The John Bateman-trained filly NICCONITA collected a healthy $33,420 for winning the opening race on day two of the Wagga Cup carnival on Friday.
NICCONITA had previously been placed in three of four career starts, including on debut at Canterbury, before breaking her maiden stylishly first-up from a spell, courtesy of a perfectly-executed Nick Heywood-ride.
The daughter of Nicconi has displayed talent since day one with the Bateman stable at Goulburn and can hopefully use Friday’s win as a springboard to more successes on the racetrack.
Proven Thoroughbreds purchased NICCONITA for a bargain $20k at the 2016 Inglis Classic Sale and in her brief career to date, the three-year-old has more than doubled her purchase price in prizemoney.
The win ushered in another exciting week ahead for our owners which continues Saturday at the Gold Coast where Steve O’Dea’s promising two-year-old colt SESAR lines up in the Listed Ken Russell Classic (1200m).
Then at Newcastle on Tuesday a trio of horses from the John Thompson stable – GREENSPAN, CHOUXTORIAL and WATER LINE – will represent the black and lime green. The former looks our best hope and should run well first-up after a couple of solid trials.
A busy Wednesday of racing will see Proven Thoroughbreds roll out four runners across three meetings.
At the Gold Coast, O’Dea pair SCALLOPINI and COOL SEQUENCE contest the 1100m C2 and 1400m C4 respectively and both are expected to be prominent in betting.
The Joe Pride-trained SO SPIRITED will tackle the 1300m BM78 at Warwick Farm following an excellent first-up run at Randwick last month while the Bateman-trained COUNTERFIRE has been nominated for the 2000m C1 & Maiden Plate at Canberra.
Our lone trialist in the week ahead will be REAL STING at Doomben on Tuesday.