The speed was on in Saturday’s Listed Miss Andretti Stakes (1100m) at Ascot, setting the race up for Willie Pike to come with a booming finish on the Artie Schiller (USA) mare Flirtini.
The Simon Miller-trained mare was luckless when fifth in the Group 1 Winterbottom Stakes in November but disappointed at her most recent start in the Group III AJ Scahill Stakes at Ascot on December 5.
She found the right race to break a drought that dates back to November 2019 in the Colonel Reeves Stakes over the same track and distance.
Flirtini defeated Carocapo (Husson) by one and a quarter lengths with Essential Spice (Gingerbread Man) a short-head back in third.
“I was very bullish about her chances today,” Miller said.
“I said to Pike pre-race she was unlucky in the Winterbottom and she was going better now.
“I was a little nervous in the run when she came off the bit a fair way out, but she picked it up again just before the turn and I thought it is back on again.
“With the little freshen-up, she has been like the old Flirtini,
“It’s rewarding for the stable and for (owners) Jen and Barry (McRostie) who have supported us heaps. They have probably been frustrated because if she doesn’t draw a gate she has to go right back and get on the back of the right one.
“It has been a good race for them, they have won it twice, so they have another good broodmare.”
A $150,000 purchase by Barry McRostie from the Emirates Stud draft at the 2017 Inglis Classic Yearling Sale, Flirtini advances her record to 6 wins, 3 seconds and 5 thirds from 23 starts with earnings of $557,100.
A half-sister to the multiple stakes-winner Truson (Al Maher) Flirtini is one of eight winners from ten to race out of the Hennesy (USA) mare Ajaweed who is out of a half-sister to Artie Schiller’s dam Hidden Light.
Ajaweed died in March 2019. Her final foal is a 3yo Smart Missile filly bought by New Breed Racing / M Costa for $100,000 out of the Gainsborough Lodge draft at the 2019 Inglis Classic Yearling Sale.
Named Hembrow, she has placed at Doomben in three starts.
