Coming down the Eagle Farm straight like a drunken sailor, Sweet Dolly almost unseated a hapless Aaron Bullock on Miss In Charge inside the final 150m, yet still found a way to win Saturday’s Listed Boomer Bloodstock Calaway Gal Stakes (1000m).
Ridden by Justin Stanley for Kevin Hansen, the 2yo daughter of Real Saga proved three-quarters of a length too good for the favourite Fake Love (I Am Invincible) who was caught wide the trip, with Rhapsody Rose (Star Witness) a short-neck back in third.
It made it two wins from as many starts for Sweet Dolly who had looked considerably more professional when opening her career with a near six-length romp at Townsville on November 28.
“She did so much wrong but still got home,” Hansen said.
“She was purchased as a weanling at the Magic Millions and showed ability from day one.
“She has done a mighty job in the last fortnight. She trialled at Rocky (Rockhampton) on Monday, Townsville on the Saturday. We weren’t going to come here, but she pulled up that well we took her blood and she was spot on so we came.
“She is not paid up for the Magic Millions so she can go to the paddock now and have a decent spell.”
Purchased by her owners Kenneth and Michelle Walker for a bargain-basement $1,500 at the 2019 National Weanling Sale, Sweet Dolly is the best of five winners from six to race out of the winning Canny Lad mare Sweet Cherub a half-sister to stakes-placed Beatniks (Haradasun).
Sweet Cherub does not have a yearling, but she foaled a filly by Heroic Valour on September 3.
Sweet Dolly becomes the seventh stakes-winner for Real Saga who died in 2019. His final crop of nine live foals are yearlings, but he does not have a representative at the Magic Millions or the Classic.