Stokes: Instant Celebrity 'a G1 horse'

Instant Celebrity is two lengths off already being a Group 1 winner, but her trainer has 'no doubt' she's up to that grade. The three-year-old filly placed third in this year's Thousand Guineas in October, finishing 1.95 lengths behind Odeum, but Phillip Stokes is sure her time will come. "I think she's a Group 1 horse. No doubt. I don't say that very often, but I do rate her as a Group 1 horse," Stokes said. "What distance does she run? I still think she can run a mile." The Not A Single Doubt filly headed to the paddock following the Guineas run and she'll remain there until the new year ahead of a late autumn campaign, ruling her out of the Melbourne G1s "We're giving her a good break just to do some maturing, so she'll be out for another four, five or six weeks," Stokes said. "You won't see her in Melbourne, no." Her exact targets are still to be determined but it's likely she'll be headed for the lucrative Sydney Carnival to chase that G1 Stokes believes she's destined for. "We have a few picked out but we've still got to get there," he said. "We might look at something later in the Sydney Carnival and then we have also got Adelaide and Brisbane as back-ups."

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