Juvenile Trial Watch – Hawkesbury

At this time of year there are Magic Millions eligible youngsters popping up all over and two juvenile barrier trials on Monday morning at Hawkesbury produced two interesting winners, one a Snitzel filly we already know is good and the other a colt that was the highest priced first crop yearling for Rubick – both of them sold by Segenhoe Stud.

The Clarry Conners trained filly Diddles was second in the Group III ATC Gimcrack Stakes on debut at the start of spring behind Catch Me and looked sharp and ready to race again in her first public appearance since then.

She jumped fast from an outside gate for Glynn Schofield and led all the way under restraint to win the 760 metre trial by more than a length in 44.65 seconds with Fastnet Rock colt Duty doing a good job to be second in his first outing.

A $400,000 Magic Millions purchase from the Segenhoe Stud draft, Diddles carries the colours of Strawberry Hill Stud and her trainer has enjoyed plenty of success with John Singleton having won the Golden Slipper for him in 2000 with Belle du Jour, who was also a Magic Millions purchase.

Bred by Segenhoe and Gerry Harvey, Diddles is bred to be good being from Group II winner Mimi Lebrock, who won the Magic Millions 2YO Classic and was twice placed in Group I events.

Segenhoe will offer the current yearling from Mimi Lebrock, a colt by I Am invincible, at 2019 Magic Millions as Lot 799.

The runner-up Duty, from the John O'Shea stable, may also have Magic Millions aspirations as he was a $1million Gold Coast purchase from the Element Hill draft and runs in the Coolmore navy blue. He is from stakes-winning Encosta de Lago mare Risk Aversion , a sibling to Group II winner Shania Dane from the family of Group I winning 2YO Summer Passage.

The second heat was won in slightly quicker time by the Brad Widdup trained Rubick colt Jailbreak, a $470,000 Magic Millions purchase from the Segenhoe Stud draft for Jadeskye Racing.

Everything that could go wrong did go wrong for Jailbreak when he finished unplaced at the official two year-old trials at Randwick back in September, but this time around we saw a more tractable conveyance.