Promising filly Donna Chiara put her hand up for upcoming stakes assignments with a dominant performance in the Seahorse Supplements Maiden 3YO (1200m) at Timaru on Wednesday.

The daughter of Belardo competed in strong company as a juvenile, placing behind subsequent Group One-performer Red Sea before heading for a spell. Returning as a three-year-old, Donna Chiara made her first appearance for Te Akau Racing’s Riccarton arm on the synthetic, where she finished runner-up to Robdontess.

Reverting back to her own age group, Donna Chiara was heavily favoured to break maidens closing at $2.90, with jockey Wiremu Pinn showing plenty of intent early to sit outside the pacemaker in Holdem. The filly shook off Holdem turning into the straight and she was simply cruising from the 200m, being eased down by Pinn at the post to score by 1-½ lengths to a fast-closing Kaiseda.

Mark Walker and Sam Bergerson, who lead the Te Akau stable from Matamata, were represented at the Phar Lap Raceway by stable foreman Hunter Durrant.

“She (Donna Chiara) took a lot of improvement from her first-up run and I think the addition of blinkers by Mark and Sam was the key,” Durrant said.

“It was good to see her get the job done quite easily in the end. We’ll see how she pulls up before deciding what we aim her for in the future.”

Walker was equally impressed by the performance, indicating the Gr.3 Barneswood Farm Stakes (1400m) on October 12 was the likely target for his filly.

“It was a really good win by Donna Chiara and a good ride by Wiremu to put her in the race,” he said.

“He was positive from the gates and that was the winning of the race.

“She’s getting stronger and more mature, as time goes on, and the win should give her a lot of confidence. She’ll go on to bigger things now and hopefully head towards the Barneswood Stakes at Ashburton.

“It’s great to get another win for Lib Petagna, in his colours, and we always appreciate the support of breeders like him. He’s got the breeding operation in full swing at Elsdon Park, and has an outstanding stud manager in Kerrie Cox.”

Bred by Little Avondale Trust out of a Zabeel mare in Bellabaci, Donna Chiara was purchased by Bruce Perry for $90,000 at the 2023 Karaka Yearling Sales and is raced by Petagna’s JML Bloodstock.

The Eldson Park principal acquired Kevin Hickman’s Valachi Downs property in 2022 and is expanding his broodmare band, which would be greatly enhanced with black-type honours for Donna Chiara.

“We bought her to be a nice filly and she’s out of Sam’s (Williams) great family,” Perry said.

“Lib has a great setup on a beautiful farm at Elsdon Park, and Kevin Hickman (Valachi Downs) had done an amazing job there.

“Lib is fortunate to have stallion shares in the likes of Savabeel, Per Incanto, Alabama Express, Ardrossan, Super Seth, and Noverre, which makes life a lot easier when it comes to breeding rights.

“Donna Chiara might have a crack at the Barneswood, which won’t be easy, but it’s a suitable stakes race. In order for Donna Chiara to earn her keep as a broodmare at Elsdon she probably has to be a black type filly.

“It’s nice to have a filly out that family and if she can get some black type as a three-year-old, whether it’s in the spring, or in the autumn leading up to the Warstep Stakes, it would be great.

“She’s a big leggy filly and there should be no reason, if she settles, that she wouldn’t get a mile and a bit further, especially as a three-year-old against her own age group, which is sometimes when they can get a distance that they may not ever get at any other age.”