A well-named four-legged star of the future, and an apprentice jockey enjoying her best metropolitan meeting shared the limelight at Saturday’s Morphettville Parks meeting.
After just two runs, Instant Celebrity is living up to her name, winning both impressively, including Saturday’s Listed Oaklands Plate over 1400m.
Ridden by in-form, now-senior jockey Kayla Crowther, Instant Celebrity showed group-class acceleration at the top of the straight to power past a quality field of two-year-olds.Post-race, the Phillip Stokes stable was justifiably talking about the Thousand Guineas at Caulfield as a possible spring target, and the daughter of Not a Single Doubt is now an $11 chance for that Group 1 event in official TAB markets.
The win of Instant Celebrity also marked a milestone for Crowther, who notched her 100thwinner of the 2019/20 season, after saluting earlier in the day aboard Territory Titan.
Meanwhile apprentice Sophie Logan had a great day on Saturday, but it could easily have been something extraordinary.Sophie landed her first city double, winning on Defiant Dancer and Exalted Ruth. However, she also finished an extremely narrow second on Beeokay (beaten in the last stride by Dom Tourneur on Oh Mo) and on Taberna in the last race. For good measure, Sophie also rode another placing on God’s Penny. That’s a good day’s work for the talented rider.
Experienced hoop Barend Vorster rode a double, starting with the progressive and unbeaten Hypersonic, for the McEvoy stable, and following up in the next race with Wounded Soldier.The Phillip Stokes stable landed a double, with Instant Celebrity and Defiant Dancer.
In a day of milestones, Bordertown-based trainer James Dodgson won his first city race with Territory Titan, who brought up a hat-trick of wins, while Strathalbyn’s Andrew Clarken won his first metropolitan race as an individual trainer with Sadente in race nine.
Instant Celebrity’s win was clearly the most impressive of the day, however Hypersonic also showed outstanding potential in his victory.
South Australian racing ventured to Port Augusta on Sunday, when the biggest surprise of the day was $1.14favourite Fulton Street getting rolled by Connermara Rose in the Flying Doctor Cup over 1867m.The pair spaced the rest of the field.
