Talented Deep Field filly Xilong put the writing on the wall with a desperately close third in a stakes race at Flemington during the Cup Carnival and atoned for that narrow loss with a resounding win in the Listed MRC Twilight Glow Stakes (1400m) at Sandown on Saturday.
Trained by Tony and Calvin McEvoy, Xilong had looked super impressive when scoring easy wins in Adelaide earlier in the spring and showed her class with this performance.
She led all the way for Luke Currie and kicked strongy to the line to win by a length and a quarter taking her overall record to four wins from six starts with prizemoney topping $213,000.
"I've always thought of her as a Group-class filly and the Sangster Stakes, the Group I for fillies and mares in Adelaide in May, I think she's talented enough to run in that," Tony McEvoy said.
"With a break now, I think she will come back even better, and although that is high, that's what I think of her."
A $360,000 Inglis Easter purchase for McEvoy Mitchell Racing from the Newgate Farm draft, Xilong was foaled and raised at Newgate Farm and is the third winner for Group III winning Testa Rossa mare Pane in the Glass.
Newgate Farm sold a Snitzel filly from Pane in the Glass for $300,000 at Inglis Easter this year and she has a yearling filly to follow by Capitalist. Pane in the Glass has foaled this spring to another of the young Newgate Farm sires in Russian Revolution producing a filly.
Xilong is the third stakes-winner for Deep Field, who is Australia’s leading second crop sire by winners and stands at Newgate at a fee of $44,000.
