Two promising fillies from a pair of leading stables have posted encouraging wins at Canterbury with champion Sydney apprentice Zac Lloyd the common denominator.
Lloyd partnered the Hawkes Racing-trained Makarena ($1.80 Boombet fav) to a tough victory in the opening event, the daughter of Snitzel caught three-wide after being beaten for gate speed before surging forward to sit outside the leader and digging deep in the straight to wear down Kaizad ($16) on the line.
It followed a luckless debut performance where she was held up in the straight before flashing home to finish runner-up to Nadal, that horse franking the form with an eye-catching third to Cylinder in The Run To The Rose.
Co-trainer Michael Hawkes said the fact Makarena was able to work hard at both ends of Wednesday’s 1250m race and still win reflected her ability.
“She really doesn’t know what she’s doing yet and probably the last fifty was the best part of the race because Zac put the whip away and rode her hands and heels and she drew away at the end,” Hawkes said.
“You can’t do it from barrier to box all the time like that, it takes a good horse to do it and she’s good.”
Lloyd enjoyed a cosier run on the James Cummings-trained Lost in the Drinkwise Plate (1100m), settling the filly in a beautiful trailing position before pouncing on favourite Kundalini, who had endured a tough time on-speed.
Lost was also coming through the Nadal race in which she was trapped wide and travelled ungenerously but stuck on to finish fourth.
Lloyd was happy to see more polished racing manners from the filly at Canterbury and believed she could measure up to Saturday grade at least.
“I was lucky the race flowed really nicely for her today,” Lloyd said.
“First start was a bit of a disaster, but it was good to see her bounce through that and improve and race with her head nice and relaxed today, that accounted to her finishing the race off well.
“Her first start was damn-near a good Saturday race with Nadal and Makarena (winning) today.
“She’s got a lot of ability and once she puts it all together, watch out.”
Lost ($4) prevailed by a half-length over Kundalini ($2 fav) with the Hawkes-trained Groundrush ($10) hitting the line stylishly for third.
