Darren McAuliffe believes his promising filly The Velvet Queen has a bright future ahead of her after she delivered in style for punters at Ascot on Wednesday.
McAuliffe was full of praise for The Velvet Queen who validated $1.60 Sportsbet favouritism in the Byron Bay Premium Lager Handicap (1200m) with a top win.
The Velvet Queen was out the back in last position before the corner, but under Chris Parnham she charged home strongly when asked in the straight.
The daughter of Universal Ruler hasn’t been beaten in two starts this preparation since resuming from her debut run in July when third to It’sarayday.
It’sarayday franked the form when he went on to win the Listed Fairetha Stakes (1400m) and finish second in the Listed Belgravia Stakes (1200m).
A full sister to the recently retired The Velvet King, McAuliffe said there was a lot to like about The Velvet Queen going forward.
“In today’s conditions and the way they walked, she over raced early, horses can’t do that,” McAuliffe told The Races WA.
“The sectionals tell the story, home in 33.73sec., so very, very happy with her.
“She is a horse that is going to go places and is probably better than what I thought she was.
“I’ve always held her in very high regard and she probably would have been running in the Guineas (WA), but time didn’t allow us to get her ready for that.
“She’s going to stretch out in trip too, so she has got some real weapons.
“We’ll probably give her one more, hopefully over 1400m.
“We may even run her in the Westspeed Platinum meeting in a couple of weeks.
“We’ll see how she pulls up, but she is going to go better the further she goes and that’s the scary thing,
“It’s pretty exciting, but we’ll see how she gets through the run and map out where she goes next.”
The Velvet Queen defeated Border Force by a long neck with Probity half a length third.
She gave McAuliffe the first leg of a double after Cold Shizzle, once clear, stretched out to win the Seacorp Handicap (1200m).
The Awesome Rock gelding made it two wins from as many starts since resuming with a win over Beauty In Me three weeks ago.
“He’s a nice horse who has had a few niggles along the way that we have had to iron out,” McAuliffe said.
“I expected him to run real well.”
