so far and I would love to continue that success.

“Hopefully one day I can get back on her.”

Based on the Darling Downs and at Eagle Farm during his time in the Sunshine State, Wilson-Taylor does not ride often for the Caloundra team of Vandyke but he has developed a close association with the experienced trainer.

He was handed the ride on the debutant filly on the Sunshine Coast in the middle of October last year and while the stable and the rider had little expectations, Wilson-Taylor was immediately impressed.

“I was very surprised and I had a bit of a wrap on her, I felt she did go well on that day,” he recalls.

“She gave me a fantastic feel but you never can be sure what they will go on and do.

“I was eager to stay on her and she has gone on to be a Group 3 winner and she has surprised everybody; she just keeps on giving.”

The filly's rise has been stunning since that maiden, claiming the Group 3 Grand Prix Stakes and the three-year-old Quality Eagle Way in recent months, on the way to the Group 1 Australian Oaks next month.

She will make a quick stop-off in the Group 1 Vinery Stud Stakes this Saturday before the Oaks a fortnight later.

Emma Lehmann – the stable foreman for Vandyke at Caloundra – described Gypsy Goddess as a constant improver, always raising the bar in her performances despite the team not having much of an opinion about her from her earliest work on the track.

“She had not shown us a lot but every time we have asked her to step it up, she has exceeded and excelled our expectations,” Lehmann said.

“She has earnt her shot at the big time. She has just been a surprise packet.

“She learns quite quickly, she is quite smart and perhaps she did not know her trade initially in her track work and now everything she has done has impressed us.”

So, where has the improvement come from?

Why has a filly gone from not many expectations in a Sunday afternoon maiden at Caloundra to being a $4.50 favourite with the TAB for the Group 1 Oaks in Sydney in just over six months?

“I think in her track work she was quite dour,” Lehmann, who will travel with the filly to Sydney, explained.

“She did not have a really great sprint, so in her gallops other horses would take off and sprint and she would be left quite flat-footed and plugging away.

“It makes sense now that she is running over 2000 or 2400 metres.

“Initially it seemed like she did not have the ability that some other horses had and having said that now, in her track work gallops - she has that turn of foot and she puts herself there.

“I think she just knows what she is doing now.”

Lehmann describes Gypsy Goddess as a happy and content horse as she builds into her racing career.

Following her first-up effort at Eagle Farm earlier this month, Gypsy Goddess has come on from that run, Lehmann says, her coat has improved ahead of the long trip to Sydney in the middle of this week.

Both Incentivise and Gypsy Goddess started their winning ways in Caloundra maidens and while the Vandyke filly is not yet a Group 1 winner, Wilson-Taylor believes she is just as impressive as Incentivise.

It is high praise for the smart young hoop to compare Gypsy Goddess to a three-time Group 1 champion – with potentially many more to come – but on her first-up effort earlier this month, he says she could be anything.

“She just went around them like they were nailed to the fence,” Wilson-Taylor said.

“The way she let go, that was a feeling I have never had before on a horse in a race.

“She toyed with them.

“Incentivise was a big gangly baby really and thrashed them, where as she has the brilliant turn of speed that you do not feel too often.

“It is very exciting.”

Lehmann and Gypsy Goddess departed the Sunshine Coast on Wednesday ahead of the Group 1 Vinery Stud Stakes on Saturday afternoon at Rosehill with the duo to remain south of the border until her next Group 1 assignment 14 days later.