A host of South Australian youngsters will chase some lucrative late season earnings in Saturday’s $102,250 Racing Rewards SA Qualified Two-year-old Plate at Murray Bridge on Saturday.
Chris Bieg’s promising filly Dubenenko headlines the 1200m feature in her return to racing from a luckless early 2023 campaign.
She flashed home to be beaten just 2.25 lengths in the $2m Group 1 Blue Diamond Stakes at Sandown behind Little Brose before she was bought down in a fall in the Group 2 VRC Sires’ at Flemington in March.
The filly, who was a $100,000 Magic Millions Adelaide purchase, has banked $111,775 in prizemoney which includes $19,200 in bonuses from her six starts and resumes on the back of two trial wins.
“It was nice to see her improve in her second trial back on Monday,’’ Bieg said.
“This was never a real target race as such, so there is no real pressure. Obviously it’s a valuable Racing Rewards race, but it is all about just getting her back under race conditions and seeing how she handles it.
“Now it’s a small field it’s probably a winnable race for her but at the same time there are some nice horses here who have the fitness advantage on us.
“She’ll have this run into the Oaklands Plate second-up. Then it will be to Melbourne and in some bigger fields and stronger races so this is a nice race to be kicking her off,’’ he said.
Leon Macdonald and Andrew Gluyas have gone for the blinkers with their promising filly Walk Like An Angel, another $100,000 Magic Millions purchase, who has already tasted some Racing Rewards success.
Narrowly beaten after she was heavily backed on debut, she was victorious at her subsequent start on the Morphettville Parks circuit and has collected connections $25,450 in bonuses, taking prizemoney to $56,615 from just two starts.
Matt Seyers has opted to stay in SA on his home deck in preference to a return to Melbourne with Bolted In who chased home boom youngster Steparty at Flemington last time out.
He secured some Racing Rewards winning on the Parks track two starts back and has already repaid his $40,000 purchase price from the Magic Millions Yearling Sale having earnt $80,700 in prizemoney with $29,800 coming in bonuses.
