Group 1 winning trainer Jason Coyle makes the familiar trip from Warwick Farm to Nowra this weekend with a trio of horses he bred and all fathered by his vastly underrated one-time crack sprinter, Va Pensiero.
A son of the 2005 Golden Slipper winner Stratum, Va Pensiero was himself an unsuccessful participant in Overreach’s 2013 Slipper but returned as a formidable force the following season.
Va Pensiero won the time-honoured San Domenico Stakes first-up, adding the Run To Rose to his tally two weeks later beating the likes of Dissident, Criterion, Eurozone and Sidestep.
Despite his pedigree and performances, Va Pensiero was virtually ignored by breeders, serving just 81 mares across his seven seasons at stud.
“At the end of the day, he wasn’t all that commercial, which was just one of those things,” Coyle told The Sunday Telegraph.
“I thought he won the right races but if you don’t get picked up by a commercial stud, your game is pretty much over pretty quick.
“Va Pensiero is now retired and all my mares are now retired so I have got the last lot of yearlings at this point right now coming through.
“You don’t sight them as young horses and you just hope they develop coming into their three-year-old season.”
Enter the Nowra-bound Maz Kanata who makes her debut in the Kel Campbell Haulage Maiden Plate (1100m) eight days before she turns four.
Maz Kanata sent out some very encouraging signs in her three trials, two in March, and the latest on July 7 when a nose second in her 788m heat at Warwick Farm.
“There was a lot of effort there,” says Coyle.
“She seems to do everything relatively correctly. She leaves the barriers well, travels strong and under pressure the other day, she seemed to work through the line nicely so it looks like there are a couple of wins in her.
“We have taken our time with here but I feel like there is going to be a return there at some stage.
“She gets a good gate on Sunday, a good jock and I feel she has trialled well enough.”
Maz Kanata will have company on the float from her older brother Padawan who has struggled to make much of an impression in his five starts.
“He’s very limited,” Coyle said. “Even physically, he doesn’t seem to be as good as the others for whatever reason.
“I feel like he tries hard but the ability has skipped a generation.”
Coyle is rightfully much more bullish about the winning prospects of Impressiero who lines-up in the Solomon Motors Group Handicap over 1400m.
“She finally draws a gate and drops back to country grade out of nice enough provincial races so it all looks writing on the wall stuff for her much like when she won her maiden,” the trainer said.
“A fit racehorse that tries very hard are two nice ingredients.”
Written by Shayne O’Cass