The Stephen Marsh-trained Shesonfire was backed into $1.70 favouritism for the Mills Reef Winery 1100 at Arawa Park on Wednesday and she did not disappoint punters, winning by 1-1/2 lengths over Lismore Diamond.

 

The four-year-old daughter of Zacinto has been knocking on the door for some time, placing in four of her previous five starts.

 

Her connections were thrilled with the victory and are hoping she can add to her win tally before a breeding career beckons.

 

“It’s a big sigh of relief, we have been waiting for this for a long time,” Racing Manager Todd Pollard said. 

 

“Probably the last five starts we have been thinking this is her day and she has finally done it for some great owners.

 

“Now that she has had her maiden win, hopefully she can go on with it. She has got a nice pedigree behind her, she is a half-sister to a good horse (Fifty Fifty) in Hong Kong who is a Group Three winner, so she has got a lot of value as a broodmare.”

 

 

 

The Lance O’Sullivan and Andrew Scott-trained Autumn Wild added a second win to her career tally at Rotorua on Wednesday when taking out the ISCL 1230.

 

The three-year-old filly settled at the rear of the field for apprentice jockey Taiki Yanagida before he improved her four-wide at the top of the straight and ran away with the race, winning by two lengths over Atom Ant, with a further head back to Full of Talent.

 

“She still wants to overdo it a bit around the back there, but Lance was adamant that he wanted to teach her to relax, breath and quicken,” Scott said.

 

“It was good today that she did quicken the way we had hoped. If she can just continue to learn to relax and quicken like the way she did, there is still a future for her for sure.

 

“It’s good that she is coming on today.”

 

Scott believes she will be better suited to racing over the autumn months.

 

“She is only going to get stronger over the autumn months when there is a bit more give in the ground, but it was really encouraging today.”

 

Wild Autumn is out of dual Group One winner Regimental Gal, who went on to be crowned Champion Three-Year-Old Filly in Australia in 2003-04.