Bright Future For Talented Hera

Promising filly Hera showed a measure of her family’s two-year-old ability with a strong win at New Plymouth on Saturday. The Garry Chittick-bred daughter of O’Reilly handled testing track conditions with ease to post the first victory of her career.

A $28,000 yearling purchase out of WS’s Select draft at Karaka last year for trainer Roger James, she is out of the Centaine mare Corsica and is a sister to the Hong Kong winner Telecom Top Star. It is also the family of the former champion juvenile and dual Gr 1 Ellerslie and Manawatu Sires’ Produce Stakes winner Ballroom Babe.

Placed at her three previous starts for James’ long-time owners Ron and Fran Dixon, Hera was given the perfect ride today by Darryl Bradley. They sat fourth on the outer before lengthening stride in the run home to win comfortably.