Warwick Farm-based trainer Joe Pride has another quality three-year-old on his hands after Ballistic Lover won the Denise’s Joy Stakes at Rosehill on Saturday.
It was an impressive victory, and an equally impressive ride from Regan Bayliss, as the filly led from start to finish to claim the Listed feature.
It was the daughter of Smart Missile’s fifth win from 11 career starts, taking her total prizemoney to over $280,000.
Pride was confident in Ballistic Lover’s chances and says the best is yet to come from the three-year-old.
“I was pretty confident going into Saturday, the barrier certainly scared me, but I thought if she got across and got in the mix, she would be hard to beat,” he said.
“I did think she was as good as any of those other fillies in the race and the handicapper was obviously of that opinion as well being the top weight.
“it was nice to see her go to that level and I’m sure it’s not her best yet, but that’ll come with a bit more maturity.”
Ballistic Lover is now two-for-two this campaign, winning first-up from a spell at Doomben in April.
Having proven herself on both dry and wet tracks, the three-year-old is a trainer’s dream, being able to race at any time of the year and having the ability to match.
Despite this, there’s not many races in sight for the daughter of Smart Missile, with Joe Pride saying her next target is the June Stakes.
“There’s not a lot on for her. I thought only the June Stakes was really the only assignment,” he said.
“In Brisbane the only race was three weeks away, that was the Lightning, but I would probably just wait the extra week and keep her here at Randwick.
“After that I was going to go to the Toy Show Quality on the fresh side in August, that’ll give me a good chance to freshen her up. She’ll probably have a week or so in the paddock and then target there.
“A good thing about a horse like this is you can have them in work most of the year because they’re not doing much racing.”
