KEY POINTS:
Juice broke through for a deserved win in a $55,000 stakes race for 2-year-old fillies at Avondale yesterday.
Juice was a $3.70 second favourite after having been placed at three of four starts and carried through her supporters in good style.
The Bertolini youngster, ridden by Leith Innes, was steadied in the middle of a 12-horse field but with 300m to run she had ranged up to lodge her challenge.
Juice strode to the lead inside the last 100m and went on to score by 1 1/2 lengths from favourite Bankside Belle.
There was 1 1/4 lengths to third Metropolitan, and three-quarters of a length to fourth-placed Dawn Of Time.
Juice, trained by John Wheeler at New Plymouth, was dropping back 400m in distance after having finished second to Sufficient in the $55,000 Champagne Stakes (1600m) at Ellerslie, Auckland, on April 12.
Earlier she was third to the promising All In Brawl at Trentham, Wellington, in March while at her debut at the same track she had finished second.
Her only other race was in the group one $200,000 Manawatu Sires' Produce Stakes (1400m) at Awapuni, Palmerston North, in March. She finished seventh after being checked in the straight.
In the day's other feature, the Mark Oulaghan-trained Shamrock Star posted a third win from his past five starts when scoring in a $60,000 open class handicap at the Feilding meeting at Awapuni.
Shamrock Star made most of the pace over the 1600m and fought well in the run to the post to hold second favourite Taatyana at bay by a length.
Taatyana got home strongly down the outside after getting well back while a nose away third was the favourite High Octane who was handy throughout. Third favourite Kaapeon Way ran on to be 1 3/4 lengths away fourth.
- NZPA
