Rising Star for Northern Meteor

Exciting prospect Deep Field emulated the performance of his sire Northern Meteor in setting a new track record at Canterbury on Wednesday when powering to his third successive win.

Northern Meteor set a new record at Canterbury for 1250 metres when breaking his maiden in October of 2008 and Deep Field followed suit when carving out the 1100 metres in 1:03.04.

The Team Hawkes trained entire led all the way for James McDonald to win as he pleased by five and a half lengths.

“We didn’t want to come here and treat this as a barrier trial and we told James to make sure he gets something out of this,” co-trainer Michael Hawkes said.

Deep Field is nominated for the Group I MVRC Manikato Stakes and Group I VRC Darley Sprint during the Melbourne spring carnival, but the stable seem in no hurry to push him to the top grade.

“We’ll take him home and have a look at him before deciding where to go to next but the ability is there,” he said.

“If he looks as though he’s coping with it then we’ll raise the bar but this is only his third start and we’re not going to rush him.”

A $440,000 Inglis Easter purchase from the draft of Edinglassie Stud, Deep Field runs for Alan Bell and the Kia Ora Stud Syndicate.

He was the most expensive yearling from the first crop of Northern Meteor and is a full brother to this season’s promising three year-old Shooting to Win, who was third in the Group I ATC Golden Rose and will run this Saturday in the Group II ATC Stan Fox Stakes.

Deep Field is the first foal of stakes-winning Elusive Quality (USA) mare Listen Here, who comes from the Cotehele House branch of the Eight Carat family that has produced Group I stars Danewin and Emerald Dream as well as leading sire Commands.

Northern Meteor’s best son Zoustar is working his way through a stellar  first book of mares at Widden this spring.