Trainer Anthony Nunes is admitting that the running style of his talented filly Nadeshico surprised him last Saturday, when his charge made it a gate-to-wire affair in winning the 17th running of the $950,000 Terremoto Trophy for native-bred two-year-old non-winners of two.

Although expected to lead, the problematic Exhilarate was slowly into stride at the off. Nadeshico, ridden by Wesley Henry, seized the opportunity and went in front, coming home by two lengths in the five-furlong (1,000m) event on the round course. The final time for the Restricted Allowance race was 1:01.0 with splits of 23.3 and 47.3 seconds.

“She ( Nadeshico) surprised me as she made all the running to win here today. I expected Exhilarate to lead and thought we would stalk Exhilarate, but Nadeshico broke on top and simply did what she had to do. The plan was to sit second behind Exhilarate and see if my filly could get close to Exhilarate, but we got a great start and that was when Nadeshico won the race,” Nunes told the Supreme Racing Guide.

Nunes then stated that he is expecting a lot more from Nadeshico as her career develops, especially when the two-year-old enters longer races later on in the season.

“She is a very nice filly. She needs to settle down as she is a bit highly strung, but she is talented and she is bred to get a distance of ground. Once she stays healthy and sound, I think you are going to hear more about her,” Nunes predicted.

Nadeshico, breaking from post position four, within a couple of strides shot into an early lead, with Exhilarate (Oneil Mullings) recovering nicely from a poor start and going down into second place on the outside of the rail-running Dad’s Luck (Odeen Edwards) leaving the three-eighths pole.

Even though Exhilarate drew alongside Nadeshico turning for home, the Natural Selection offspring responded well and powered away for a comfortable victory in the end.

Exhilarate ended in second place ahead of Dad’s Luck in third and Necromancer (Bebeto Harvey) in fourth.

Nunes had trained Terremoto, in whose honour the race was run, and he beamed with pleasure after his charge won the event.

“I think I have won it [Terremoto Trophy] three or four times before. It is always nice to win this race as he [ Terremoto] was a very special horse to me. He was my first ‘big horse’, so to speak, back in 1998.

“I loved him dearly and I think that he is the only horse to have won two Derby races and a Superstakes in one year. He won the Jamaica Derby, went to Trinidad and won their Derby, and came back to Jamaica and won the Superstakes. That, in any book, is outstanding,” Nunes declared.