By Daithi Harvey
As the most expensive yearling filly sold at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Sale last year at A$1.2m (lot 765) and a half-sister to a dual Group 1 winner in Miracles Of Life (Aus) (Not A Single Doubt {Aus}), Thursday's Geelong debutante Angel (Aus) (Fastnet Rock {Aus}) had a lot to live up to. The Hayes/Dabernig trained 2-year-old made a good impression however, comfortably beating her seven rivals in a five-furlong maiden under Mark Zahra. Despite being drawn wide, the Stonestreet Thoroughbred Holdings-bred was able to slot in to occupy second place soon after breaking, tracking the leader Riverina Dancer (Aus) (Kaphero {Aus}) before snatching command from that rival with a furlong to race. Zahra didn't have to get overly serious with the 3-2 favourite, who races for Coolmore and Stonestreet, and she opened up nicely to beat Deokyhe (Aus) (More Than Ready) by two lengths.
“She's still got a little bit to learn,” Zahra told Racing.com after the race. “As soon as I got in front of the stablemate on the inside she wanted to look around the last bit, but you couldn't do much more than what she did on debut. She's definitely got a lot of scope. She's a big filly and she's learning all the time, so there's no reason why she can't go on with it.”
Stonestreet purchased Angel's dam Dazzling Gazelle (Aus) carrying a full-sibling to Miracles of Life out of the Teeley Assets Dispersal during the 2014 Magic Millions Gold Coast National Broodmare Sale for A$400,000. The resulting foal, the now 3-year-old filly Antelope (Aus) (Not a Single Doubt {Aus}), has captured a Wyong maiden on Oct. 22 and followed up with a half-length score at Newcastle on Nov. 11 from two starts for Vinery Stud. Dazzling Gazelle was barren to Snitzel (Aus) in 2016, but foaled a Redoute's Choice (Aus) colt on Aug. 31.
Miracles Of Life won the G1 Blue Diamond S. back in 2013 and her half-sister may well bid to emulate that feat at Caulfield next month.
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