Another Debut Stakes-Winner for Sebring

For the second Saturday in a row Sebring produced a debut juvenile stakes-winner with the David Hayes trained filly Clifton Red scoring a convincing long neck win in the Group III VRC TBV Thoroughbred Breeders Stakes at Flemington.

Friendless in the betting, Clifton Red belied the lack of interest from punters to produce a strong finishing win which did not surprise her trainer.

“She’d been down the straight once to have a look and that really helped, it’s hard to be too confident up against horses that have raced but I thought she would run well,” Hayes said.

Retained to race by her breeder Bill Cockram of Shadow Glen Stud, Clifton Red is bred to be good as a half-sister to the Group II MRC Sandown Classic winner Sertorius and stakes-placed performers I Am Titanium and Fortune of War.

“She’s right there amongst my better two-year-old fillies,” Hayes said.

“I thought at the 200 metre mark she was going to be second but she dug in well. The leader might have stopped but it was a really good effort to win a Group race on debut.”

Clifton Red is now likely to head to Sydney for a tilt at some of the better races.

“She’s a lovely big rangy filly that we’re happy to take to Sydney and look at one of the Slipper lead-ups, probably the Riesling but I think she’ll come into her own in races like the Sires’ (Produce Stakes) and Champagne (Stakes),” Hayes said.

Clifton Red is the fourth winner from four foals to races from stakes-placed Encosta de Lago mare Pretty Penny, who was one of 222 mares covered last spring by Sebring.

Clifton Red is the sixth stakes-winner for Sebring, who has 21 entries in Inglis Easter next month.