Up-and-coming three-year-old Expat notched up her fourth win from seven starts in the Bowermans Commercial Furniture Handicap (1300m) on Saturday, but it was a nail biting wait for her trainer.
The daughter of Makfi was named as the third emergency as acceptances were announced, despite being a favoured runner in the field.
Her trainer Mark Newnham was thinking he would have to wait another week to see his promising filly in action, before the scratching of Helga just half an hour before the final fields were announced.
“I kept refreshing the iPad on Saturday morning at the track,” Newnham laughed.
“I thought I’d be running her this week at Randwick the way it was looking.
“When you’re third emergency and you’ve got one of the favourites, I think she was second or third pick in the market before any scratchings, you’re desperate to get them in.”
Expat won three of her first four career starts, before returning from a break in the Listed Denise’s Joy Stakes where she finished fourth.
She finished third at her next start, before relishing the heavy conditions to pull away and win by 0.82 lengths at Rosehill on Saturday.
Newnham said the filly’s toughness is the key to her winning strike rate.
“She’s got a good racing pattern where she’s good on pace, handles wet ground, tough,” he said.
“She’s won a couple of races where she’s looked vulnerable but has been strong late.
“She’s just happy to maintain a strong gallop.
“Drawing out the other day, and Sam already having a ride on her just gave him a bit of confidence to press forward, get her into a good gallop, a bit of a mid-race rest and then ramp it up again from the 500m and he did that to a T.”
With the daughter of Makfi’s tenacity and ability to maintain her speed, Newnham is confident that Expat will run further in time.
Whether that be in black-type races is still unknown, with the three-year-old only boasting a benchmark rating of 75, not high enough to contest the feature races.
Newnham will give her another start on Saturday week back at Rosehill over 1400m, before assessing what the future holds for his galloper.
“You’ve got to get their rating high enough to so you can get into some decent races,” he said.
“It (the way she finished off) sort of encourages me that she’ll run a bit further.
“She’ll probably just go back there Saturday week. It’s the same sort of race, just 100m further, fillies and mares benchmark 78 over 1400m. She comes into one of those pretty well.
“She’ll have one or two more runs. She’s not a filly that needs very long out. She does very well, she’s quite a sturdy little thing, so she doesn’t need long breaks.”
Article from JustHorseRacing.com.au