David Vandyke was so concerned about the ability of group 1 contender Gypsy Goddess, a horse with a rare jaw condition associated with turf greats Kingston Town and Dulcify, he was considering selling her if she didn’t measure up on debut.

Queensland’s unbeaten star filly has strung together five wins to begin her career and is poised to start favourite in the Vinery Stud Stakes at Rosehill on Saturday, but only after being so despised as a “parrot-mouthed” yearling she was passed in for $20,000.

The malformation involves a horse’s top jaw developing too long or lower jaw being too short, and it has long been a turn-off for horse buyers. It relegated Gypsy Goddess to the second book of the Karaka yearling sale in 2020, and meant she was one of the last horses to go through the ring from more than 1100 lots given her dam Invisible Coin was relegated in the alphabetical placement.

“By the time she was due to go through the ring there was only the bloke with the long handle dustpan and broom sweeping up cigarette butts,” respected veterinarian and Gypsy Goddess part-owner Dr Chris Lawler said with a laugh. “There was nobody there.

″⁣A couple of great horses have had [parrot mouth]; Dulcify was one and Kingston Town was another. In the olden days it was always seen as a concern because horses have a problem maintaining their weight if they’re just grazing on pasture. This was before horses started to be hand fed with corn and oats or whatever. It’s a bit of a hangover from the aversion people had with them, but the reality is a lot of horses have been built in a similar manner.″⁣

Few people expected Gypsy Goddess to turn out as good as she has on the track either, trouncing a moderate three-year-old field at Eagle Farm first up to earn favouritism for the Vinery Stud Stakes on her way to the Australian Oaks. Gypsy Goddess was a $4.20 equal top pick with Sportsbet on Thursday, sharing the same line of betting as Surround Stakes winner Hinged.

“David sent us a message before her first start and he said, ‘She hasn’t beaten anything on the track, so we’re hoping she can stay. She’s in a pretty ordinary field. They might be older horses, but she’s going around and, if we can’t beat half the field home, I think we’re going to have a discussion on Monday about maybe putting her online’,” Lawler said.

″⁣She won comfortably and gave everyone a bit of a thrill and surprise – none more so than David. And none of us expected that type of performance [last start]. We all know they weren’t world beaters, but she circumnavigated the field and won as she liked. It was goosebumps type of stuff.

″⁣There are no illusions about Saturday – we’re jumping up that many grades it’s not funny; we’re taking on the best fillies. You hope on the dam side she might have inherited some ability to get through a really wet track.″⁣