Trainer John Thompson is confident Emmadella will get more opportunities at stakes level in the future after the mare raced to a comfortable victory in a Midway Handicap at Randwick.
Emmadella finished fourth in the Group 3 Winx Guineas at the Sunshine Coast at the end of her previous preparation in July and the four-year-old has shown she has returned in good form this time in, racing to a one-length victory second-up in Saturday’s benchmark-72 Midway Handicap over 1400m.
Jockey Nash Rawiller was able to get Emmadella across into a midfield position, one off the fence, from a wide barrier draw and then after getting into the clear early in the home straight the $2.40 betting companies favourite overhauled her rivals in convincing fashion.
Magnatear ($5.50) held on for second with Jaex ($51) another three quarters of a length away third.
“She’s a lovely mare,” Thompson said.
“It’s hard to get carried away winning a Midway but she’s a mare that’s going to go through her grades. She’s super honest and it was pretty painless there, watching that.
“She’ll end up back in stakes grade in the not too distant future.”
Thompson said the plan would likely be to try to get a couple more wins on the board for the mare before looking to stakes race options again.
“She already ran fourth in a stakes race in Queensland at the end of the prep when she had probably already peaked,” Thompson said.
Emmadella’s Randwick victory took her overall record to four wins and four placings from 13 starts to date.
Rawiller said Emmadella got into a good rhythm during the race and the jockey was taken by the mare’s turn of foot at the business end of the race.
“She made what looked like a tricky race on paper feel and look quite easy,” Rawiller said.
