Following a series of near misses Best Stone deservedly got her head in front for the first time at Canterbury.
The Phoenix Thoroughbreds owned filly had not finished outside the places in five previous starts. Those runs included plenty of hard-luck stories in addition to bumping into one or two very useful types.
Trainer John Thompson has always been adamant the talented three-year-old would improve given time and that patience was rewarded as Best Stone claimed a comfortable success.
Conscious of her previous of her bad luck in the past Thompson and jockey Nash Rawiller hatched a plan to avoid traffic problems by sending the daughter of I Am Invincible to the front as soon as the gates opened. Drawn on the inside Rawiller used the favourable berth to his full advantage punching his mount long the rail to a relatively uncontested lead. Stepping up in distance, the filly seemingly relished the slightly steadier pace of the 1250m trip and relaxed into a good rhythm. Ticking off the fractions she continued to travel strongly as the majority of her rivals started to show signs of keeping pace. At the top of the straight Rawiller just allowed Best Stone a little more rein and she opened up a bit of daylight to her pursuers. Asked to go and break her maiden she comfortably maintained that advantage to record a one and a half-length victory.
“She’s been very consistent, racing with no luck.” said Thompson post-race. “She got box in here at Canterbury a few runs back and just had the outside gate last start and had to do too much work early so was found wanting at the finish. From gate one today we wanted to take the race by the scruff of the neck, Nash did that and it was pretty painless.
“She does well in the stable; she’s not a gross filly we don’t have to train her too hard. She was at the top of her game here today and we were pretty confident.”
The victory is Phoenix Thoroughbreds’ 99th Worldwide.