Daring Dame breaks through for elusive win

Daring Dame broke through for an elusive win when taking out the Kensington Tavern 1200 at Ruakaka on Wednesday.

The four-year-old daughter of Almanzor had shown plenty as a three-year-old, placing in all four of her starts, but a win eluded her.

She strengthened with a spell and pleased when winning her 950m trial at Cambridge last month, giving punters the confidence to back her into an even money favourite on Wednesday.

From the ace barrier, she settled in the trail behind Man o’ Slew where she enjoyed an economical passage before being presented three-wide down the straight by jockey Warren Kennedy. She hit the lead with the 100m to go and was able to hold out the late challenge of Zenzero Girl to win by a nose.

“Full credit to her for winning today,” Kennedy said. “The testing track obviously helped her chances a little bit. She was able to have a very economical run thanks to the draw.

“I presented her at the 300m and she kicked up like she was going to win it quite well, but she flattened out and had a good look around. Even when she came back, she nearly dug in her toes and didn’t know quite where to go.

“She is going to go 2000m-plus, she is exciting going forward.”

Trainer Lance Noble was pleased with the win and said she had strengthened a lot since her three-year-old season.

“I am really happy. Drawing one, Warren rode her a treat,” he said.

“She has just strengthened up from three to four and I think she will get better as she gets over a bit more ground.

“It’s spring time and once those fillies and mares start coming into form hopefully they can maintain it for a while.”

In the race prior, stablemate Heloisa recorded her third placing from as many starts, and Noble said she was unsuited by the Soft7 surface.

“In that ground it probably found her out a bit in that last little bit, but I think she will be better once we get on better footing,” he said.