Velvet Lady is looking good for the Summer Cup in Coffs Harbor

A rapidly improving provincial mare will take another step back towards group company when she tackles the Feature Summer Cup at Thursday’s strong Coffs Harbor meeting.

Velvet Lady, a four-year-old daughter of Victoria Derby winner Tarzino who is still lightly ridden and lives in Newcastle with Kris Lees, has been earmarked for much bigger competitions in the New Year.

She enters the Coffs feature third at Benchmark 66 level and longs for a longer journey.

Velvet Lady finished hard right behind the place winners as she continued at Port Macquarie in a more-than-handy BM 66 nearly seven weeks ago before working home over a mile late in a much deeper heat of the Provincial Summer Series.

Dropping in class, she gets out at 2013m in Coffs, in a race at her mercy, especially with top-tier country tire Aaron Bullock back in the saddle.

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Velvet Lady made such progress in the fall that she was thrown into Group 1 ATC Oaks 2400m at Randwick, where she was beaten wide on heavy ground before tackling Group 2 The Roses at Eagle Farm in late May.

It’s going to be a big day for this leading trainer/jockey combination, with top quality mare Terrameades also very hard to beat at a BM 66 handicap over 1313m.

The Irish-bred four-year-old signaled she was in good preparation as she stormed home in third place as she returned to a stronger affair at Wyong, with the horse finishing behind Terrameades than one at Randwick on Boxing Day Winning Metro BM 72.