Impressive debut win by filly first time out
KINGSTON, Jamaica - Nefertari, a three-year-old bay filly bred by Savoy Stomp out of Princess Geeta, made her racing debut one to remember by scoring an impressive come-from-behind 6 ½ lengths win in a native-bred three-year-old maiden special weight event for fillies only on Saturday, March 12, 2022, at Caymanas Park.
Owned by Ajax Bjorn and trained by Anthony Nunes, Nefertari, who is a half-sister to former Jamaica Oaks winner Fayrouz, staggered out of the starting gates in the 6 ½ furlongs (1,300m) contest, giving the field a huge advantage, with winning at the time seemed an impossible task.
Nefertari only began to show herself approaching the half-mile (800m) when she rounded horses but was some still well off the leaders. Jockey Linton Steadman then got Nefertari in full flow on the outside of runners in deep stretch.
Still looking a little rough around the edges, Nefertari scooted clear to post an emphatic victory over Mila’s All That with Zion’s Princess (Ruja Lahoe) third another length away. The winning time was 1:23.3.
“When the starting gates opened and I didn’t see her (Nefertari), I said well this just followed up last week with Morimoto, who was withdrawn after an incident at the gates.
“Then I saw her at the three-eighths pole maybe about fifth or sixth and then I just started seeing a shadow on the outside and I figured it was her and that was pretty unbelievable for a performance. I know that she is a nice filly but I didn’t think she could have recovered from such a bad start.
“She worked two weeks ago out of the starting gates and was a little jittery, so we took her back on Thursday, two days ago, just to re-school her and she behaved beautifully like a perfect lady. We, therefore, had no thoughts of anything like this happening,” Nunes said.
As for the upcoming Classic series of races, the champion trainer added: “Nefertari shows the propensity to go long, mainly in the mornings and the same thing she showed this afternoon but this is maiden company and she has a long way to go before she can get close to the best fillies around.”
