The daughter of Home Affairs made a spectacular debut, dominating her competitors in the $240,000 Group 3 Maribyrnong Plate (1000m).
Trainer Archibald expressed considerable relief at the filly’s outstanding performance on debut, especially given the recent sale of her remaining shares. The horse was a significant $700,000 purchase from the Magic Millions sale on the Gold Coast.
“I’m just so happy, it’s such a great ownership group (including) Peter Walsh, Damian Degenhardt.
“I rang him a few weeks ago and said, ‘I’ve got this filly I need to finish selling and I think she’s pretty good’, so I could have had egg on my face but it’s just a great fun group and she’s just very, very talented.”
Amelia’s Affair carries the well-known Amelia Park colours, belonging to Peter Walsh, the property where the filly was bred.
She showcased blistering speed when jockey Damian Lane gave her the signal at the 300-metre mark of the Maribyrnong Plate, promptly extending her lead and putting the race beyond doubt.
At the finish line, the $8 outsider recorded a margin of 2-3/4 lengths over Royal Press ($4.20), with La La Lilly ($7) securing third place, a further 1-3/4 lengths behind.
“When I let her down, I knew that she would put the race to bed because she just quickened really nicely,” Lane commented.
Archibald’s next task is to chart a course for Amelia’s Affair, with aspirations of returning to the Gold Coast for the $3 million Magic Millions 2YO Classic (1200m) and the highly coveted $5 million Group 1 Golden Slipper.
“It’s either Magic Millions or you put her away for the autumn,” she stated.
“There’s obviously a lot of big two-year-old races, one big two-year-old race in March that we’d love to win as well, but we’ll just see how she comes through this.
“She only travelled down two days ago, so she’ll go straight back home and we’ll assess her from there.”
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