WELL bred filly Iden Princess gave an indication that she could have a bright future when she scored an impressive win to break her maiden status in the Hobart Belmont over 1609m at Tattersall’s Park in Hobart last Sunday night.
With her trainer Christian Salter in the sulky, the daughter of Life Sign-Iden Byrd settled in the one-out-one-back position and when Salter made his run in the back straight the last time cruised to the leaders and then staved off a later and determined challenge from the favourite Boadiceas Flame to defeat that filly by a head with outsider Star Blushing four metres astern.
The two-year-old filly is in her second preparation but is clearly showing the benefit of her first try at the game in March-April.
Iden Princess contested the Betfair Sweepstakes but was too inexperienced to make her presence felt but after a two-month freshen-up she returned to racing last month and finished fourth in a heat of the Evicus Stakes and then ran third in the $30,000 final behind stablemate Cloudy Delight.
“We thought this filly had ability from day one but she’s just taken a while to come to terms with what racing is all about,” Salters aid.
“She got a cold early on in her first preparation and it hung about for a while, which affected her appetite,” he said.
The filly’s win was well received by two of her part-owners Stephen and Tania Heenen who are first time owners.
“I met the Heenens when I was doing my milk run. They had a take-away shop in Glenorchy and one thing led to another and they took shares in this filly,” Salter said.
Iden princess is also part-owned by her breeders Elliott and Helen Booth who began their breeding enterprise with this filly’s dam Iden Byrd who won on debut at New Norfolk in November 1993.
At stud Iden Byrd has produced seven foals to race and all but one (her first) has won.
Idengood Time is the best-performed with 13 wins and 35 minor placings from almost $100,000 in stakes.