As a sister to the triple Group II winner and multiple Group 1 placed Libertini, much was expected of De An Andretti when she made her career debut over 1100m at Hawkesbury on Wednesday.
It could quite easily have gone pear-shaped for the Ron Quinton-trained 2yo when she jumped sideways at the start, cannoning in to the runners on her inside.
Still well back in the field rounding the home turn, De An Andretti was eased out to the centre of the track by Andrew Adkins. Once balanced up, she picked off runner after to runner to defeat the Your Song filly Your Too Good by a neck with the No Nay Never filly Hoover Lucy a long-neck back in third.
It was just the second win back for Adkins following a serious injury.
“She’s obviously a class filly to overcome what happened to her at the start,”Adkins said.
“I don’t know if the girth pinched her or not, but she half-bucked coming out of the gates and she ran a few off the track.
“She got into a nice rhythm. I got on to the back of Kerrin McEvoy’s mount coming to the corner. I let her balance up and she savaged the line, like I knew she would.
“She felt like the winner a soon as we straightened up. She came here off just one trial and she is a big, gross horse.
“Hats off to Ron, he knows what he is doing.”
A homebred for Gerry Harvey, De An Andretti is the fourth winner from the first five foals of the 2011 Group 1 ATC Coolmore Classic heroine Aloha (Encosta De Lago).
The only non-winner is the Sebring filly The Motley Fool who earned the wrath of stewards at Pakenham recently when she refused to load. She copped a warning when proving difficult to load when second at only start at Geelong last June.
Aloha has a yearling brother to Libertini and De An Andretti named Hawaii Five Oh. The daughter of Encosta de Lago was covered by I Am Invincible again last season.
De An Andretti was the tenth 2yo winner for I Am Invincible this season. Minutes later, the Yarraman Park Stud stallion had his 11th when the Danny O’Brien-trained I Am In The Mood made a winning debut over 1100m at Bendigo.
Out of the Group III ATC Epona Stakes winner Intimate Moment (Dubawi), I Am In The Mood races for Widden Stud and partners after failing to make his $500,000 reserve at the 2020 Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale.
