By Daithi Harvey
The Greg Hickman trained Pierata (Aus) (Pierro {Aus}) was promoted to favouritism for the 3YO Magic Millions Guineas at Gold Coast Jan. 13 following his stylish win in the G3 Magic Millions VO Rogue Plate at Doomben on Saturday. The colt displayed a fine turn of foot to cut down the leader Dinnigan (Aus) (Snitzel {Aus}) 100 metres from home and quickly put three lengths daylight between himself and the field to announce his leading credentials for the A$2-Million race in two weeks time. It was a first stakes win for the horse who wore a hood in the preliminaries and after the race his trainer told Racing And Sports, “They [ear muffs] just kept him nice and relaxed before the race. As you saw today Pierata is very smart and there is a lot more to come with him.”
Pierata was bought by his trainer for A$160,000 at the 2016 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale from the Kitchwin Hills draft and should he justify favouritism in the Guineas connections are in line to pick up a cheque for A$1.7m which inludes a A$500,000 Summer Crown bonus.
Earlier on the Doomben card Darley's reverse shuttler Epaulette (Aus) was represented by his first stakes winner when the 2-year-old filly Meryl (Aus) won the G3 Magic Millions B.J McLachlan S. over six furlongs. Epaulette, who covered his first book of mares in Australia before transferring to Ireland has enjoyed a successful first European season with his runners that has yielded 23 individual winners. Meryl cost A$150,000 as a yearling and given she is owned by a syndicate of females the Lee Curtis trained filly will run for a share of the A$500,000 Magic Millions Racing Women bonus which is run in conjunction with the A$2-Million Magic Millions 2YO Classic Jan. 13.
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