Buoyed by another fruitful weekend, Chris and Corey Munce are aiming to put the icing on their most successful season to date when mares Gerringong and Poster Girl contest the Tattersall's Tiara (G1) June 27 at Eagle Farm Racecourse.
The stable's second Ipswich Cup triumph was the highlight of a weekend which produced four victories and two minor placings from their eight runners, and the father and son training team are determined to maintain that momentum into the final group 1 race day of the 2025-26 season.
Poster Girl, a model of consistency with six wins and five placings from her 20 starts, has been under the care of Team Munce since the start of her career but Gerringong only arrived in the yard in late autumn, having previously campaigned for Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott. However, the 4-year-old mare made an instant impression on her stable debut with an eye-catching runner-up finish in the Dane Ripper Stakes (G2) 10 days ago.
Gerringong made light of the unsuitably heavy ground that day but she should be better suited by a firmer surface Saturday, and the same applies to stablemate Poster Girl who ran a gallant fourth in the Dane Ripper behind She's Got Pizzazz.
"This race has obviously been very good to me in the past and we think we have two live chances this year in Gerringong and Poster Girl," he told ANZ News.
"They've both got a very good turn of foot so if they get a dry track, it definitely advantages them. Barriers will obviously play a big part as they always do in these group 1 races with big fields, but we've booked two very good jockeys in Nash Rawiller (Gerringong) and Martin Harley (Poster Girl) so I'm sure they'll be able to work it out on the day."
Gerringong was bred by Strawberry Hill Stud, which in late 2023 was acquired by Coolmore, and as such she sports the distinctive blue and white colors of advertising and media entrepreneur John Singleton. The mare's high-profile ownership group also includes rugby league legends Mick Cronin, Bob O'Reilly and Peter Wynn, who in the 1970s and '80s won eight premierships between them for the Parramatta Eels.
"She's been stakes-placed in the past, but she still has the opportunity to win some good races, and of course, the main aim is to get a group 1 win on her CV. She's been a pretty straightforward mare to train, and she has settled in very well at our stables. She's very sound and healthy, and she enjoys her work, but we were probably a little bit behind the eight-ball early on because the winter carnival was already underway when we got her.
"So we were up against it to get her ready in time, but she's such a tough mare that she's handled the work that we've had to put into her quite comfortably. This race has always been her grand final this prep, so we'll probably look to give her a freshen-up after Saturday and then think about what races we might target in Sydney or Melbourne in the spring."
