Magical result for gun filly
FAIRY Magic looks set for a bright future following an emphatic win in Launceston on Sunday.
The Sarah Cotton-trained three-year-old filly made an impressive debut in Hobart last month, but this latest win overshadowed the debut effort even though the winning margin was smaller.
Fairy Magic led throughout to win by almost six lengths on debut in a field of 11, but Sunday’s triumph came in a field of only six that included two very handy and well-performed fillies in Vetlanda and Dawn Eagle.
Vetlanda led but South Australian apprentice Lizzie Annells also was keen to assume control and eventually forced Codi Jordan to cede on Vetlanda.
When the field hit the home straight, Annells allowed her mount more rein and she bounded clear and went on to win comfortably from Dawn Eagle with Fighting Styx third ahead of a tiring Vetlanda.
“I wasn’t quite sure how she would go at her first start on the track, because she is quite a gawky horse who looks at everything that’s new to her and I thought it might break her concentration, but I needn’t have been worried,”
Cotton said. “I had a good idea that she was a bit special very early on and what she has done so far suggests she is above average. She will have a spell now and hopefully come back stronger and better next preparation.”
Annells, who has been riding with mixed success in Tasmania
for the past two months, described the filly as “exciting”.
“When I rode this filly on debut in Hobart, she gave me a good feel and today she felt like she had improved, so I’m sure Sarah has a very good filly on her hands,” the jockey said.
The talented rider had a rough start to her Tasmanian experience, as she explained.
“I ended up in hospital the first time I rode here and the next two times I came over I had flight issues and today the flight was on time, but they misplaced my luggage, so I’ve had to borrow gear to ride today,” she said. WELL-TRAVELLED mare Off Peak ($26) was about to head to the breeding barn but an all-the-way win in a class three handicap may have put that on hold.
It was a heady ride by apprentice Erica Byrne-Burke who allowed the mare to sneak a couple early sectionals that allowed her to be saved for a final run.
Off Peak raced in Victoria with the Shay Keating stable where she managed to win a maiden from 37 starts before the mare made her way to John Luttrell’s stable at Brighton in April last year.
She won at her second start for Luttrell, a class one in Hobart over 1400m, leading throughout with Codi Jordan aboard but eight subsequent outings proved fruitless.
“I was contacted by the owner who said the mare was about to head to stud but now that she has won like she did they might change their mind,” Spreyton trainer Yassy Nishitani said.