Long Face Grace heads to Pinker Pinker Plate after Moonee Valley win

  In form mare Long Face Grace will contest the $100,000 Pinker Pinker Plate at Cranbourne on Friday night after her good win under the lights at Moonee Valley on September 25.

The win was the second in four starts this preparation for the mare whose somewhat amusing name belies her true competitive nature.

The lightly raced Long Face Grace has shown a great will to win in each of her six starts (finishing out of a place on just one occasion) and her win at Moonee Valley was no different battling out the finish with an equally determined Billie Frechette to prevail by a short neck.

She meets that mare again on Friday night, though worse off at the weights, as well as third place getter Bet You She Rocks.

She will also have to compete with her slightly higher rated stable mate Spanish Love, a former Flemington winner who has been racing well of late without winning. A daughter of High Chaparral Spanish Love should appreciate the step up to the 2080 metres of the Pinker Pinker Plate a race named in honour of the Cox Plate winner of 2011 who was trained locally at Cranbourne but died tragically in April 2012.

Spanish Love and Long Face Grace will have each other for company drawn out in barriers ten and eleven. Their respective racing patterns suggest they will part company after they jump with Long Face Grace likely to go forward while Spanish Love should settle further back and be running on late.