Bart Cummings’ mid-season surge with his young racing stock continued with debutante Empress Rock at Warwick Farm on Sunday.
Cummings has produced three first starters from his juvenile team in the past nine days for a 100 per cent winning record.
His run started under lights with Do You Think at Canterbury then Golden Slipper-bound colt Salade became the middle pin after his Pago Pago Stakes win on Saturday.
A daughter of Fastnet Rock, Empress Rock was bred by Cummings and his long-time client and friend Dato Tan Chin Nam and took out the Resimac Handicap (1000m).
“She is out of a half-sister to (champion Hong Kong sprinter) Silent Witness so she is beautifully-bred,” Dato Tan’s bloodstock and racing manager Duncan Ramage said.
Producing a brilliant turn of foot to put the race beyond doubt, Empress Rock defied a $4.60 to $7 betting drift to score a 2-3/4 length win over Cloud Valley ($8) with Caesar’s Princess ($8) the same margin away third.
Jockey Hugh Bowman said Empress Rock would graduate to better class races in time.
“Give her six months and she’ll be up with the best … she’s not there yet but she will get there in time,” he said.
“From her trials she has taken big strides in a short space of time.”
Meanwhile, carnival plans for Rasperries may be revised after her determined win in the Comfort Inn Hunts Liverpool Handicap (1600m).
“She’s had a long preparation but she just keeps putting in,” trainer Peter Snowden said.
“How far we go now we’ll just wait and see and have a think about.”
Rasperries sustained a long run to hold off Song Shan in a driving finish.
AAP TURF
