Simply The Best returns in style
After starting with a bang last November, winning impressively and even evoking talk that the new Princess Popstar was in town, the Philip Feanny-conditioned Simply The Best noticeably faltered in her next two runs.
The bay filly by Adore The Gold – Supa Lei, which makes her a half-sister to Franfield, finished seventh, way behind stablemate em>Sorrentino’s Star on November 28 (2015) and in her seasonal entry ended five lengths third behind a re-energised Fedora on February 27.
Then came Saturday and a new Simply The Best. With Paul Francis riding for the first time, she missed the break but quickly recovered to go down into second position behind Dr Banner (Jevvanne Erwin) at the half-mile. She then assumed pole position in the race towards the final bend and that was that in the contest.
Cruising nicely on the lead turning for home and with a couple of cracks from the whip of Francis as a reminder that the race was not yet over, the bay filly then powered home to win by 10 lengths in the 1,100-metre event.
Proud President, under Aaron Chatrie, made a bold move at the top of the straight to finish in second position ahead ofMegatron (Shane Ellis) in third.
Simply The Best covered the distance in a fast 1:06:2 minutes involving splits of 23:1 and 46:2 seconds.
“The performance by Simply The Best was good as she ran a very encouraging race today (Saturday). She is a nice filly and once she didn’t bleed throughout the race, it was going to be how far she would win by,” Feanny told the Complete Racing Guide.
Francis said that he was merely a pilot aboard Simply The Best as he really had nothing to do.
“It was really a stroll in the Park today (Saturday) as she was unchallenged throughout the race. She ran a really great race as she stamped her class by destroying the field, basically cantering the entire trip.
“We stumbled out a little, but within a couple of strides she just went around the entire field on her way to victory. Truly a nice racehorse in the making,” Francis said.
Simply The Best, a bay filly by Adore The Gold out of the Royal Minister mare Supa Lei, is bred by Clovis and Hermine Metcalfe and owned by Donald Wehby and Clovis Metcalfe.