The smart mare Adiella will be looking for back-to-back wins when she tackles Group 1 company for the first time in the Tatts Tiara at Eagle Farm on Saturday.
The four-year-old daughter of The Mission outgunned the Ciaron Maher trained Vivy Air in her last start when claiming victory in the $500,000 Magic Millions National Classic … cementing a huge win for trainer John Dann, who keeps a small, but competitive stable where he currently has only four horses in training.
In her run prior to that Adiella had caught the eye with a second-place finish in Group 3 company, coming home just under half-a-length behind the Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott trained Pulchritudinous, a horse she then came out and beat by 3.75 lengths in the National Classic.
Both of those results were achieved from very wide barriers, adding more credit to those performances.
Even her effort two runs back in the Listed Silk Stocking at the Gold Coast when Adiella ‘began awkwardly and lost ground’ … according to the stewards report … was a great effort as she ultimately finished in fifth spot, 1.30 lengths behind the well performed Floozie who is currently on an unbeaten four-race winning streak … and that was on a bog track where it was difficult to make up ground from behind.
So, in essence, Adiella has been all over the result in recent times making her tilt at a Group 1 contest well worth a throw at the stumps.
“She pulled well after her win. Coming back from 1600m to 1400m shouldn’t be a drama. It should be ok … we’ve got three weeks in-between runs and she’s freshened up nicely,” said Dann.
“We haven’t had to do a lot with her … just keep her ticking over that’s all … because she’s got a lot of residual fitness.
“She is just a big mare. She is good on the ground but, when you gallop her, she gets on it … she just wants to get going.
“In that sense, she is a big aggressive mare, and she always carries her head a bit in the side. It’s just a habit she has got into. The stewards report will say she was wanting to hang in, but when the jockeys come in and you ask them … they say, no … that’s just the way she carries her head.
“They are individuals. They’ve all got their own characteristics.
“She deserves her shot at it. She’s been racing well, and she’s come a long way in a short time.”
Nikita Beriman, who has ridden Adiella in four of her last five starts, will be in the saddle again on Saturday.
“Nikita got on her at the big QTIS race-day at the Gold Coast (The QTIS Jewel day) before the March sales and she just got beat on her. The 1200m was probably a bit too short for her … and Nikita pretty much stuck with her ever since and hasn’t done anything wrong.
“The only time Nikita hasn’t been on her since that Gold Coast run in March was when she had a big weight and we wanted to claim.” (That turned out to be a winning run with Tahlia Fenlon in the saddle).
“Nikita’s being going well on her and she will be riding her on Saturday,” confirmed Dann.
Adiella will go into the Tatts Tiara with a really good strike-rate having landed six wins from fourteen starts … with four minor placings also on her record and a tasty $533,150 banked in prize-money.
