The blossoming of Princess Ava
Princess Ava, the Anthony Nunes-conditioned, four-year-old bay filly, put in another impressive offering on Sunday, July 12 to defeat rivals at the Overnight Allowance level. This was Princess Ava’s first attempt in the class while notching her third-consecutive success.
Showing no signs of rustiness after returning from a long break, Princess Ava won by 1 ¾ lengths in a time of 1:38.3 for a mile (1,600m) in the three-year-old and upwards call.
Princess Ava was kept behind by jockey Dane Nelson as Jamai Raja (Paul Francis), Uncle Vinnie (Dane Dawkins), and Sentient (Christopher Mamdeen), in that order, took over proceedings leaving the six-furlong (1,200m) point.
Long strides carried Princess Ava into a striking position, navigating the half-mile (800m), but it was her well-known prowess to accelerate in the last part of her races, which again came to the fore.
Princess Ava was simply unstoppable as she put behind Sentient and Crimson (Robert Halledeen).
“I thought that Princess Ava ran an impressive race. She trained beautifully, and I am happy with the outcome. We gave her time off after her hard three-year-old campaign, and the COVID-19 lockdown of races gave her a bit more time to rest.
“She [ Princess Ava] has blossomed into a good four-year-old, and we have high hopes for her. We went overweight for Dane [Nelson] as he knows her inside out. He did a fantastic job guiding her,” Nunes said.