Talented mare Fasika was fit and ready to rumble at her first run back from a spell at Randwick on Saturday and scored a tenacious win in the Group II ATC Sapphire Stakes (1200m).
Tuned up with two barrier trials by her trainer Joe Pride, Fasika was given a good ride by Brenton Avdulla and showed her class when holding on to win by a head.
Fasika had not raced since October last year and has had a series of niggling problems to overcome.
"We've nursed her back, you hear us trainers say it all the time but full credit to the team at home,” said Pride.
“It's a big task to get a mare that had her amount of problems back to the races and performing at that level.
“We’re very proud of her today, I was almost not going to run her today. It was just about the track, I didn't want a real firm track. I was so relieved when I got here and they were kicking it up and it was a bit soft, it did her a favour. I mean, she's a great mare but she just needs the sting out."
The Brisbane Winter Carnival may be a possible for Fasika, but all the stars would need to align.
“She would've been retired today if she hadn't have done that,” Pride said.
“I'm not into racing horses once they've past their best, but she showed today that she has come back and that her highest rating win. She's got a Group I placing, but she's never won a Group II race so a great result.”
A modest $120,000 Inglis Easter Session II purchase for Tricolours Racing and Syndications from the Middlebrook Valley Lodge draft, Fasika has won five from 13 starts earning over $731,000 in prizemoney.
She is a half-sister to stakes-winner Absolut Excelencia and is the fourth winner and last foal from Redoute’s Choice mare Jarada, who died in 2015.
Fasika is the 11th stakes-winner this season for Coolmore's So You Think, who has really hit his straps as a sire and covered 261 mares last spring at a fee of $38,500.
