Unbeaten NSW filly One Hard Lady earns chance to test herself at Flemington on Saturday

News.com.au

15-05-2025

Performance has trumped personality with unbeaten filly One Hard Lady, who will make her Melbourne debut at Flemington on Saturday.
One Hard Lady has won her three starts over the border in NSW but will head south for her biggest test to date in Saturday's TAB We're On (1100m) down the Flemington straight.
Despite One Hard Lady's impressive start to her career, trainer Donna Scott said the three-year-old has not attracted much attention around her Albury stable.
'She's a filly that flies under the radar at home,' Scott said.
'It's a bit funny. In stables, everyone picks a favourite but nobody picks her out as a favourite.
'She just does her thing.
'She doesn't have a great personality, which is why she hasn't got any of the strappers to make their favourite but she's really low maintenance.
'She's really easy to work with.'
One Hard Lady earned her trip to Melbourne by easily beating a field that included the stakes-placed Reasonable Point in a Class 3 race at Albury last month.
Scott was unsure how that form would stack up against the city three-year-olds but she was happy to travel south to find out.
'She's always worked well but she's never been one that we thought would win three in a row,' Scott said.
'I think she's been in the right races but she's done it impressively and keeps stepping up to the plate.
'It will be interesting to see how the form does compare to those horses of Moody's and Hayes's in a Benchmark 70 race.
'We'll know a lot more come Saturday.'
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One Hard Lady has already banked more than $60,000 for her owners in her three provincial starts.
However, Scott said the daughter of All Too Hard took some work to get to the races.
'We had some issues with her in the barriers,' Scott said.
'She'd go into the barriers fine at home but it would come to trials and she would just refuse to go in so we had to do a bit of work with her on that.
'Other than that, she's been pretty much push-button.'
Scott has made successful raids on Flemington races in the past, winning the Listed AR Creswick Stakes in 2020 with Lord Von Costa, who is closely related to One Hard Lady.
Scott said a pleasing Flemington performance could lead to One Hard Lady tackling the 2025 edition of the three-year-old feature in July.
'This is only her first prep but we thought she'd be worth a crack at a harder race,' Scott said.
'Hopefully she has got something left for Saturday.'
Scott's son-in-law Blaike McDougall will ride One Hard Lady at Flemington.
Bookmakers rated One Hard Lady as a $4.40 chance to stay unbeaten in the opening race of Saturday's card.