Last season's Australian champion sophomore filly Delicacy (Aus) (Al Maher {Aus}) scored her second victory in a row during the Australian summer, after leading home fellow Bob and Sandra Peters homebreds Neverland (Aus) (Big Brown) and Real Love (Aus) (Desert King {Ire}) in the G2 Perth Cup going 2400 meters at Ascot Saturday. It was the Peters' sixth Perth Cup victory and trainer Grant Williams's second. Ridden by Peter Hall, while regular hoop William Pike opted for Neverland, Delicacy carried 130 pounds from a rail draw to victory, becoming the first winner of the G2 Perth Cup to tote that impost, breaking Artesian (Aus) (Argonaut {GB})'s 128-pound mark set in 1913.
“She keeps on surprising me, she surprised us last year and she keeps doing it,” Bob Peters told Racing.com. “She keeps raising the bar but obviously barriers help.”
Added Hall, “The support for this horse, the well wishers before the race was amazing. She is a pretty popular horse in West Australia. I knew we needed barrier one to win the race with the 59kgs [130lbs], but this horse's attribute is pick-up speed. If there is a run there, she just goes–she is just fast.”
Delicacy will now be spelled, with an eye to the Australian autumn.
“She will go to the paddock tomorrow for a little while, last time she got a couple of days and we will see what she gets this time,” concluded Peters.
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