Will Getta Good Feeling ever race at 2000m again?

Just less than six months ago Getta Good Feeling was being touted as the best staying filly prospect in Australia.

The daughter of So You Think won the Group 2 Wakeful Stakes across 2000m in the spring before backing up as the $1.70 favourite with Sportsbet for the prestigious VRC Crown Oaks (2500m).

Despite the short price, the Danny O’Brien-trained filly finished sixth by 6.25 lengths, but pundits weren’t questioning her staying ability yet.

When the bay returned in the autumn, punters were against Getta Good Feeling in her first-up run – a 1200m sprint. She closed as a $21 outsider, however, bolted in like a heavy favourite would to win by 0.5 lengths.

Then in her second-up run across 1600m, the three-year-old won as a $1.45 favourite, however failed to back up that form in the million-dollar Australasian Oaks (2000m).

Now, losing as a $2.50 fancy in that 2000m Group 1, questions are being raised regarding the filly's future: Will Getta Good Feeling ever race at 2000m again?

Speaking on SENTrack & RSN’s Giddy Up, expert racing analysts Clint Hutchison and Miles Pfitzner provided their opinions on the debate.

Hutchison: “I don't know if it will be the last time, but I think it's a fair call when you see the horse win fresh-up at 1200m, show that dash, and then be very explosive over a mile.”

Pfitzner: “I don't know why the question is being asked about 2000m when you see this horse has come through winning a Wakeful, like a Group 2 Wakeful.”

Hutchison: “I know you said she’s won over 2000m, but that was back in the spring, and the eventual Oaks winner (Strictly Business) closed the gap there. I felt that she wasn't quite as impressive.

“Then of course she got turned over in the Oaks.

“I must admit I thought maybe she is better suited to a shorter distance. I don't know if she's quite as good over the 2000m at this point.”

Respected tipster David “Gator” Gately also agreed with Hutchison’s take, using a human-based analogy, explaining that it is biologically impossible for an athlete to be both a world-class marathon runner and sprinter.

“I agree with everything you’ve said. I think your point's really salient, Hutch,” Gator agreed.

“No human I've ever seen can run a marathon in two hours, then run 100m in 11 seconds. You can't be both.

“You can't have fast and slow twitch (muscle fibres), right?

“So, when she's winning that well at 1200m, going into Saturday, that was the asterisk in the back of my head - has she got enough endurance to be strong enough to win at 2000m?

“It's exactly the same conversation with Autumn Glow."

Hutchison followed up Gator’s statement by claiming that perhaps pundits like himself may have overestimated her staying abilities.

“As Gator has pointed out with that sprint race, when she won fresh-up, we're all thinking, ‘Wow, what a preparation she's in for’,” Hutchison continued.

“And then I suppose in the fullness of time, you go back and you look at things and you see them a little more clearly.

“I would say that they can probably target some shorter distance races for her.”