Ken Casellas | Photo: PACEPIX
A plan devised by champion trainers Greg and Skye Bond worked perfectly when Deni Roberts drove Turn The Page to victory in the $50,000 Daintys Daughter Classic at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
Roberts did not bustle Turn the Page in the early stages of the group 3 feature event for three-year-old fillies in which Turn The Page was the $2.50 favourite from the No. 5 barrier.
Turn The Page was not pushed as she raced three wide for the first 250m before moving to the breeze 150m later as the polemarker Castella Dellacqua ($5.50) ambled through the lead time in 38.4sec.
The opening quarters were run in leisurely splits of 31.4sec. and 31.2sec. before the pace went on with final 400m sections of 28.2sec. and 27.8sec.
Roberts set Turn The Page to the front about 50m from the post and the filly beat Castella Dellacqua by a half neck, rating 1.58.6. Zephyra ($7) finished third after trailing the leader all the way, while August Moon, unbeaten at her five previous starts and the $2.65 second fancy, fought on, out wide, from last at the 900m to finish fifth.
“Deni drove Turn The Page exactly the way we asked her — to get to the breeze where she seems to be comfortable,” said Greg Bond. “We advised Deni to sit off the leader and back herself to beat that filly, by going a bit slower which would force August Moon to have to go earlier.
“Turn The Page got the job done, and now she’s on track for the WA Oaks next Friday week.”
August Moon lost few admirers for the $150,000 Oaks. She raced wide in the fast-run final lap and did a splendid job in finishing fifth.
Turn The Page, owned by Team Bond, is by former champion pacer Vincent and is the fifth foal out of the Sands A Flyin mare Sheza Monkee, the dam of Tell Me This, who finished a short half-head second to ten-year-old Hoiho in a race at Redcliffe in Queensland on Thursday. Interestingly, Hoiho raced 81 times in Western Australia for 13 wins.
Turn The Page had two starts in New Zealand for a second placing, and her six WA starts have resulted in five wins and a second (when beaten by a half-head by three-year-old gelding Lombo Mitchinson).
Bond said that Turn The Page still had a few little quirks and was still learning, but he was extremely happy with her progress. “We spotted her over in New Zealand when, on debut at Addington, she finished second (a head behind Delightful Star in April this year in a field of 14),” he said.
Four days later Turn The Page finished a good fourth behind Treacherous Gall in a heat of the Southern Oaks. “We then arranged a deal with her owner and bought her,” said Bond.