Payne daring to dream after Proxima Dea’s ‘special’ Oaks win
Proxima Dea had every right to falter at the 2500m staying distance of the VRC Oaks but her superior staying qualities have her veteran trainer David Payne pondering a Melbourne Cup.
From the time Proxima Dea won her first start at 50-1, veteran trainer David Payne has maintained his diminutive filly was a better stayer than his former stable star, four-time Group 1 winner Montefilia.
Nearly four months and five starts later, “special” three-year-old Proxima Dea proved her trainer’s prediction might just be right, overcoming a three- and four-wide course to win the Group 1 VRC Oaks.
Drawing on all the stamina that Sydney-based expatriate South African trainer Payne believes Proxima Dea possesses, the Tarzino filly and her jockey Zac Lloyd pushed forward from barrier 15 but, for all but about 200m, they were caught wide.
Proxima Dea hit the lead about 350m from home and despite appearing vulnerable to the chasers, she ran out the 2500m trip with aplomb, winning by 1.75 lengths.
In doing so, she stretched her unbeaten streak to six, adding the Group 1 Oaks to her last-start Spring Champion Stakes success.
Her former stablemate Montefilia was also able to win the Group 1 Spring Champion in Sydney, but was denied in the 2020 VRC Oaks, finishing third behind Personal and Salto Angel.
On Thursday, Proxima Dea, the $2.10 favourite, defeated the Rob Blacker-trained Shameful Impulse with Wakeful Stakes-winning filly De Armas finishing third.
“She’s such a good mover and I think she doesn’t spend an ounce of energy. She’s bred to stay and from day one I said the Oaks and I stuck to it,” Payne said.
“Maybe I should have gone for the Derby, I don’t know. But she’ll go for a holiday now, she deserves it.
“This is her first prep, she’s won six in a row and two Group 1s.”
Lloyd was in awe of what Proxima Dea was able to achieve given the circumstances of the race.
“She’s unbelievable. That was spine tingling. She jumped really well and there was a bit of jostling for a spot early and I didn’t want to be the one working into that (first) bend,” Lloyd said.
“I came out of the speed knowing that I might get caught wide, but I was hoping the speed would increase down the side and have my chance to get in.
“I had to take what I was given and trust I was on the best stayer on the day, and that she was.”
Lloyd added: “I felt one challenge at about the 200-300m mark but she just kept getting stronger and stronger and 50m later that horse was gone, so she’s a proper star.”
By New Zealand’s Westbury Stud-based stallion Tarzino, Proxima Dea is a sister to 2022 Queensland Oaks winner Gypsy Goddess, the pair among the six winners produced by their Redoute’s Choice dam Invisible Coin.
She was offered at the 2025 Inglis Australian Yearling Sale where she was knocked down to Ciaron Maher Racing for her reserve price of $300,000.
When Maher’s team was struggling to sell shares in the coat-hanger-like filly, her breeders, the Transtasman Breeders syndicate members Andy Giles, Hugh Cocherty, Caroline Vincent and Richard Kurland, took her back and sent her to Payne to be trained.
Payne is glad they did, with the trainer dreaming of a Melbourne Cup for Proxima Dea, something he never even considered when she first joined his Rosehill stable.
“It’s not a beauty parade, but when she first came into the yard, we looked at her and I thought, ‘Gee, there’s nothing of her’, but she’s tough,” he said.
As Proxima Dea heads to the spelling paddock, any thoughts of retirement have also been put on hold by Payne.
“I want to win the Melbourne Cup, so maybe I’ll have to hang in there,” he said.
Invisible Coin was sold by Transtasman Breeders via Inglis Digital in July last year, with agent Paul Willetts buying her for Three Bridges Thoroughbreds for $200,000.
The daughter of Redoute’s Choice has an Anamoe yearling colt and a foal at foot by Darley’s Newmarket Handicap-winning sprinter Cylinder.
Gypsy Goddess was bought privately by Northern Farm’s Katsumi Yoshida at the end of her racing career and was exported to Japan in September 2023.
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