WELL BRED two-year-old Benediction staked her claim on the Betfair Sweepstakes fillies’ final with an impressive win in her heat at6 Tattersall’s Park in Hobart last Sunday night.
Benediction (Bettors Delight-Queen Carey) sat outside the leader for the last lap but proved too strong over the concluding stages to defeat race leader Imperial majesty with Codie Karalta a distant third.
It was Benediction’s second win from only four starts with her only other efforts producing seconds at St Marys on debut and in Launceston at her subsequent race start.
The filly is trained by Barrie Rattray who also prepared this filly’s dam Queen Carey that was a champion race mare who was the winner at the first meeting held on the Tattersall’s Park circuit at Elwick on October 20, 2005.
She clocked a sizzling rate of 1.56.3 in the free-for-all to set a quality benchmark that was subsequently bettered by Ritchie Walton that rated 1.55.4 in 2008.
Queen Carey didn’t race until she was three and won the Bandbox Stakes and other features at that age, so Benediction appears to be following in her footsteps.
Benediction is Queen Carey’s first foal to race. The mare missed in her first season then produced Benediction and her subsequent foal died.
Queen Carey has since produced a colt foal by Bettors Delight.
While Benediction was impressive in winning her heat, so too was first starter Lily Darling from the Max Hadley stable.
Lily Darling (Modern Art-Meadow Briar) was bred by the Wright family and is raced by the breeders.
The filly was given the gun run by driver Rohan Hadley who had her in the one-out-one-back slot throughout. She was held up approaching the homer turn but when Hadley squeezed clear through a narrow gap the filly accelerated and hit the line a metre clear of Dawn Of Niadh and Little Bit Feral with the luckless Wundababe a close-up fourth.