The wet track was the only concern for Walking Flying’s connections at Sandown on Wednesday, but they needn’t have worried, with the filly running away to a one length victory in her mile contest.
It was the Tavistock three-year-old’s second consecutive win after she was victorious at Sale a fortnight ago over 1728m.
Ben Hayes, who trains the filly in partnership with his father David and cousin Tom Dabernig, said she could now head to Flemington next Saturday to tackle a 1600m assignment.
“We will just see how she pulls up, but there is a nice race in 10 days’ time at Flemington over a mile,” he said. “But we will just see how she is over the next couple of days.
“It was a good ride by Jamie (Mott, jockey), he was fairly confident and gave her a good chance. My only question mark was the track heading into today, if it was a dry track I would have been extremely confident.
“It’s a big thrill to get the win for the owner who is supporting us a lot.”
Walking Flying is a daughter of former top-class mare Veloce Bella who was raced by Murray and Marg Hardy and Paddy Preston of the Sunlight Trust.
They also bred Walking Flying, who was sold to Yulong as a yearling in Australia at Inglis Premier for $120,000 and is raced by Mr Huang, a close friend of Mr Yuesheng Zhang of Yulong Investments.
Veloce Bella won 12 races, including the Gr.1 Waikato International Stakes (2000m) and a further four times at Group Two level. - NZ RAcing Desk
