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Martini Red Bags Darley Plate 3 Mar 2008
Trelawney-bred filly Martini Red (Aus) (Red Ransom) proved too good for her rivals in Saturday’s Group Three Darley Plate (1200m). Ridden a treat by jockey Mark Du Plessis, the three-year-old filly settled just in behind the speed after jumping quickly from barrier one.

The pace was set by Clifton Prince (NZ) (Volksraad) and turning for home, he skipped two lengths clear of the chasers. Martini Red was shifted off the rails to make her run and hit the lead at the 150m mark going on to win by a one-and-a-half length margin.

“She did everything right, settled how I wanted her to and Mark Du Plessis rode her to my exact instructions,” said trainer Ross Elliott after the race. “This filly is pretty special to me and I’m wrapt she won today,” he said.

Martini Red is raced on lease to a partnership which includes her trainer, Ross Elliott, Brent and Cherry Taylor and Faith Taylor of Trelawney Stud and Australians Warren Huntly and Chris Coghlan. Racing in the colours of Faith Taylor, Martini Red represents the fourth generation of this family to be raced by the Taylor family. Before her came her dam Pernod (NZ) (Centaine), her grand-dam Martine Michelle (NZ) (Grosvenor) and great grand-dam Josette Nicole (NZ) (Three Legs).

“There is no doubt we have had a lot of success and enjoyment from this family,” said Brent Taylor of Trelawney Stud. “My mother and father raced Josette Nicole who was a Group Two winner, Martine Michelle was a stakes performer and produced three stakes winners including Pernod who won a Group One and now we have this filly,” he said.

“Martini Red hasn’t been the easiest filly to place in her races as we have tried to keep her to sprint distances,” said Brent. “She raced quite late into her two-year-old season as well so she didn’t come back into racing until late November which meant she missed a number of those shorter three-year-old races,” he said. “The Darley Plate was a race we identified early on and it has been our main target as we always thought the distance and weight for age conditions would suit her,” said Brent. “It’s great when a plan works!” he said.

“We’ll see how she comes through the race and work out where to from here but with a Group Three weight for age race in the bag, we might look to have a crack over a little more ground as Ross is adamant she has the temperament to settle wherever we want her in a race and will see more ground if asked,” said Brent.

Martini Red’s next mission will possibly be the Group Three Windsor Park Breeders’ Stakes (1200m) at Te Rapa on the 26th of April.