Comeback trainer Johnno Benner could have the horse to put him back on the big stage after the debut win of two-year-old filly De Armas at Otaki on Friday.
The Ardrossan juvenile backed up her emphatic barrier trial win at Foxton last week with a 4-3/4 length win in New Zealand's first two-year-old race of the season on her home track over 800m
The bargain buy, a NZ$16,000 purchase from Elsdon Park at the New Zealand Bloodstock Online Yearling Sale, will be set for the Karaka Millions at Ellerslie in January.
“She was very good,” Benner said. “She has done a lot in a short time, she is definitely pretty smart.
“She has always shown plenty. It is hard to line the trial form up, we could only go off what we had seen with all of the other horses there.
"She definitely showed what we hoped she could and has the action of a filly that is going to appreciate a bit of a drier surface and a bit further again. It is all looking positive.”