My Bella Mae makes beautiful debut

My Bella Mae made the best possible start to her racing career when she bolted in to win by 2 ¼ lengths on debut in the Westerntrilogy.com.au Handicap (1100m) at Ascot on Wednesday.

The way in which the daughter of Deep Field put away her rivals with a minimum of fuss following a sluggish start strongly indicates she is a filly with a lot of upside.

Trained by Dion Luciani, My Bella Mae was given plenty of time to go out under official race conditions, but was set to go after showing potential in five top trials since February.

In the hands of top apprentice, Holly Watson, My Bella Mae didn’t jump quickly from barrier two, but mustered speed to take up a prominent position behind the leader Red Hot Goods.

Taking full advantage of the cutaway in the straight, Watson guided My Bella Mae along the fence and the three-year-old dashed clear to beat Admiration Express and Santa Brae comfortably.

Luciani’s representative Ian Glading said the stable were not surprised by the nature or margin of My Bella Mae’s victory and foreshadowed a promising career for the filly.

“Very impressive, we’ve had a high opinion of her all the way through,” Glading said.

“We expected the horse to go that way today (Wednesday).

“She fluffed the start a little bit and will learn from that, but was always travelling well.

“She’s been well and truly educated with the trials and we’ve looked after her.

“She’s a beautiful horse to do anything with, just a professional horse with a very bright future.

“We’ll just work through the classes at this stage.”

Watson said she was delighted when Luciani came calling offering her the prized mount.

She thought My Bella Mae could have won by an even bigger margin than she did.

“Dion (Luciani) rang me and said I could rider her,” Watson said.

“I looked at the form and thought she goes pretty good.

“She feels like she knows most of the things she’s doing.

“She idled a bit to the line and felt like she had plenty left in the tank.”