Lured to Sydney ... Liam Birchley.

Lured to Sydney ... Liam Birchley. Photo: Tertius Pickard



BRISBANE trainer Liam Birchley has flying two-year-old Missy Longstocking set to strut her stuff in Saturday's Calaway Gal Stakes at Eagle Farm but he will be 1000 kilometres away at Rosehill.


Stayer Trajet has lured Birchley to Sydney for the Christmas Cup but he will be finding a television to watch the unbeaten Sequalo filly, which cost him just $7500 as a weanling.


Missy Longstocking has won her starts at Toowoomba and Doomben to be labelled Queensland's best hope in next month's Magic Millions Classic.


Her seven-length win at Eagle Farm might have only been against four rivals but was the second-fastest 1000m by a two-year-old in the past 20 years, surpassed only by General Nediym.


It was enough to have Damien Browne rest up this week after a fall at the Sunshine Coast on Sunday to be right to ride her.


''It's a bit of a step up for her on Saturday but she's very promising and she looks the right horse for the Magic Millions,'' Browne said. ''I'm not too sure if she could've gone much quicker [at Eagle Farm] because she's a naturally free-running horse but she carried 58kg and the horse she beat had some good raps on her going into that race.


''She can be a little bit slow out of the barriers, just half a length or so, but she musters speed very quickly and because that was only her second start you would expect her to get better with that experience under her belt.''


The Magic Millions Classic picture will become clearer this week with the Phelan Ready Stakes for colts and geldings also on at Eagle Farm, and the Wyong Magic Millions on Thursday.


Gai Waterhouse's Certitude, a runaway winner on debut, heads the entries for Wyong and Robert Smerdon is likely to send impressive Moonee Valley winner Calcutta north for $200,000 feature. Wyong will also be the starting point for this year's Magic Millions winner Driefontein, which will run in the $100,000 three-year-olds' race.