Inspirational Girl (NZ) Brilliant in Group One Railway

A lightly raced Karaka graduate soared to Perth racing stardom with a superb victory in Saturday’s A$1m Group One Kirin Railway Stakes (1600m) at Ascot.

Inspirational Girl (NZ) (Reliable Man) was a $190,000 purchase from the 2017 Premier Sale. Carrying the colours of prominent Perth owners Bob and Sandra Peters, the five-year-old has now had 11 starts for nine wins, two placings and A$896,625 in stakes.

She first dipped her toes into black-type waters with a smooth last-start victory in the Group Three Asian Beau Stakes (1400m). It prompted trainers Grant and Alana Williams to put her straight in at the deep end at Group One level, and she handled it with ease.

Sent out as the hot favourite in a talented field, Inspirational Girl got back in the running and struck some traffic trouble when she started to improve her position coming up to the home turn.

But champion Perth jockey William Pike found a way out into clear air and Inspirational Girl hit top flight, charging to the front and winning by a length and three-quarters.

“She was really on the ball today,” said Pike, who made an early return from a highly successful Melbourne spring carnival to get through isolation in time to be able to ride on Saturday.

“I had a really good run in transit. I had to jostle a bit and hold my spot so that I didn’t get washed backwards. I was going to head out on the bend, but it didn’t quite eventuate – the flow wasn’t there. Luckily enough for me, there was a run just up ahead.

“She quickened so easily that I probably could have gone where I liked anyway.”

While many of Bob and Sandra Peters’ other star performers have been home-breds, Inspirational Girl is different – sourced from Jamieson Park’s draft at Karaka. But pedigree still has a very familiar hue.

“It feels a bit the same because she comes from one of our good families,” said Bob Peters, who has now won the Railway Stakes three years in a row.

“Her dam is a full-sister to Midnight Special (Zabeel), who has been very good to us and who we raced, and now the family is growing with stakes winners.

“Now we have put a Group One in amongst it, and we have Demonetization (All Too Hard) helping bolster the family in New Zealand. It feels like one of ours.”

Vendor	Jamieson Park
Purchaser	John Chalmers Bloodstock (Western Australia)
Breeding	Reliable Man – Be Inspired
Sale	Lot 62, 2017 Premier Sale, $190,000
Bred by	Jamieson Park