Four-year-old La Tigeresa has been restricted to only a handful of starts but trainer Jason Warren believes the mare has the talent to keep progressing through the grades after landing her first city win.
La Tigeresa went into Wednesday’s Mypunter.com Handicap (1200m) at Sandown after a second at Geelong first-up this preparation and with Ben Melham aboard the mare let down well from a midfield position to win the benchmark-64 race comfortably.
La Tigeresa, the $2.70 favourite, defeated Angel Lass by 1-3/4-lengths with Not Approved three-quarters of a length away third.
“She’s always shown us more than enough ability,” Warren said.
“She is closely related to Bel Sonic so we’ve always thought she’s pretty smart.
“Being by Street Cry I think she’ll get a bit further.
“I think off-season we could probably get some black-type with her on rain-affected tracks.”
La Tigeresa’s dam Tellora is a sister to the dam of the Warren-trained sprinter Bel Sonic who has won four of his 13 starts.
“I thought she put the writing on the wall with a really good first-up effort at Geelong and we came here today quite confident,” Warren said.
“She’s a mare that has taken a bit of time. We had a knee problem with her as a young horse and we’ve really been reluctant to run her on firm tracks.
“We came here today with a good (4) track and it improved to a good (3) but being race two really helped.”
La Tigeresa’s win came after another lightly raced four-year-old mare Zabelarina scored a maiden win first-up in the Ladbrokes Multiverse Plate (1200m) in her third career start and first for trainer Archie Alexander.
