Aquagirl has relished the rise in distance and a drop in grade to break back into the winner’s stall at Ballarat.
And the victory in the Magic Millions Ballarat 3YO & 4YO Classic (1100m) on Saturday may have also earned the Phillip Stokes-trained mare a trip to Queensland for the Magic Millions Carnival in January.
Providing Ben Allen the second leg of a double after his seven-length win aboard Marabi earlier in the program, Aquagirl scored a half-neck win from Easy Single with Ranting a short-head away third.
Aquagirl was coming off a last start tenth to Halvorsen in Listed company at Flemington during the Melbourne Cup Carnival.
Syndicator Wylie Dalziel said no plans had been set in place for Aquagirl’s immediate future with a trip to Queensland to be considered.
“I’ll have a chat to Phillip and see where we go,” Dalziel said.
“Possibly the Gold Coast but she is a black type placed mare and worth quite a bit of money now.
“We paid $60,000 and she’s really well bred with a Group 3 placing to her name.
“I know that Moods and Stokesy aren’t big on taking mares to the Magic Millions, it’s hot and all that, so we’ll reassess, but it was a fantastic win.
“There’s a great bunch of owners involved, and they’ll be rapt.”
Allen said a return to racing around a corner had suited Aquagirl.
“She’s a horse that’s had a bit of ability but doesn’t seem to like the straight, so we just put a line through that,” Allen said.
“She was a bit unlucky at her previous start as was the second horse in the same race and they were coming here with equal chances.
“She jumped well but there was always going to be nice speed and I was happy to ride her with a bit of cover and she ran the 1100 metres out strong.”
