12 months had passed since the first time
WE HAVE LIFT OFF stepped onto the racetrack. That day she ran 4th in the
Listed Calaway Gal Stakes at Doomben heading towards a
Magic Millions 2yo tilt.
Unfortunately the highly gifted filly subsequently sustained a nasty injury to a hind leg that needed a lot of convalescing and then patience’s as we painstakingly built the filly back up to being a racing prospect.
A lot of Tender Loving Care and skilled horsemanship by connections allowed the filly to return to the track on Wednesday afternoon at Canterbury and despite the enforced 12 months away, she had too much class for her more seasoned opposition when she claimed Race 2 on the programme the
Pluck@Vinery Plate 1100m 3yo Set Weights in 1:05.37 with a last 600m in 35.08.
In the care of boom young trainer BRAD WIDDUP and piloted to perfection by his Brad’s brother-in-law CHRISTIAN REITH, WE HAVE LIFT OFF was never in doubt leading all the way from the barriers to the winning post and only needing to be cuddled rather than forced to the finishing line recording an eased down 0.8 lengths x 0.5 lengths win when clear of the placegetters Zoology and League of Nations then with a further 5 lengths back to the fourth placed runner Guangdong.
The magnificently bred filly was purchased by Dynamic Syndications at the Magic Millions sale.
She is a daughter of
Champion Sire EXCEED AND EXCEL and is the first foal from the high quality racemare
HOUSTON BENEFACTOR. The dam won 3 races from 1100m to 1600m and was placed in the ATC Keith Mackay LR.
HOUSTON BENEFACTOR is a Full Sister to Gr2 Winning / Gr1 Placed
SOVEREIGN NATION and a ¾ sister to Gr1 Winning Champion 3yo
PRINCESS COUP.
Our BOBS Eligible 3yo Filly claimed
$21,970 prizemoney plus the BOBS Bonus of $10,000.
Trainer BRAD WIDDUP and jockey CHRISTIAN REITH were adamant that the 3yo filly would acquit herself extremely well and had no hesitation from scratching from a much weaker assignment on her home track at Hawkesbury last Sunday to run at Canterbury on Wednesday.
Christian said to our owners in the mounting yard pre-race:
“They won’t beat her, she’s the best horse in the race and I will rider like she is the best in the race. I’ll take bad luck out of the equation and go straight to the front.”
Upon returning to scale a winner Christian told Sky Racing:
“She was first-up off quite a while so she was always going to empty out”.
“I just had to make sure she had all the carrots in the tank when I let her go and she did that and she’s got more improvement in her yet.”
Brad Widdup had been very upbeat for several weeks that the filly would run extremely well and had reported the horse had been working super.
Brad told Sky Racing
“we’re in no rush to travel her to the rich Magic Millions raceday next month”.
“I think we’ll see what happens but there’s always next year for that (Magic Millions raceday),” he said.
“There’s no rush, plenty of racing around and she still needs to get a bit smarter but she’s going the right way.”
Now as a 3yo filly she is a valuable commodity having raced twice for a City Win and a 4th in a Stakes Race as a 2yo.
One thing is for certain, the filly has significant upside and good ability and whilst contemplating a trip north to the Magic Millions is tempting, other nice options in Sydney are in sight of this filly in the coming weeks so she will stay here to target some of those options.
Congratulations to her Ownership Team: Dynamic Syndications Racing, Mr P Yesberg, Mr R S Anderton, Mrs A T Woollett, Mr S J Koukoulas, Mr C J McNeill, Mr G A Hodges, Mr G S Cormick, Mr M J Hembury, Mr B J Hails, Mr S A Hails, Mr D A Poletto, Mr M R Smith, Mr G M Oleksinski, Mr A Vella, Mr J P Keeley, Mr D C Batchelor, Mr C Charalambous.
This was Dynamic Syndications 510th Race Win, our 23rd Race Win this season and our 176th Individual Winner from 190 Individual Runners (92.6%).
Brad Widdup only took out his trainers licence in May 2017 and has taken his amazing career to:
96 Starts: 27 Wins (28.1%) and 27 Placings (28.1%).
That’s 56.2% of his starters have run in the first three !
Dynamic Syndications have supplied 9 of these wins for Brad (33%):
CHILCOTIN (2), PLESANTRIES (2), MIAMI DADE, CAPEBEEL, I AM SPECIAL, OVERREACTIVE and now WE HAVE LIFT OFF who became Brad’s 5th Individual Metropolitan Winner joining: Suspenders, Acqume, Za Zi Ba and Junglized.