Princess Sparkle 25/7/2008

Robert's filly Sparkles


Friday, 25 July 2008:

The Robert Smerdon-trained Princess Sparkle, owned by Nick Moraitis, broke through for her first career victory at Geelong this afternoon on the Thoroughtrack.
Robert SmerdonPhoto by Racing and Sports
The daughter of Bel Esprit who was having her sixth racetrack appearance had been working up to win finishing a handy third last time out over the same track and distance when ridden for speed early.However this afternoon, race rider Casey Bruce under strict instructions from Smerdon allowed the filly to settle and relax before putting her into the race.“Last start she went hard early and raced forward for a majority of the race, but she did not finish it off as well as we had expected,” Smerdon said.“So today we decided to revert to letting her settle early and endeavored to ride her back in the field. As we have seen riding her more patiently has paid dividends and that seems to be the key to her.”The mount on Princess Sparkles was reward for Casey Bruce who does a lot of Smerdon's stable trackwork and she did not let anyone down.“I went out with a plan to follow the main chances but she was traveling so well mid race that I had no option but to let he slide forward,” an excited Bruce said.“She really won quite easily at the finish and I expect she will have no trouble handling longer distances.”Smerdon also shares the view about Princess Sparkles ability to possibly handle further, pointing out she is bred to get at least a mile.