Dijon Bleu prevails in Hawke’s Bay Breeders Gold Trail Stakes
DIJON Bleu franked its last start win by recording another quality stakes win in the Hawke’s Bay Breeders Gold Trail Stakes at Hastings.
The Lisa Latta-trained three-year-old entered the $70,000 co-feature having won with authority at Wanganui last start and it replicated those efforts by putting a classy field away on Saturday.
The daughter of Burgundy was aided by a slick ride from Vinny Colgan, who picked up the ride from Troy Harris, and it relished conditions best to defeat Florence Jean and the fast-finishing Princess Rihanna.
“She had a nice run into the race,” Colgan said. “She travelled into it really strongly turning for home and she let down with a good sprint.
“She won pretty easy.”
Latta wasn’t overly confident with the $6.10 chance at Bet365.com coming into the race, but punters weren’t letting it out of their sights after recording a 4.5-length win prior to Saturday’s run.
“I wasn’t definitely going to back her up today,” Latta said. “We nominated Tuesday morning and I was a little worried that she might only be a 1200m (horse), but she settled and I think she will definitely get over more ground.
“I was really happy with her on Wednesday and we hadn’t done much work with her at all.”
Dijon Bleu had been settling on the pace in its previous starts, but the pace was strong up front with Astor and it came with a well-timed finish.
“He (Vinnie Colgan) ended up a little further back that I thought he would,” Latta said. “He got into a nice rhythm and got out into the best part of the track.”
Latta hasn’t made any plans with the three-year-old filly and will weight up her options upon settling.
“I just want to get home today and look at her. She’s not a big filly, she’s only slight,” Latta said.