Former West Australian trained mare Spirit Bird will chase more black type success over the Sydney Spring Carnival after scoring a first up win in the Group 3 $125,000 Yarraman Park Tibbie Stakes (1350m) on the Beaumont track at Newcastle today.
Spirit Bird ($8) was having her first run for the James Cummings stable and came from well back in the field to claim Fitou ($5) to score by a long neck with the top weight Savoreux ($5) running aa great race to finish third.
Trainer James Cummings removed the blinkers from Spirit Bird for her first run for the Randwick stable and she repeated her winning trial form with Glyn Schofield in the saddle.
Cummings said that he will discuss the rest of Spirit Bird’s Spring Carnival campaign with owner Nevin Botica but he was learning towards a start in the Group 3 $150,000 Angst Stakes (1600m) at Randwick on October 8.
“We’ll probably take her to the Angst next in three weeks,” Cummings said.
“She is by Savabeel and she’s got a bit of class about her.”
Spirit Bird had performed fairly in Western Australia before entering the Cummings stables with her best effort being a second in the Group 2 $500,000 Sky Racing-W.A. Guineas (1600m) at Ascot in Perth during the 2015 Perth Summer Carnival.
“Craig Williams rode her when she ran second in the WA Guineas against the boys, and that’s not easy to do at that age,” Cummings said.
“We’ve been able to pick her up and she was in good shape when she got to us.
“We sat down and we planned out a preparation with her and targeted this race first up.
“Now we’ve won having sat wide and out the back, but she gave a great finishing burst. She’s done enough to be very satisfying with the way she’s kicked off in Sydney.”