By Jordyn Bublitz<\/p>\n
Some of the best Fillies and Mares the country has to offer were on display on Friday night at Alexandra Park, with the running of two Group 1 features; the TAB Queen of Diamonds and the Woodlands Stud Queen of Hearts.<\/p>\n
Ya Rite Darl claimed all honours in the Queen of Diamonds, delivering a composed and professional performance to secure group one glory.<\/p>\n
Trained by Robert and Jenna Dunn, the filly lined up as the only three-year-old in a field of older more seasoned mares, adding extra weight to her success.<\/p>\n
Drawn awkwardly from barrier 12, John Dunn had little option but to settle towards the tail of the field. With a lap remaining he made his move, sending her forward three-wide to take up the parked position for the final 800 metres.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Despite the mid-race workload, the filly travelled strongly turning for home and maintained her momentum down the straight, pulling clear to win by half a length.\u00a0
It was a tidy, disciplined performance and an encouraging sign given her recent racing had been hampered by inopportune breaks in running.<\/p>\n
On this occasion, her manners held together when it mattered most.<\/p>\n
The Woodlands Stud Queen of Hearts delivered a contrasting type of contest, with a decisive winner but an unfortunate incident marring the finish.\u00a0
Francent, who has shown a clear affinity for Alexandra Park, produced another strong display to continue her northern form.<\/p>\n
Driven by Samantha Ottley, the pair settled safely in the running line from their second row draw. Ottley elected to move mid-race, taking control of the pace and letting the talented mare dictate her own terms.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Turning for home, her main threat appeared to come from Captain\u2019s Mistress, who was building momentum late before a sudden equipment failure saw trainer-driver Nathan Williamson dislodged from the sulky.<\/p>\n
Francent remained professional through the disruption and went on to score the Group 1 victory.<\/p>\n
Following the finish, Ottley showed excellent horsemanship by safely catching the loose Captain\u2019s Mistress, preventing any further risk to the horse or those nearby.<\/p>\n
*When an update on Nathan Williamson is available we will have that on our website*\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Jordyn Bublitz Some of the best Fillies and Mares the country has to offer were on display…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58095,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-181158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181158\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}