Cyclone blows her rivals off the Park
MACKAY filly Cyclone Topgirl has lived up to her stellar reputation with an all- the- way victory in the Townsville RSL Two- Year- Old Classic ( 1200m) at Cluden Park on Saturday.
Cyclone Topgirl ($ 1.85 favourite) was all the rage with punters for North Queensland’s richest two- year- old race, having won six of seven starts, and showed her class from the jump.
Trainer Lyle Wright claimed the quinella in the first feature race of the Townsville Winter Carnival, with Last Chance ($ 18) running on strong for second ahead of Our Alicia’s Lane ($ 16) for Charters Towers trainer Ben Williams.
Wright had some reservations about Cyclone Topgirl’s fitness after giving her a month to freshen up, but he said he could not have asked for a better run from his star filly.
“I couldn’t really put her in another handicap before the set weight race because she would have had probably 62kg,” Wright said.
“Even though she’d done plenty of work, there’s nothing like having an- other run under her belt … couldn’t be any happier.”
Jockey Nathan Day also won last year’s Classic aboard Rockhampton filly Paradis Imperial and he was in sensational form as he rode the first three winners on the card.
The veteran hoop has ridden Cyclone Topgirl in all bar one of her starts – when she finished second on debut – but he said the filly’s talent meant he just had to “ride and steer”.
“I was really confident. I thought she’d win by two lengths,” Day said.
“She could be anything. It was a matter of turning up,.”
Wright said he will wait to see how ( but) I Cyclone Topgirl recovers from the Classic before deciding her next move, but he hoped she still had another big victory in her this prep.
“There’s another set weight race in Rockhampton in about four weeks where she’ll probably still go round with 55kg again. All going well that’s where we’ll head with her,” he said.
It was a successful meeting for Mackay trainers on Saturday as Olivia Cairns combined with Day for a race- to- race double, with Springthorpe ($ 5.50) taking out the Three- YearOld Handicap ( 1300m) before Ambitious Ex ($ 18) caused an upset in the Maiden Plate ( 1300m).