The Lisa Latta-trained filly Platinum Dubai showed professionalism to take out the Otaki Mail (800m) for two-year-olds on Thursday, leading throughout to land the prize while race-favourite Piaggio was slow into stride and bucked off rider Jason Waddell shortly after.
A daughter of Pride Of Dubai, the filly is Karaka Million eligible and that will be a long-range target, having been sold through the draft of Ardsley Stud for $100,000 at the New Zealand Bloodstock Book 1 Yearling Sale.
“She is a natural two-year-old. She’s a precocious little filly,” Latta said.
“We will just give her a week in the paddock and then all going well she will go to the Wellesley Stakes (Listed, 1000m).
“We were looking for an early type of filly and Neville McAlister, who owns half of her with Lincoln Farms, really liked her pedigree and then we liked her on type as well.
“She has got a very good brain and that bit of toughness that is good to see in a filly.”
Meanwhile, Latta reports that Sentimental Miss will skip the Gr.1 Livamol Classic (2040m) in preference to easier options later in spring following her disappointing fifth placing at Hawke’s Bay last weekend when beaten 3.5 lengths by Peso.
“She didn’t come up at this time of the year last year. It wasn’t until late October that she came up,” she said. “We will probably take a backward step and look at the Thompson Handicap (Gr.3, 1600m) at Trentham in late October on a track where we are going to get the fire out of the ground.”
