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By Ray Hickson

It’s been twice in defeat that trainer Kelly Schweida has formed the opinion that his filly El Morzillo is up to being competitive against the top fillies in Sydney so he hopes luck swings her way at Randwick on Saturday.

The Group 2 $300,000 Darley Furious Stakes (1200m) is a chance for the three-year-old to prove to Schweida she could be a force through the rest of the Princess Series and he just hopes she gets a clear shot.

That didn’t happen in the Inglis Millennium back in February, where she was cut out of a run at the 200m, or the Group 2 Percy Sykes in April when she flashed into fourth behind Eneeza and Lady Of Camelot.

“It was a high quality race she ran in last time and the Golden Slipper winner just beat us home,’’ Schweida said.

“Her best runs are when she’s ridden quiet and that’s come into play in Sydney.

“I think they were two of her better runs and in both those races she had no luck.”

In that $1 million race on Day 2 of The Star Championships, El Morzillo clocked the fastest last 600m of 33.36 (Punter's Intelligence) and her last 200m of 11.27 was over a length faster than anything else.

El Morzillo runs third in a Doomben trial on August 27

El Morzillo, $13 with TAB on Wednesday, followed her Percy Sykes fourth with three starts in the Queensland winter and was beaten 4-1/2 lengths by Broadsiding in the Group 1 JJ Atkins (1600m) where Schweida said she had to be ridden a little out of her comfort zone.

That race was on June 15 so it’s a quick turnaround and the filly has had the one trial leading into the Furious.

“There’s never a lot of time between drinks, you’ve got carnivals everywhere, we raced her in the carnival here and ran into Broadsiding. He’s a good horse,’’ he said.

“She had a trial the other day and I thought it was quite solid.

“She’s a clean winded little filly, Craig (Williams) goes back on board and she’s got a reasonable barrier but it’s a good race.”

Schweida said he has a couple of plans in the back of his mind for where to point El Morzillo this spring and he’d be less likely to want to tackle the boom filly Autumn Glow in the Tea Rose Stakes (1400m) in two weeks without a ‘1’, or at least a big performance, next to her name.

“Winning horses are easy to place but if you’re not winning you’ve got to plan your path,’’ he said.

“We’ll see whether she heads that way or a freshen up and skirt the edges. It all depends on how she measures up.

“I think she will run well, otherwise it’s a long way to go if you don’t think she will. She’s a filly and any black type is valuable to her but I’ll get more of an idea after Saturday.”

All the fields, form and replays for Saturday’s Randwick meeting