City living made Rapture Miss cantankerous, but she's loving life as a beach bum.
A move to Matthew Dale's Moruya stables is paying big dividends for the five-year-old mare with her saluting in the $125,000 Country Classic (2000 metres) at Rosehill on Saturday.
A shift to Moruya helped Matthew Dale's Rapture Miss salute in The Country Classic.Credit:AAP Image/Simon Bullard
It comes on the back of her last-start second at Kensington 3½ weeks ago.
Jockey Kerrin McEvoy had her perfectly placed coming into the home turn, before taking over from D'Beak – trained by Canberra's Barbara Joseph and Paul and Matt Jones – who held on to finish third.
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Charlie Royale snuck in for second.
Rapture Miss initially joined Dale's Canberra stable from Victoria as an unraced horse, but she was shipped down the coast after playing up in the barriers and getting scratched.
Since then the seaside serenity has done wonders for her state of mind and Dale's reaping the rewards.
"She was always quite cantankerous and played up in the gates one day while we trained her at Canberra," he said.
"We then switched her to the newly opened beach stable and she's been down there ever since … that's been the biggest turning point for her."
Dale picked The Country Classic as a suitable race for Rapture Miss some time ago.
He'll now look for a suitable 2000m city race for the daughter of Smart Missile.
"It was a great result. We had that race pencilled in for quite some time and it all has mapped out perfectly," Dale said.
While he's yet to decide where to next for Rapture Miss, Dale's getting closer to locking in stable star Fell Swoop's program.
Having opted against the group 1 Winterbottom Stakes (1200m) in Perth next Saturday, Dale will target the group 3 Standish Handicap (1200m) at Flemington on New Year's Day and then the group 2 Australia Stakes (1200m) at Moonee Valley on January 25.
But he's yet to fully lock down how he's going to get his sprinter there.
Fell Swoop could run in the listed Starlight Stakes (1200m) at Rosehill next Saturday or the listed Razor Sharp Handicap (1200m) two week's after that – or both.
"It's just a little bit of an open book at the moment, but he's not going to Perth," Dale said.
"He'll look toward a Standish on New Year's Day into an Australia Stakes later in January – they're the two races that lead him into the autumn."
David Polkinghorne covers the Canberra Raiders, local rugby league, Canberra Cavalry, racing and cycling, along with every other sport, for The Canberra Times.
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