News

Bad habit doesn't stop Weir's Delight at Moonee Valley

15th Jun 2013

Racenet - Brad Waters - Saturday, 15 June 2013

Ballarat trainer Darren Weir says Ava’s Delight has picked up a bad habit but she still managed to score a decisive win in Saturday’s Dominant Handicap (1500m) at Moonee Valley.

Ava’s Delight continued her recent run of missing the start in the $100,000 event, leaving Weir with a bad feeling early in the race but in-form rider Damian Lane managed to plot a path to victory on the filly.

"She’s got into this rotten trait of missing the start and as it turned out today, it ended up a beautiful ride but when she was two lengths slow again I thought, ‘oh God, here we go again’,” Weir said.

"Anyway it worked out well.”

Ava’s Delight recovered from her slow start to settle midfield on the rail for Lane while the Mick Price-trained Hunger set a reasonable speed up front.

The daughter of Artie Schiller began to improve into contention from the 700 metres to be within four lengths of the lead rounding the home turn.

Ava’s Delight was too strong for the honest Hunger in the straight as she drew clear late to score a strong 2-3/4-length win. Underestimation finished fairly to grab third from Quick Snitzel.

Weir said things went against the rising four-year-old in her previous runs this time in but Ava’s Delight had the scope to tackle tougher races than her Moonee Valley assignment.

"She’s been a little bit unlucky but we have been happy with how she’s coming on,” Weir said.

"She’s a nice filly and we are hoping she progresses to a stakes race at some stage later on in her career and she’ll get over further as well.

"There is a 2000-metre race coming up soon, we might look at that, and there is a three-year-old filly series on in a couple of weeks too so we might head towards that.”

Ava’s Delight was Weir’s 15th winner at Moonee Valley for the season.

Ava's Delight (pictured as yearling) was purchased for just $10,000 from the 2011 Inglis Melbourne Autumn Yearling Sale. She has returned her owners Galadi & M J Charles over $230,000 in career earnings.