De Lye La showed some worth on her fourth career starts when dictating the pace throughout and drawing away for a comfortable win in division two of the maiden special weight contest for native-bred three year olds over four furlongs (800m) on Saturday, March 18, 2023.

Bred by Bern Identity out of the Pulpit mare Along, De Lye La, running with the blinkers on and taking off the cheek pieces, led from the first jump in a dominating 5 1/4-length win at the wire, stopping the clock in 48.1 seconds.

De Lye La, trained by Ian Parsard, was expected to figure on debut on January 21 in a 5 ½ furlongs (1,100m) race, but the 2-5 favourite then broke off slowly and never recovered when finishing in fourth place by 14 lengths behind the winner.

Her next two races were even more disappointing, as she changed equipment twice to see if she could improve. De Lye La finished in sixth position by 14 lengths over 7 furlongs (1,400m) on February 11 when wearing the blinkers for the first time. Connections took off the blinkers and fitted De Lye La with the cheek pieces, and that didn’t help either, as the bay filly, who was installed as the 2-1 favourite in a 6-furlong (1,200m), after leading the race coming into the lane, she weakened and finished in eighth place by over 20 lengths on March 4.

The assistant trainer, Peter-John Parsard, said that he was pleased with the performance from De Lye La, and the plan going forward is to go easy on her as she does possess some ability.

“We made some changes, and she got back on the equipment that I think she liked. I think that she enjoyed the straight, definitely, and I think she was just fit and ready for this race. I think that some horses take a little longer to come on, and I think she was ripe and ready today, she ran an excellent race, and so we are very, very happy,” he said.

Ridden by Reyan Lewis, De Lye La was quick out of the starting gates and dashed to the front of the field ahead of Captain Philip (Oshane Nugent), Mr Fete (Tevin Foster) and Aria’s Reign, the mount of Richard Henry.

De Lye La stayed with the field for a bit before pulling away towards the end of the race for an easy win. Mr Fete, who was hampered down as the favourite, finished in second place ahead of Aria’s Reign in third.