With just three of the 14 starters behind him rounding the home turn, the Anthony Freedman-trained Irish Vega looked out of play in Thursday’s bet365 3YO Maiden Plate (1300m) at Bendigo, however, he came with a barnstorming finish to make the perfect start to his career.
Obliged to go back from an outside barrier on the strapping chestnut son of Lope de Vega, Beau Mertens angled Irish Vega to the centre of the track down the straight, picking off runner after runner to nail Lindsay Park’s promising Teofilo colt Free Fly Too by a short-half-head with a half-neck back to the Fastnet Rock filly Bralca's Gem in third.
Mertens said the son of Lope de Vega was open to plenty of improvement.
"We draw a bit of an awkward gate and the plan was to just ride him on feeling and get him where he was comfortable,” Mertens said
"We had a beautiful cart up
"Once he puts it all together he’s only going to get better, he didn’t really know how to let down so he’s got a lot of improvement left in him.”
A $50,000 purchase by BBA Ireland from the Coolmore Stud draft at the second session of the 2016 Inglis Easter Yearling sale, Irish Vega (pictured as a yearling) is the first living foal of the stakes-placed General Nediym mare Count Your Fingers.
A $3330,000 purchase by Nathan Tinkler out of the Widden Stud draft at the 2009 Easter Yearling Sale, Count Your Fingers was knocked down to Coolmore Stud’s Tom Magnier for $290,000 at the Patinack Farm Dispersal in 2014 when carrying Irish Vega.
A half-sister to Group III BRC Grand Prix Stakes winner and Group I Queensland Derby runner-up Kachinsky, Count Your Fingers is out of the Zabeel mare My First Zabeel a half-sister to four stakes winners headed by the Group I VRC Newmarket Handicap and Group I Lightning Stakes winner Isca (Rory’s Jester).
