Jockey Blake Shinn concluded a satisfying evening when he guided lightly raced filly Coeur Volante to an impressive victory in the Gr.3 Scarborough Stakes (1200m) at The Valley on Friday night.
It was an eventful evening for Shinn who had opened the eight-race card with wins on Farhh Flung and Ranting before hitting the deck in race four when piloting the Clinton McDonald-trained Fasuto.
Having dusted himself off he returned to the fray to navigate a successful path on Coeur Volante who trainer Mike Moroney believes has a big future, as he sets about guiding her to bigger targets in the Spring.
“She was aided by there being a lot of speed on and looked like she was going to get a good run through but was then held up,” Moroney said.
“I thought it was a really good effort.
“We purchased her as a yearling at Karaka, left her in the New Zealand stable and we gave her two trials, where she had a third and a second. It was after the second trial I thought she was pretty good.
“We bought some of the people who owned her in New Zealand out, while others stayed in. We put new people in from Australia and brought her over.”
Moroney is a big fan of leaving horses in New Zealand through the education process until they are more mature to take advantage of the superior climatic conditions.
“Every horse we buy over there we usually leave them there and educate them in barrier trials before we bring them over,” he said.
Moroney revealed he has some ambitious plans for the filly in the next few months including a tilt at the Gr.1 Thousand Guineas (1600m) at Caulfield which we be run on November 18 this year, as part of a revamped Victorian Spring Carnival.
“We brought her back to target the Thousand Guineas and that’s where we’ll head towards,” he said.
“We’ve got a little program worked out, we’ll see how we go. I was a bit worried about her coming in tonight, she’d gone off her feed for a little while ago.
“We put her in the paddock for a while in the middle of Winter and I wondered whether it was the right thing but she came back and wasn’t eating but she’s come right in the last week so hopefully it’ll be upwards from here.”
Bred by the Fell family from Fairdale Stud out of the Testa Rossa mare Shanina, Moroney and his bother Paul purchased the filly for $90,000 out of the Prima Park draft during the Book 1 Yearling Sale at Karaka in 2022.
She is the younger half-sister of stakes placed filly Hasstobemagic and comes from a family that includes multiple Australian stakes winner Rose Of Peace and outstanding racemare Savanna City who included the Gr.1 AJC Oaks (2400m) amongst her eight career victories. Coeur Volante becomes the 14th individual stakes winner for her Rich Hill Stud-based sire Proisir, who was crowned the Grosvenor Award winner as Champion New Zealand sire for the 2022/2023 racing season.