Champion trainer Wayne DaCosta doesn’t want to get too excited too early but he believes he may have unearthed a talented juvenile in England’s Rose who scored an impressive debut win on Saturday, June 29.
The connections of England’s Rose were expecting something special from this filly, especially being a full-sister to 2017 Triple Crown winner She’s A Maneater and she rose to the occasion to land the $1.75 million Starters’ Trophy over 3 furlongs.
In the tender hands of Abigail Able, England’s Rose (Natural Selection – Ahwhofah) made every post a winning one, leading home rivals by 4 ¼ lengths in the native-bred two-year-old maiden special weight event.
England’s Rose, who ran the distance in a good 35.0, led home Wow Wow (Ameth Robles), Coppertone (Simon Husbands) and Loose Ball (Phillip Parchment).
DaCosta is hoping that from this first win his filly will progress.
“Good performance. England’s Rose was drawn on the inside which is a bad post and for a two-year-old running for the first time so you never knew what to expect but she has been such a good a horse in the mornings and we expected her to deliver today (Saturday) and she did just that.
“Well, she is not as good as “Maneater”; she is muscle bound but we will see if she stays or not as right now, she (England’s Rose) looks like a sprinter. In my lifetime, I would be lucky to get another “Maneater”, so if she is a “Maneater” or even near to, then so be it but I would feel honoured to have another one,” DaCosta said.
Commenting on the handling from Able, who was winning her first race, DaCosta gave her the thumbs up.
“Basically she (Able) kept her (England’s Rose) straight as that all was needed. She has been working the horse for the last month-and-a-half, she was aboard on all her gallops on her and so nobody else knew her as well as Abigail,” DaCosta said.
Breeder of England’s Rose, Winston Kong, also the breeder of She’s A Maneater, was there on hand to witness the first of his filly.
“Well, she won like how the trainer said she would win. When the gates opened, “she gonna fly out” and the jockey rode her competently, although she (Abigail) didn’t win a race before as this was her first,” he said.
