Promising three-year-old State Secret made no secret of her ability when winning on debut in the Entain/NZB Insurance Pearl Series (1200m) at Hawera on Sunday.
Trainer Steven Cole headed south from his South Auckland base on Saturday confident of a bold showing following her trial win over 1000m at Avondale a week prior, but the heavy rain in Taranaki quickly quelled his optimism.
“I was pretty confident and then we went down the night before and at about 8pm it started to pour down with rain,” Cole said. “The more rain we were getting, the less confident I was.”
However, Cole stuck resolute, with State Secret having won her trial on a Heavy10 track at Avondale, and he elected to start his filly, which proved to be the right move, with the daughter of Sword Of State storming home late to collar Blondmoon in the shadows of the post to claim a long neck victory.
“George (Rooke, jockey) really likes her, and it was a good, brave effort,” Cole said. “An early three-year-old against the older horses is never easy, and the track was pretty testing, so it was a good effort.”
Cole believes the trip away will benefit his filly.
“There wasn’t a lot of options up north for her over 1200m and I just thought it was a nice option for her, and the trip away normally seems to make the young horses,” he said.
Cole is now eyeing a return to the Central Districts next month before mapping a plan towards some black-type targets.
“We may look to take her down to Hastings,” he said. “There is a special conditions race there, but we don’t have any plans set in stone yet.
“She would have taken plenty of benefit from it (Sunday’s win) and black-type with fillies is pretty important.”
Cole bought State Secret out of Wentwood Grange’s New Zealand Bloodstock National Online Yearling Sale draft for $10,000, and her debut win has already recouped her purchase price.
“I didn’t see her in the flesh, I just saw a few photos of her, and the stallion was going well,” Cole said. “I bought her for Dad.”
Meanwhile, Cole said he has a couple of juveniles in his barn he is excited about and he is hoping they can continue their current trajectory as the season progresses.
“I have got a couple of nice two-year-olds that had jumpouts at Pukekohe the other day – an Ardrossan and Per Incanto - that will be heading to the next set of trials at Ellerslie, or maybe the ones after,” he said. “They have shown a bit of ability and hopefully one of them will get up and going pretty early.” – LOVERACING.NZ News Desk
