Six-year-old Little Darling warmed up for the $150,000 Westral Mares Classic next Friday night in splendid style with a superb victory in the $27,000 prelude of the rich feature event at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
Having her fourth start for Ravenswood trainer Cameron Ross, Little Darling ($4.50) carried too many guns when she easily accounted for her seven rivals, rating 1.56.5 over 2130m after speeding over the final 400m sections in 27.9sec. and 28.2sec.
And the win was even more impressive, considering that Little Darling’s driver Jocelyn Young abandoned her pre-race plans and gave the mare the task of racing without cover before going on to win by 4m from Heavenly Gipsy ($3.20), with Madam Publisher ($6.50) a head away in third place after being badly blocked for a run in the final stages. The pacemaker and $3.10 favourite Sweet Vivienne faded to finish fourth.
A week earlier Little Darling failed in a bid for the early lead after a fast lead time of 34.7sec. and then worked hard in the breeze outside the frontrunning Heavenly Gipsy in the Norms Daughter Classic. It quickly developed into an up-tempo race and Litte Darling wilted to finish in eighth place, with Penny Black winning from Aardiebytheseaside.
Ross and Young planned to give Little Darling a more comfortable trip on Friday night, but Young made a snap decision to change her tactics when the early pace was extremely slow.
Little Darling had settled down in seventh position in the one-wide line before Young switched the mare three wide after about 370m and assumed the breeze position. The lead time was a dawdling 38.1sec.
“I didn’t want to do all the work in the breeze, but the pace was pretty slow, and I thought it would be harder for us if I remained back in the field and faced the prospect of being forced out wide,” explained Young.
Ross said he was delighted to take over the training of Little Darling about two months ago when the mare’s owner and trainer Barry Howlett asked him if he would agree to accepting the task.
“I jumped at the chance to train her,” said Ross. “I think that Barry wasn’t fond of driving up from Busselton to Gloucester Park and back home again every Friday night. I’m now looking forward to Little Darling tackling Penny Black, Aardiebytheseaside, Heavenly Gipsy and company next week.”
