Learning To Fly has produced an empathic display of talent to win the Group 3 Widden Stakes on Saturday afternoon for trainer Annabel Neasham.
The filly by Justify was a late drifter in the market despite opening a short-priced favourite after barrier draws on Wednesday, and seemingly overcame that drift with a dominant win against the girls, stopping the clock at an impressive 1:03:30.
A time which proved slightly quicker than the colts earlier in the day as Red Resistance stopped the clock at 1:03:60 respectively.
It was Perfect Proposal for Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott who stepped best to lead them up, while the eventual winner sat to her outside throughout the 1100m contest.
Firming favourite Steel City got the perfect run on the leaders back from Jason Collett who simply couldn’t chase down the brave Learning To Fly who gave a strong kick to hold off all challengers under jockey Chad Schofield.
Mumbai Muse and Cigar Flick weren’t too far off the winner, finding the minor money for third and fourth. It was all honours to the winner; however, who’ve rivals had every chance to chase her down, but were no match for Learning To Fly.
2023 Group 3 Widden Stakes – Learning To Fly
Annabel Neasham couldn’t have been happy with the debut from her two-year-old speaking psot-race, who now finds herself an equal second favourite for the Golden Slipper at $8 with online bookmakers.
“She was brilliant. She floated in front and I thought the other horse was going to get her, but she just dug deep and first up to do that – she showed a lot more early speed than I expected,” said Neasham.
“Chad (Schofield) did a great job to get her into that spot and she’s very exciting – We think she’s quite special, and to do it in the Coolmore colours is very exciting.”
Annabel Neasham also talked about mapping out the plan for Learning To Fly with the connections looking to the Golden Slipper; however, the Inglis Millennium is also on the radar.
“She is an Inglis horse, so we could possibly go to the Millennium in a fortnight. Obviously the Golden Slipper’s the real aim, that hopefully what the grand final will be.
“We’ll get her home, we’ll see how she is and I’ll talk to the team.”
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