Trish Dunell
Three-year-old filly Medalza broke her maiden when successful at Te Rapa on Wednesday.
The daughter of Medaglia D’oro, who was raised at Trelawney Stud for breeder/owner David Paykel, took out the Website Angels 1200, completing a double for trainer Stephen Marsh after stablemate Mrs Rumble had won the opening race on the card.
Jumping from an awkward barrier of 11, Medalza was kept three-wide for the journey, with jockey Samantha Collett electing to stay out on the better footing.
Collett was able to navigate Medalza into a gap with 250m to go, where she was able to show a good turn of foot to win by a length over Wondering, with a further nose back to Tumbril in third.
Marsh was pleased with the first-up win by his filly and he believes she has strengthened since her last preparation.
Medalza headed into Wednesday off the back of two runner-up trial performances and Marsh said her wide barrier was his only concern heading into the race.
“Her trials have been outstanding, she was second in both of them,” he said. “She has always shown us a fair bit, but she has just been weak and hasn’t quite finished her races off.
“She raced in blinkers last prep and we have taken them off. The only concern was the draw, but it was a really good effort and she won well.”
Collett had ridden Medalza in her trials and was pleased to have retained the ride on raceday after being impressed with the filly.
“I rode her at the trials and I was really happy with the feel she gave me that day,” she said.
“(With the wide barrier) it worked out that I was able to stay out of the horrible stuff on the inside.
“She was brave, halfway up the straight there was a gap for her, but she really had to pull her head out to do it and she was strong to the line.” -NZ Racing Desk