Coming off a second on debut, and stepping up to 1200m, owner/breeder Yulong appear to have a handy Tagaloa filly on their hand as the Michael Freedman trained Wanda’s Spark was just too good for her rivals at Canterbury on Wednesday.
A narrow second favourite behind Chris Waller’s Sing Your Song, jockey Tommy Berry had Wanda’s Spark away well from the barriers, going forward to take the lead from barrier 3 in the eight-horse field.
Settling in second was the Gary Portelli trained Strollin’ By while Home Affairs filly Affari was getting a good run in third while the race favourite had just two behind her in the run.
With the corner approaching, James McDoald started to get going aboard Sing Your Song, coming wide to round the turn where she looked a real danger.
Although the challenge was short lived as the favourite couldn’t make up the necessary ground, Berry had other ideas as he kept going aboard Wanda’s Spark.
When the line was reached, Wanda’s Spark held a half-length margin over the Chris Waller pair of Affari with Sing Your Song narrowly back in third.
Representing the Freedman yard was Ben Duckworth who spoke highly of the filly.
“She took nice benefit out of that last run,” said Duckworth. “We had a really good opinion of her going into it and she still ran well, just got knocked off by one with a bit of race experience and was just a little bit vulnerable late.”
“So, we're confident bringing her here today that she could execute and perform well.
“I think she's a very progressive filly and we can certainly see her extend out to sort of seven furlongs and maybe even a mile in time.
“That opens up plenty of doors for her this time of year. So I'm very happy with how she performed today and we'll just get her home and see how she pulls up.
“Assuming she pulls up well, a race like the Furious Stakes in a couple of weeks' time could be an option for her. But as I said, we'll just get her home and see how she gets through the run.”
Riding her for the first time on race day, Berry felt the filly has good ability moving forward.
“Yeah, she's a natural,” said Berry. “She's very progressive and a very easy horse to do anything with and look, the plan wasn't to lead today until Gai’s horse got scratched behind the barriers and that just changed my train of thought a little bit there wasn't too much else there that I would have wanted to follow in the race.
“I just didn't want to be the one kicking away by two or three, coming to the corner and I knew she'd have a good look around, so I let them sort of come up around me, help me get around the bend to balance her up, and then... went again.
“So sometimes you've got to have that patience and trust that you're good enough and she was favourite for a reason so great job by the team at home.”
A homebred by Yulong, Wanda’s Spark is the first foal, and winner out of the G3-winning Wandjina mare Wandabaa, a half-sister to G3-winning, G1 placed Olentia (Zoustar) and dual Listed winner Malkovich (Choisir) as well as to the dam of G3 winner Little Paradise (Toronado).
The sire of ten stakes performers headed by the G2-winning, G1 placed Salty Pearl and the G3-winning Spicy Lu, Wanda’s Spark is another exciting filly by Yulong’s G1 Blue Diamond Stakes winner Tagaloa who will stand this season at a fee of $22,000 (inc. GST).
