AMITY GAL SCORES AN EYE-CATCHING DEBUT WIN

By Graham Potter | Sunday, January 2, 2022

After three trials dating back to September 21 (where she finished second before following up with two winning trials on October 5 and December 14) the Shamus Award filly Amity Gal made her debut at the Sunshine Coast on January 2, in a Three-Year-old Maiden Plate over 1000m on a heavy 8 track.

Almost unbackable at odds of $1.20, Amity Gal jumped from barrier one and held the fence to lead narrowly in the early part, racing inside the $41 outsider Grandeur Rose with the closest of the balance of the field racing a couple of lengths off the leading pair.

Amity Gal was never seriously taken on all the way to the home turn and once in the straight, as the betting boards suggested would be the case, Amity Gal totally justified her restrictive odds by never letting any other runner into the race.

A solid, very comfortable gallop home saw Amity Girl have the race won well before the finish line with the fact that the winning margin was only 1.30 lengths coming down more to Ryan Maloney being kind to Amity Gal over the closing stages than any danger posed by the runner-up Immediate Response (the $8 second favourite) who did well enough in her own right when running on from last to gain that second place., without ever troubling the winner,

Amity Gal’s win continues the VanDyke stable’s association with the broodmare Meerlust, who was also the dam of Vandyke’s very well performed Baccarat Baby, whose race record includes a victory in the Sunshine Coast Guineas and a second place in the Group 2 Queensland Guineas.

Meerlust, who herself raced for Amity Gal’s owners … the Harris Family Racing and Mr M R A Irwin … has also delivered a Group 1 winner along the way in the form of Duais, who took out the 2021 Group 1 Queensland Oaks.

And just to add extra lustre to the whole scenario, Duais is by Shamus Award making Amity Girl a full sister to Edward Cumming’s first Group 1 winner.

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