Tulloch Lodge filly Taormina could be aimed at the early spring carnival races after she upstaged some well-related juveniles to make a winning debut at Warwick Farm.
Co-trainer Adrian Bott said the stable had held the two-year-old in high regard since she finished third behind Sicilian and top filly Learning To Fly at the first official juvenile trials of the season, but she had needed time to mature and grow.
Taormina ($3.90) showed the benefit of that patience in the Furphy Handicap (1200m) at Warwick Farm on Wednesday, leading throughout for Tim Clark to score by three-quarters of a length over Arctic Glamour ($5.50) with I Am Famous ($6.50) third.
Her trainers will let the dust settle before deciding whether to give her another, seasoning run or put her on ice for an early spring tilt.
“She has taken a little bit of time but good to see her put in a strong performance like that and back up the early ability she’d shown,” Bott said.
“I think we can aim up with her. I do think she’s a quality type and capable of getting to a better level, whether we look to give her another run to condition her over the winter, we’ll monitor to see what races are coming up.
“If not, we may just look to keep her freshened up and look for some of those early spring targets. It comes around pretty quickly.”
Taormina is handily bred being a daughter of Written Tycoon out of an Exceed And Excel mare and fetched $450,000 as a Magic Millions yearling.
However, the pre-race interest centred around two of the other debutantes in the race, third placegetter I Am Famous and fifth placed Waterski.
The former is a half-sister to 2020 Everest winner Classique Legend and sold for $2 million at last year’s Inglis Easter Yearling Sale, while Waterski is a Godolphin homebred and a three-quarter relation to their dual Group 1 winner Trekking.
Both ran creditably without threatening the winner.
Taormina continues an outstanding two-year-old season for Gai Waterhouse and Bott, giving the training partners their 32nd juvenile win for 2022-23.