‘Dream for all of us’: Trainers have faith in their Oaks filly

A spark provided in a Group 2 race in the spring has developed into a serious chance at a Group 1 win for a Wangaratta filly in Saturday’s Australasian Oaks in Adelaide.

Trainers John and Chris Ledger threw All Kinds Of Folk into top company at only her third start when testing the three-year-old on the Group 2 Edward Manifold Stakes at Flemington last October.

Too Darn Discreet won the race from Delichy Boulevard but All Kinds Of Folk belied her massive starting price when running hard into fourth despite being beaten in a Ballarat maiden at her previous outing.

“I think she had the fastest last 200m of that day at Flemington and was really hitting the line,” Chris Ledger said.

“That gave us plenty of confidence to keep pushing through.

“Pretty much from her first jumpout, she’s shown us that she had something there and she has just kept improving her whole life.”

Many observers would have ignored the run but the Ledgers kept All Kinds Of Folk progressing to the VRC Oaks to give her a grounding for what they believed would be a richer autumn preparation.

“We went into the Oaks knowing that she could run well but probably couldn’t beat Treasurethe Moment,” Ledger said.

“We thought she would improve during her spell and come back and we think she has done that.”

The duo refused the temptation to make a crucial gear change on the daughter of D’Argento until she had further matured ahead of her autumn campaign.

All Kinds Of Folk wore blinkers for her first-up fourth at Sandown in February before breaking her maiden in emphatic style at Benalla second-up.

“Sometimes you just question yourself but we’ve just believed in her and every time we’ve asked her to do something, she’s just stepped up,” Ledger said.

“This time in, winning by 12 lengths at Benalla was just in a maiden but you don’t see that every day.

“(Jockey) Blaike (McDougall) kept her going to the line at Benalla because we wanted her to have a good workout as we had planned to target Adelaide if she won there.”

All Kinds Of Folk showed she would be competitive in the Australasian Oaks when running on well to finish a narrow second to Cinch in the Group 3 Auraria Stakes (1800m).

Cinch finds the front early & clings on to take out the G3 Auraria Stakes for her third win in a row @LindsayParkRace pic.twitter.com/eOCfaJNncW

— Racing.com (@Racing) April 12, 2025

Bookies rated All Kinds Of Folk as a $9 chance in early Australasian Oaks betting.

Winning the Group 1 feature would end a long chase for John Ledger, who has raced some outstanding horses such as Group winners Brave Chief, Soleil and Mind Your Head without saluting at the highest level.

Ledger said the family was determined to change that status.

“Brave Chief won a Group 2 and John has won 16 Listed and black-type races like Group 2 and Group 3 races,” Ledger said.

“The best we’ve done in a Group 1 race is when Largo Lad ran fourth in a (Australian) Guineas.

“John’s brother George won a Galaxy with Rich Fields Lad in 1985 so we’ve been chasing pretty hard for many years to get to that level.

“It’s definitely a dream for all of us”

Copy: Brad Waters, Racenet