After almost 40 years as a horse owner, Nick Vass knows it’s important not to get too carried away with wins and losses.
But even the experienced thoroughbred judge was left in awe of Autumn Ballet’s comfortable two-length victory in the Black Opal Stakes at Canberra on Sunday.
Towards the back of the pack at the turn in the Group 3 feature worth $200,000 over 1200m, she made a breathtakingly-smooth pass on leader The Years and was not headed from there.
“What an outstanding run hey – that was a pretty impressive debut,” Vass told HorseBetting.com.au.
“If you watched her two trials, she had it in her.
“I was hoping she wouldn’t get caught up or run into any back-markers, or have the front-markers slowing up.
“But they did spread nice and wide on the turn, and she had plenty of room to come through.”
Vass was also full of praise for the calm temperament Tim Clark showed aboard his talented filly.
“Timmy rode her a treat – what can I say? He didn’t panic,” the part-owner said.
“He just had her comfortable, got her to relax and when they all spread around that corner she just took a while to wind up.
“Eventually she did and zoomed past them. It was a great effort.”
Outlining Autumn Ballet’s class, she was the first horse on debut to win the Black Opal Stakes.
A $340,000 purchase for Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott from last year’s Inglis Easter Yearling Sales, the $2.90 favourite with bookmakers by star sire The Autumn Sun and out of Grisi lived up to all the hype.
“She was an outstanding-looking filly when we bought her,” Vass said.
“She was the first Stakes winner for The Autumn Sun, by the way, this season.
“That’s another feather in The Autumn Sun’s cap. She’s still untapped, this horse.
“We don’t know how good she can be. Tim said there was more to come from her.
“Everybody was pretty excited.”
Vass said Autumn Ballet’s next assignment could be the Group 2 Percy Sykes Stakes – also for two-year-old fillies and over the same distance – at Randwick on April 8.
“They’re talking maybe the Percy Sykes from here. I’m not sure what their plans are – we’re still nutting it out,” he said.
“We’re just trying to see how the horse pulls up and get her back to Sydney, and we’ll work from there.”
Vass was also delighted to see Make A Call finish third for the Peter and Paul Snowden stable in the Black Opal Stakes.
“Just getting a good horse is so hard these days. I’m involved with a lot of horses,” he said.
“I also ran third with Make A Call. I’m part of the Newgate Syndicate.
“That was an impressive run, too.
“To get first and third in a Black Type race doesn’t happen often.”
2023 Black Opal Stakes Race Replay – Canberra 12/3/23
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