Two-year-old races at Kembla Grange often provide strong form references for bigger juvenile events down the track so Demerara’s dominant victory on Sunday shouldn’t be forgotten.
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The Godolphin-trained first starter led all the way in the Blue Gum Forest 2YO Maiden Handicap (900m), storming to an impressive 1-¼ length triumph.
Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott trained Sheikha finished off well for second while Gary Portelli’s Sebring Express was third.
Waterhouse and Bott trained Kembla’s first two-year-old winner of the season a little more than a fortnight ago with promising juvenile Serena Bay.
Serena Bay went on to salute at her next start on Saturday in the $150,000 Golden Gift (1100m) at Rosehill Gardens.
Demerara will likely follow Serena Bay into city grade after her strong debut performance.
Ridden by Brenton Avdulla, the $3.50 hope surged out of the barriers and rolled along in front before hitting the line well to finish the sprint.
Avdulla’s plan to utlise Demerara’s early speed paid off.
“I went down there to Agnes Banks [training base] Friday week ago and jumped her out. She showed really good speed,” he said.
“I was confident in a 900m race that she would be able to roll across and lead them but I wasn’t sure how much depth was going to be there when I gave her one.
“To her credit, when she felt Josh [Parr] get to her halfway up the straight, I gave her a little flick with the left hand.
“She is a nice filly.”
Avdulla paid tribute to the stable’s work behind the scenes after the victory.
“Now I have had a bit to do with the Godolphin babies, they are just well educated,” he said.
“Full credit to everyone at Warwick Farm and Agnes Banks because I am riding the finished product.
“She has a nice future.”
The stable came to the races with the expectation that Demerara would run well and the filly ran accordingly.
Stable representative Billy Jackson-Stops was delighted.
“She is very exciting,” he said.
“It was good example of, you can do everything right at home and the jockey comes out and does a great job.
“You got out of the gates and he put her there, it was going to be difficult to get her back.
“She is very quick.”
John O’Shea’s Godolphin team always have a strong hand when the autumn feature races arrive and have unveiled several leading juveniles, including Group 1 winner Exosphere, at Kembla in the past.
The stable had a double in the following race when Nonpareil wound up gamely to win the Woronora Dam Maiden Plate (1300m) under the urging of jockey Christian Reith.
Reith got off the fench at the top of the straight and eventually ran down Joe Pride trained pacesetter Krusty.
“Behind the pace, we thought that was going to happen and he had her in the right position,” Jackson-Stops said.
