KEY POINTS:
Martini Red showed she was "true class" with her easy win in the listed $50,000 Castletown Stakes for two-year-olds at Foxton yesterday.
That was Cambridge trainer Ross Elliot's description and no one who witnessed her cruise to the line - just under two lengths clear of Royal Ambition - would disagree.
It may not have been the four-length win she had at her debut at Trentham in March but, yesterday, she was in a higher-class field and extending to 1200m.
"It was a good field and Rogan [jockey Rogan Norvall] had to use her a bit to get to the lead but, once she let down, she had them covered," said Elliot. "She showed she is true class."
She was easily the best two-year-old he had trained.
Elliot had a few concerns because of Martini Red's wide draw - she started one from the outside in the 11-horse field - but they were soon dispelled once she exploded out of the gates and settled in the lead.
Elliot is taking it one race at a time with the precocious filly but is eyeing the $60,000 Northern Breeders Stakes at Ruakaka on July 14.
Martini Red's win capped off a great weekend for Norvall, the expatriate Zimbabwean who arrived in New Zealand in 2002. He was aboard Twinkling when she won the listed Cornwall Handicap at Ellerslie on Saturday, another $50,000 race.
Royal Ambition flashed home from the back of the field to finish second ahead of Suave Emperor and Panesar, who was game after racing three wide for most of the event. Second favourite Russian Conquest wasn't a threat, finishing eighth.
- NZPA
