Third on debut in the Listed Merson Cooper Stakes, the Anthony and Sam Freedman trained Point Barrow (Blue Point) resumed at Bendigo on Thursday in the Avis Bendigo 3YO Fillies Maiden Plate (1100m) to break her maiden.
With the field down to just seven of the initial 16 acceptances, Point Barrow was installed the race favourite, ahead of the Lloyd Kennewell trained Espana (Capitalist) who had placed in both of her two starts.
Missing the start slightly and settling with just one behind her in the run, Point Barrow appreciated the tempo set up front initially by the Waterhouse/Bott trained Lilac Girl before Doubtland filly Yuki went along the rails to take over where she maintained a solid clip.
As they reached the turn and Yuki showed she had plenty to offer, the Tim Fitzsimmon trained filly skipped clear by a couple of lengths.
Having come to the outside of the field to make his run aboard Point Barrow, it was cler jockey Daniel Stackhouse knew the capabilities of his filly.
Just as Point Barrow managed to get her head in front of Yuki, the Chris Waller trained She Moves Too (Zousain), who had come along the rail from the tail of the field, charged between the leading duo to make it interesting
With the line was reached, Point Barrow had done enough to take the win, defeating She Moves Too by a head with a half length back to Yuki in third.
Stable rep Billie Rodda was pleased to see the filly break through for her maiden win.
“Obviously, we were holding our breath there for a little bit, but she managed to get the job done,” stated Rodda.
“She has taken a little bit of time to both mentally and physically mature. However, she is a nice horse. We've always had an opinion of her.
“Last prep at Caulfield, obviously she did just get the wonders down the straight and today she seemed to kind of not exactly know how to put them away. So definitely not the finished product yet, but still a horse that we're really excited about going forward.”
With the filly looking like a potential spring carnival contender, Rodda explained where the filly may head.
“We'll just get her home, make sure she pulls up all right. There's the Atlantic Jewel Stakes coming up in a couple of weeks, which probably would suit her. But we'll just see what the boys (Anthony and Sam) want to do with her.”
“Look, she's a lovely filly. She's tried out really nicely. Obviously, she's got some little temperament problems where she can sort of miss a kick or be slow out and get quite racy.
Point Barrow was purchased from the draft of Yarraman Park at the Magic Millions yearling sale for $400,000 by Anthony Freedman Racing Pty Ltd.
Bred in partnership between Morning Rise Stud, Robert McClure, Barbara McClure, and Yarraman Park, Point Barrow is the second foal, and second winner out of the Group 3 MVRC Champagne Stakes-winning Reward For Effort mare Take Pride, from the family of multiple Group 1 winner Mummify.
Take Pride unfortunately missed the following season before foaling a colt by Home Affairs and is due to foal this coming season to Hellbent.
With plenty of potential stakes races open to Point Barrow during the upcoming spring carnival, the clearly talented filly looks capable of joining Blue Point’s current group of 19 individual stakes winners.
After shuttling to Australia for five consecutive seasons at a fee of $44,000 (inc. GST), Blue Point (IRE) did not return this season.
