Patience and perseverance are paying dividends for connections of filly Sunrise after she backed up a track record-breaking win at Kembla Grange with another sustained display of speed at Randwick.
Trained by Mitchell Beer, Sunrise scorched the turf first-up to break the 1000m course record at her home track, earning herself a trip to town for Saturday’s Midway Handicap (1100m).
Making the running for Rachel King, Sunrise ($1.80 fav) again showed her rivals a clean pair of heels, scooting further ahead in the straight to win by 2-3/4 lengths over Oakfield Badger ($8.50) with another long head to Everyone’s A Star ($5.50) in third.
Originally from New Zealand, Sunrise was purchased for $45,000 at last year’s Magic Millions Broodmare Sale and Beer said it had taken a full campaign in the spring to teach her how to harness her speed.
“I must thank the ownership group. Last preparation we knew how fast she was and we knew how good she was, but I said to them, ‘she’s not physically ready and not mentally ready’,” Beer said.
“When we got her, all she wanted to do in her trackwork was bolt and she also wanted to go in her races.
“We had to bite the bullet and teach her to settle so we could do this.”
Sunrise is now unbeaten in two starts this campaign and likely to be given a shot at the Listed Denise’s Joy Stakes (1100m) at Scone next month.
Beer did toy with testing her at black-type level in Queensland this weekend but decided Saturday’s Randwick assignment was a more logical next step.
“I had her in a Listed race in Brisbane today and she drew thirteen and obviously this looked a far better option,” he said
“But I might take her to Scone and give her a crack while she is still three, see if she is up to that level.”
King praised Beer’s training effort in teaching Sunrise to settle and said the filly came back to her beautifully mid-race, allowing her to kick strongly in the straight.
“I like the way I gave her a squeeze, but then mid-race she came back and got a couple of nice ones in there where I felt her take a couple of deep breaths and was able to get to the top of the rise quite comfortably.
“She feels like she will do better on a faster track. She is very genuine and very honest.”
