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• August 16, 2023
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_{By Zoey Zhang, Raptors Thoroughbred}

Yesterday, two three-year-old fillies of Raptors Thoroughbred 【Dajieda】and 【Raptylight】head to Avondale Jockey Club in Auckland，had 12th-800m and 19th-1000m trials respectively.

Both fillies are in good spirits, but the track conditions is not ideal – very heavy which is a big challenge for horses.

【Raptylight】 , sire【Written By】and dam【Drama Series】, Raptors gets her in 2022 Karaka Yearling Sale for $75,000 .  In yesterday’s trails, although did not get a place, her jockeys commented that she did a good job of jumpping out the gate, turning the corner and speed up on the straights, the jockey did not put pressure on her over the track, just aming her to experience the rough track conditions, so she was satisfied with 【Raptylight】’s performance.

Another 3-year-old filly, 【Dajieda】, sire 【Pierro】 and dam【Strada Cavallo】. Raptors purchased her for $260,000 out of the Sale (the same Sale from Karaka), this is her third trail, she shows a consistent performance as the former two also achieved the second place, although she had some emotion when she jumped out the gate but quickly she got the rhythm, especially she was “flowing” the corner and took advantage place easily, and finally finished the trail in second place, the following is the report from Pike Racing:

“She has trialled nicely today at Avondale. Talking to Vinnie before the trial, we obviously knew that the track was extremely testing today, which is something she doesn’t completely like. She definitely prefers a firmer going than what was on offer today and Vinnie was of that opinion before he got on her. We just didn’t want to knock her about too much in those heavy track conditions. She has jumped well and travelled nicely just in-behind the speed and taker over turning in. That was under a wider run on the better part of the track and taken over to win the trial quite comfortably, but Vinnie hasn’t put a lot of pressure on her in the straight. Just holding her together on the very heavy track conditions. She is a promising filly going forward and she is going to be a lot better as she gets up over further. Just whether we head to the races now or give her one more barrier trial, hopefully on a better track surface for experience, in two weeks’ time and hopefully we will be ready to head to the races in September, once we get back onto some reasonable track surfaces in the early part of the spring. I will be in touch in a week or so with what our plan is going forward but she looks to be a nice filly in the making.”

Both fillies performed well in the trials, the purpose of the trials was not to achieve a high-ranking place, but more to ensure that the foals had the basic skills on the track and got familiar with the different track conditions. The track conditions will probably improve in two weeks as New Zealand enters the spring season and hopefully, they will be able to race and win well in the next two months!