Shaun Campbell
It was a spellbinding night of firsts at Tabcorp Park Melton on Saturday night, including a potential superstar
notching up an impressive debut victory.
Youngster Beach Villa revealed an impressive arsenal of afterburners to trounce his rivals in an exciting TAB
Sapling Stakes (2YO Colts & Geldings) win for driver Kate Gath and trainer Emma Stewart.
After leading through a speedy 57.6 first half, the full-brother of 2019 Chariots of Fire champ Poster Boy showed he possessed the
explosive family trait by putting 10 metres on the field in a blink of an eye before strolling home to win the $24,000 feature in a 1:55:1 mile rate.
“I thought at the trials he was pretty impressive, and tonight he just reaffirmed that,” Gath said.
“He just ambles along, it is no effort to him and he doesn’t really know what he’s doing yet either.”
Beach Villa is the latest rocket out of impressive broodmare, Aston Villa USA, who has also produced the likes of Yankee Rockstar (22 wins, $329,000), Born To Rocknroll
(17 wins, $300,000) and, of course, Poster Boy (22 wins, $803,310).
Gath said the mare was one of a “great group” at Lauriston bloodstock.
“Clearly they know what they are doing because there are just so many of them,” she said.
“(They) put a lot of money into the sport, but all their yearlings tend to be really good racehorses.It is just phenomenal.”
In the next race Spellbound NZ overcame a wide draw in the Allied Express Ian Daff Memorial to become the first horse this season to defeat the classy Tangoingwithsierra, with driver
Stuart McDonald stalking the favourite before putting her to the sword with a 27.7 last quarter.
But it wasn’t all smooth sailing, with Spellbound NZ caught wide early as the field sprinted the first quarter of the last mile in 27.8 seconds.
“The first quarter was certainly a little bit scary; it was getting a little nerve wracking of where I was going to end up,” McDonald told Trots Vision after the race.
“But it worked out well; I knew I had the horse that was good enough to do a bit of work and win.”
McDonald said the four-year-old mare’s impressive 1:52:9 mile rate victory –
his and trainer Nathan Purdon’s first since relocating to Victoria – was indicative
of her trackwork.
“She has been going super at home and she just really went how we expected, to be honest,” he said.
“She’s a pleasure to drive (and is) going to be representing us pretty well on the Saturday nights (at Melton) and she certainly has more wins in stock.
In another big night driver Leigh Sutton and Russell Jack scored a double, with four-year-old Sonny Weaver using the sprint lane to edge out Im Anothermasterpiece NZ in a thrilling finish,
while Young Rooster rattled home to win the Melton Toyota Pace.
