Bonavista Bay scores another easy win in the MHRC Victoria Sires Classic
Boom colt Bonavista Bay continued his merry march towards February’s Alabar Victoria Derby with another win, this time in the $40,000 MHRC Victoria Sires Classic at Moonee Valley.
The Emma Stewart-trained star made it eight wins in a row when he overcame the outside barrier in a small six-horse field to score a soft win in Saturday night's 2100m Vicbred feature.
While nowhere near as dominant as the previous week’s 20-metre stroll in the park, the son of Rustler Hanover was still able to do as he pleased, scoring by seven metres from $32 chance Cool And Casual with a weakening Ananz three metres back in third spot.
Stewart paid Bonavista Bay one of the highest compliments possible when she compared him to her Smythes Creek stable’s recently-retired superstar Safari.
“He shows a lot similar attributes to what Safari had and we just hope that he can turn out as good as him or maybe even a little bit better,” she said.
While a big call, it’s hard to rule out. Those who took the skinny odds about Bonavista Bay ($1.20) tonight never had a moment’s worry with driver Chris Alford content to sit outside leader Ananz ($3.60).
After a 62-second first half of the last mile, it was during a 27.8-second third quarter that Bonavista Bay served it up to Ananz and he had the race won by the time the field swung for home.
He gradually pulled away from his rivals in a 28.8-second last quarter for a 1:59.6 win.
Stewart said Bonavista Bay, now a winner of eight of his 10 starts, would progress to the $150,000 Alabar Victoria Derby on February 7 before crossing the Tasman to have a crack at the $600,000 Northern Derby in Auckland on March 6.
“We’ll head to the (Victoria) Derby with him now and then hopefully head across to New Zealand and try and pull that one off,” she said.
