Im Stylish winning her Diamond Classic Heat. Photo by Jodie Hallows
9 fillies have emerged from the 4 heats of the 2016 Group 1 Diamond Classic with a host of chances now awaiting the all-important barrier draw.
Red Hot Roxy was the first to place her name on the selection sheet with a dominating all-the-way win in a comfortable mile-rate of 2:00.4. After leading easily from barrier 7, Gary Hall Jnr was never challenged and let the Group 1 winner slide down the home straight to score by 11.5m to the Colin Brown trained and reined Mint Edition.
Red Hot Roxy’s Byford trainer Katja Warwick was pleased with how her filly came through the heat.
“She’s always very confident and that’s how she races… She did it in style today”
Third across the line was Allamerican Queen who went back at the start and made up good ground in the run to the line.
Heat 2 saw another $1.10 favourite qualify for the $100,000 final. Im Stylish for trainer-driver Justin Prentice was impressive in its 1:58.9 win over Callan Suvaljko’s filly Flying Margarita.
Flying Margarita showed early dash to force the favourite to sit parked for the journey, but with a flick of the reins Im Stylish ran straight past her opposition and won by 2.2m.
“I really like her, she won tonight easy with the plugs still in… she only does what she has too” – Justin Prentice.
Doalittlerocknroll fought on well from the rear to claim third in a tight finish.
Angel Bromac rewarded favourite punters yet again with a win in it’s first start in a race. After impressive trails the Mach Three filly showed nice early burn to get to the front and raced clear in the home stretch - 9.2m clear of Miss Twiggy Whitby who will need to trial to the stewards satisfaction after causing a false start.
Kim Prentice who trains Angel Bromac said post race his horse has some improvement under her belt after battling a virus during the week.
“Her work was super but I ran a blood (scan) just to check everything and she had a virus so she missed some work last week”
She stopped the clock at 1:57.6 with Kellyann Marie in third who enters the final field of 9 runners as the fastest third place-getter of the night.
Beach Goddess took out Heat 4 and won like the $1.10 favourite she was sent out at. Finding the front from barrier 1, the winner of four races from seven starts was never headed and won easily for trainer Mike Reed.
“I think if she gets a draw she will be very hard to beat… I wouldn’t swap her for any other filly that’s for sure”
Lady Luca came from last at the 400m mark to run into second and qualify - giving trainer Justin Prentice two hopes at holding up the Diamond Classic trophy.
“She’s a really nice race-horse. She has great manners which helps a lot for 2yo fillies. If she gets a draw she is in with a chance”
