TUESDAY: October 10, 2023: IT was a sweet result!
Hawkesbury filly Hasty Honey relished a huge drop back from a Group 1 assignment to break through in a Provincial Maiden Handicap (1600m) at Newcastle today.
And her trainer Brad Widdup was both relieved and pleased to see it.
In keeping with her name, the three-year-old daughter of Epaulette is raced by Adrian Whittingham’s Honeycomb Stud.
Hasty Honey (Jean Van Overmeire) was having her fifth start – and three of the first four were in black type company.
“She has been thrown in the deep end right from the beginning,” Widdup said this evening.
“We found the right race for her today, and it was good to see her win as she did.
“Hasty Honey will go for a spell, and hopefully she blossoms during the break.
“She was strong enough at the end of the 1600m, and I’m sure she will manage up to 2000m next time.”
Hasty Honey was a $140,000 purchase at last year’s Inglis Classic yearling sale after Widdup and Whittingham both liked her; the latter certainly for good reason.
“Adrian was involved in the ownership of Hasty Honey’s dam Honey Cara, who won five races, including three in Melbourne in 2016-17 at distances from 1800m to 2040m,” Widdup said.
Hasty Honey began her career at the Scone carnival in May when a close fifth in the Listed Woodlands Stakes (1100m) for two-year-olds when a $21 chance.
After a break, she contested the Group 3 Up And Coming Stakes (1300m) at Rosehill Gardens in late August and Group 1 Flight Stakes (1600m) at Royal Randwick on September 30, with a close fourth in a 1500m Super Maiden at Kembla Grange sandwiched in between.
A dominant $1.45 favorite, the three-year-old daughter of Epaulette was given a perfect run today by Van Overmeire and quickly put the issue beyond doubt after straightening.
She comfortably defeated Red Cobra ($6.50) and fellow Hawkesbury representative, Blake Ryan’s Midori Giant ($41).
. Hasty Honey was Widdup’s 11th winner of the season, and he is chasing a Group 2 triumph at The Everest meeting at Royal Randwick on Saturday with Ausbred Flirt.
Widdup has booked Melbourne ace Craig Williams, who provided him with his breakthrough Group 1 success on Icebath at Flemington last spring, for the $250,000 Angst Stakes (1600m).
Five-year-old Maurice mare Ausbred Flirt has won five of her 12 starts, including a first-up victory in a Benchmark 78 Handicap (1400m) at Randwick on September 16.