Well-bred filly impresses on debut; New northern training operation; Freshened sprinter ready to go.

Well-bred filly impresses on debut

The Stephen Marsh-trained Liten Prinsessa had a lot to live up to on debut at Tauranga on Friday and she delivered on all counts.

The three-year-old is a stablemate and sister to the Gr.1 Diamond Stakes and Karaka Million winner Ruud Awakening and she was also in the same maiden event won by the then Marsh-prepared Lucia Valentina 12 months ago.

Liten Prinsessa didn’t disappoint and the Watson Bloodstock-bred and raced filly was in front at the top of the straight and kicked strongly to start her career in perfect style.

“There’s a lot of improvement in her and she’ll get better and better,” Marsh said. “She’s still big in condition.

“I’m not sure if she’ll get a mile - she’ll go 1400 metres next time and then we’ll see, but she’s very good.”

Rider Danielle Johnson has also formed a good opinion of Liten Prinsessa after riding her in jump-outs and a winning lead-up trial. “She has run really well and she’s still quite green.”

New northern training operation

A new Cambridge partnership is imminent with Mark Donoghue to link up with John Bell.

Donoghue formerly trained with Tony Pike and they enjoyed seven successful seasons together with high-profile gallopers including Sacred Falls, Historian, More Than Sacred, Chintz, Waterford and Sacred Star.

Sacred Falls was undoubtedly the star of their association with his unbeaten run for the stable culminating in a Gr.1 New Zealand 2000 Guineas success.

“He’s one of those horses that don’t come along very often,” Donoghue said. “To see what he’s gone on to do in Australia is amazing. I’ve been really lucky to have been around some really good horses.”

Bell and Donoghue will prepare a team of more than 20 with the Group Three-winning sprinter Mosse, who is due to return from injury next month, among them.

Freshened sprinter ready to go

Capable sprinter Captain Kirk has an admirable first-up record and he will also benefit from significant weight relief when he resumes at Otaki on Saturday.

He will come back from a seven month break in the Hunting & Fishing Otaki Handicap and three of his eight career wins have come off a spell.

“He’s hasn’t won with more than 54.5kg before so we had to claim,” trainer Rachael Frost said.

“He looks well and he’s really brightened up the last couple of days. He also won a jump-out pretty easily last week.”