Tommy Berry completed an early double when he guided the I Am Invincible filly Ashema to victory in the second race on the Kensington track.
This result gave Berry victories in both the two-year-old colts and geldings event (which he won on Kalino) and the two-year-old fillies contest in which Ashema held off a wall of horses late to prevail by 0.20 lengths after surging to the lead early in the straight.
Trainer Annabel Neasham admitted to having a pre-race concern about the track.
“She is a lovely filly. Probably my only concern today was whether she would handle the track, which she has,” said Neasham.
“I thought he went for home quite early. The straight looked like it was taking a long time and I was wishing for the post to come, but she got there. She is a pretty smart filly.
“She looked like she relaxed a bit better today. It will be interesting what tommy’s thoughts are about her going through that ground. The nice thing is that, if she can handle it, she can be versatile going forward.
“The obvious race I suppose for these type of fillies would be the Percy Sykes, but whether she is quite ready for the 1200m yet, I don’t know. It would be great to try and get a bit of Black Type in her,” concluded Neasham.
“When they have been running at the top level for a while and being beaten a few times they can lose a bit of confidence,” said Tommy Berry. (Ashema had finished behind the likes of Stay Inside and Profiteer in her previous two starts),
“They gave her just a little bit of a break and a freshen up and she had one trial. She can get upset and not want to do things so we decided to ride her quiet. We rode her quiet in the trial and she hit the line quite well and that was the key to her again today.
“I probably rode the track a bit too much rather than the horse. At Kensington, if you can get a break on them it is pretty hard to catch you. But, in saying that she has got a very short turn of foot, so I should have worried about her more instead of riding the track and then she probably would have won a little bit easier.
“I’m glad we got the job done.”
Tommy Berry will ride Stay Inside in Saturday’s $3.5m Golden Slipper.
Stay Inside is the current second favourite with Sportsbet in Golden Slipper odds at $4.60.
Market 💰: View the Odds for the Golden Slipper
