Peter Rubery (Race Images)
Promising staying mare Princess Dillon is likely to return to the central districts for her next appearance.
The lightly-raced five-year-old opened her current campaign in impressive fashion at New Plymouth on Saturday with an emphatic victory in testing ground over a mile.
“We were pretty certain she would handle the track and it looked a nice race for her,” Te Awamutu trainer Joe Waldron said.
“We knew she was pretty forward and Capucine (trained by Murray Baker and Andrew Forsman) coming out on the morning of the race helped us.
“We’ll probably work her through the grades and there’s a Rating 75 over 2100m at Trentham for her coming up, she prefers going left-handed.
“If she could win that, there’s a Rating 85 at Te Rapa a fortnight later.”
Princess Dillon has now won three of her 13 starts and was given a break after she finished a gallant sixth in the Gr.3 Wellington Cup (3200m) in January.
“We’ll try and get her rating up and then she can have three weeks in the paddock and then look at our options in the spring, maybe a race like the New Zealand Cup will suit her,” Waldron said. “The further she goes the better.”
Purchased by Waldron on behalf of his mother Sharon for $1200 at last year’s May Sale at Karaka, the daughter of Dylan Thomas also has versatility on her side.
“She’s got a really good action and gets through the wet tracks, but at the same time she can skip along on the good tracks,” he said. – NZ Racing Desk.