Etoile Filante Avondale Cup bound

1 February 2014

WS graduate Etoile Filante returned an ideal dress rehearsal for an upcoming Group Two test when she posted the fifth win of her 11-start career at Te Rapa today. The Pins four-year-old’s victory in the Haliton Cup in her open class debut has confirmed plans to shoot for a higher prize at Ellerslie on February 15.

“This was a lead-up to the Avondale Cup and that’s always been the plan and we’ll see what happens after that,” co-trainer Peter Williams said. “I don’t think she’s a real two mile (3200m) horse at the moment – she might be later on and I don’t want to over-tax her too much.”

Etoile Filante was bred by WS with David Williams, who races the daughter of the Zabeel mare Etoile Du Nord. The Matamata stud sold her O’Reilly colt for $75,000 during last week’s Premier Sale at Karaka and two years previously a brother realised $160,000.

The Corner with Garry Chittick

I don’t know if the two of you have ever had the thrill of travelling at high speed across the water on a single ski, totally dependent on the driver of the boat. Fall off and you are left treading water, reminds you of racing. Here we are, with multiple hints of navigation hanging on to the rope hoping for salvation.

20 May 2026

Icebath’s half-sister goes back-to-back

Well-bred mare Superfabulistic (Super Seth ex Fabulist) continued her rise through the grades at Warwick Farm on Wednesday, making it back-to-back victories with a strong performance in the Precise Air Handicap (1600m).