Well-related two-year-old filly Aprilia (NZ) (US Navy Flag) turned her form around at Matamata on Wednesday after a below expectation debut performance on the Cambridge synthetic when beaten into third as an odds-on favourite.
The filly jumped well to sit outside the leader in the Tokoroa Cosmopolitan 2YO (1200m) and kicked strongly in the run home to score under the urgings of Kozzi Asano, defeating well-supported Te Akau pair Fiore Di Campo (NZ) (Savabeel) and The Princie One (NZ) (Savabeel).
Aprilia is a half-sister by U S Navy Flag to the Gr.1 Diamond Stakes (1200m) and Karaka Million (1200m) winner and sire Vespa, and trainer Andrew Forsman will now be looking at black-type options for her.
“She has always shown a fair bit and we were at a loss as to what happened at her first start so it was nice to see her bounce back,” he said.
“We thought she would be pretty hard to beat on debut and she had trialled up pretty well on the synthetic, but she didn’t really race up to it,” Forsman said.
“We took her to a trial at Avondale on the grass and got her back to the races hoping she would show that better form.”
Raced by Brown Thoroughbreds Ltd and Lib Petagna’s JML Bloodstock, Aprilia was a $72,500 purchase as a yearling from the Valachi Downs dispersal sale on gavelhouse plus.
Aprillia wasn’t the only juvenile winner to carry Lib Petagna’s apple green and navy blue sash silks to victory on Wednesday, with Savabeel colt Ravello making a winning debut for John O’Shea over 1400m at Warwick Farm.
The colt, who is raced in partnership with Greg Clarke and Little Avondale Stud’s Sam Williams, was a $425,000 yearling purchase by Bruce Perry from Cambridge Stud’s Karaka 2022 Book 1 draft.
Bred by Max Whitby and out of the American stakes placed mare Cover Charge, Ravello holds a nomination for the Gr.1 Sires’ Produce Stakes (1400m) at Randwick on April 1.
