Mornington trainer Jason Warren is hoping he won’t have the same amount of frustration with Palm Angel that a filly bred on the same cross caused during her racing career.
Palm Angel makes her debut in the Listed Merson Cooper Stakes (1000m) at Caulfield on Saturday, entering the contest a three-time jump-out winner at Mornington and Balnarring.
The Merson Cooper Stakes has been a springboard into the rich autumn two-year-old events in Melbourne in the past with previous winner including Long Leaf (2017), Hanseatic (2019), Anamoe (2020), Ebhaar (2021) and Eneeza last year.
Warren said Palm Anel, a daughter of Starspangledbanner, was bred on the same cross as Stakes winning mare Brooklyn Hustle, who was successful at Group 2 level but could not quite win at Group 1 level despite promising to do so.
“It will be nice to team up again with Rosemont with this filly,” Warren said.
“She’s bred on the same cross as Brooklyn Hustle, so being by Starspangledbanner, hopefully we can get another nice horse in those red colours.”
Warren took advantage of a trip to Caulfield on Tuesday morning for a gallop, while Palm Angel was given a good look at the race day stalls.
He said the filly was mature for her age, taking in all her surrounds.
“We wanted to take her away from Mornington for some experience,” Warren said.
“She’s got a terrific attitude. She had her head down and just cruised around. She’s very sensible and she gets around in a really good head space.
“She went to Balnarring a fortnight ago and had a look around there and we just wanted to try and expose her to being away from Mornington as much as we could, so we took the opportunity to go to Caulfield and she had a good look around.
“She’s shown more than enough in her three jump-outs, and I’m looking forward to kicking her off on Saturday.”
Warren said he would wait and see how the filly performs on Saturday before deciding on her program, but he is hoping Palm Angel will measure up to the top races during the Autumn Carnival in Melbourne.
In form jockey Ethan Brown, who had partnered Palm Angel in her three jump-outs, will have the ride on Saturday.
“Hopefully that’s a good sign he wants to stick,” Warren said.
