Smart effort from promising filly
The well-related Smart Love (ex Relentless Desire) has made an encouraging start to her career and a step up in trip at Te Rapa this afternoon delivered her maiden success.
The daughter of Savabeel had finished runner-up in both of her previous spring outings at Taupo and over 1600 metres she went one better.
Prepared by Lance O’Sullivan and Andrew Scott, the Waikato Stud-bred and raced Smart Love settled fourth away from the fence before rider Masa Hashizume peeled wide before the turn.
The three-year-old strode to the front 250 metres from home and had enough in reserve to justify expectations.
“We thought she was Wexford Stables’ best of the day, everything added up,” Scott said.
“She’s a beautiful, big filly who can only get better.”
Smart Love is a daughter of the O’Reilly mare Relentless Desire and is a brother to the winner Incessant, an $850,000 Karaka graduate who now races in Hong Kong as Bucephalas.
Relentless Desire, who is due to foal to Noverre, is a half-sister to the four-time Group 1 winner Metal Bender and the family of the G1 New Zealand Oaks heroine Amarelinha.
Ardrossan’s Group 1-placed darling wins A$300,000 Gr.2 HKJC World Pool Wakeful Stakes
Second and fourth in 1600m Group 1 races in her two previous starts since being purchased privately by OTI Racing and stepping out in Australia under Chris Waller’s racing banner, De Armas (Ardrossan) stepped up in distance at Flemington on Saturday and opened her Australian account in style in the A$300,000 Gr.2 HKJC World Pool Wakeful Stakes (2000m) on Derby Day.
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The Corner with Garry Chittick
The writing of my Corner started many years ago, motivated by an irritation that I felt needed scratching. It was never my intention to make my commentary regular; neither did I intend to reinvent the direction of racing administration. It is both disappointing and ironical that what should be a simple, straightforward business provides a regular need for comment.
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