Promising youngster Rumour Has It caused a minor upset when she finished determinedly to beat the $1.20 favourite Blackjack Baby in the $25,000 Western Crown for two-year-old fillies at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
The David Young-trained Blackjack Baby was considered a certainty by most punters after winning at her first four starts, including a runaway eight-length victory over smart gelding Soho Gigolo the previous Friday night.
Blackjack Baby, driven by Ryan Warwick, began speedily from the No. 5 barrier, with Chris Lewis restraining Rumour Has It (a $5 chance) from barrier six to last place in the field of six. Lewis eased Rumour Has It off the pegs with about 1200m to travel and the filly raced in the breeze in the final circuit before finishing gamely to hit the front in the final 15m. In the home straight Blackjack Baby veered in and contacted four marker pegs.
Rumour Has It, bred, owned and trained by Debra Lewis, is by American stallion Roll With Joe and is out of the Christian Cullen New Zealand-bred mare Roustabout, whose two wins from eight starts in WA in 2006 included a notable triumph over top-flight mares Precious Maiden and Sovereign Beejay in the group 3 Empress Stakes.
Rumour Has It is a half-sister to handy WA performers Arousing (11 wins, 32 placings and $119,663), Just A Horse (ten wins, 28 placings and $77,234) and Loving You (ten wins, 20 placings and $97,229). The highlight of Loving You’s 59-start career was her third behind the brilliant Frith in the 2013 WA Oaks.
