LUCKY VEGA X GOLDDRAGON REEF

We have been keeping tabs on various 2yo fillies at our yards with several positive reports starting to filter through as the level of exercise starts to increase. Nick saw every filly that went through a sale in the UK and Ireland as a yearling and his sales notes are a vital part of our decision on whether we make an offer or not.

This filly was originally part of a five horse shortlist at the James Owen yard and that list has now shrunk to three horses who the yard feel are well above average, with one of those been our Acclamation filly out of Country Carnival.

Around this time last year, James called us up about another Acclamation filly who he strongly recommended and she went on the win a £30,000 novice on her debut before finishing second in the £100k EBF Fillies final, collecting over £50,000 in prize money and now finding herself rated 86.

James has a lot of 2yo's in the yard with either full or part ownerships available and he felt that this filly was the one we should be purchasing, and with that in mind, Sam James went in to sit on her during a recent two day trip to Newmarket where he sat on the bulk of our Newmarket based horses.

He reported that she gave him a great feel, she's a big scopey horse who should only improve but he felt she was full of class, going on to add that she felt classier than Wetsand who we bought last year, straight away we picked up the phone to get the deal done!

Looking at her pedigree and physical make up, the plan will be to follow the Wetsand route, with the £30k restricted novice at Doncaster a plausible starting point, a race we have won for the last two years with Wetsand and Glamis Road.

The £100k EBF Fillies Finale at Goodwood will be another race on her list of options, she looks like she'll be a seven furlong filly as a two year old and her low hammer price will give her a very low racing weight.

Crucially, she qualifies for French premiums and with rising transport costs, these are a welcome addition on top of any prize money we can pick up, whilst securing valuable blacktype will again be on our to do list.

By Lucky Vega, we already have one potentially smart 2yo by the unexposed stallion and he's a stallion we are keen to keep onside with his UK runners doing well in their first season. Lam Yai and Senorita Vega were both two very good fillies by Lucky Vega with group form to their name and we are keen to highlight that six out of seven of the stallion's highest rates progeny worldwide are all fillies!

This filly is a second produce out of a winning mare, the first was a full sister who ran with credit on every start, recording a mark of 74 in Ireland after running in some very competitive Irish maidens, that level of form would be more than enough to win a UK maiden.

We have compared sales videos with the first foal and our filly and its night and day the physical makeup of our filly, this can often be the case with first foals and everything points towards our new purchase being something a little special!