Wayward filly on best behaviour

A DECISION to “back off” with wayward youngster Rosanna Shannon has paid dividends.

Showing enough ability during her education to suggest she can “win her share of races”, Rosanna Shannon failed to transfer her efforts on the training track to the racetrack.

Despite being safe in her rhythm at trainer Peter Bullock’s property, Rosanna Shannon broke stride during her first two starts.

“She is a lovely gaited filly, but in her first two starts she got a bit busy and galloped,” Bullock said. “So we decided to back off with her and went back to the drawing board.

“She then won a trial before finishing second in another, so we took her to the races again and she finished fifth, but the important thing is she did everything right.

“By that time though she’d had enough, so I gave her a break hoping it would do her well.”

Runner-up in a pair of trials on August 10 and 31, Rosanna Shannon completed a successful racing return in Bathurst last night.

With Travis Bullock holding the reins, Rosanna Shannon began quickly to lead from barrier two before being eased to take a trail behind Youdell, which was surged to the front from gate four.

Finishing strongly along the sprint lane, the daughter of The Storm Inside dashed to a two-and-a-half metre victory from King Shoobee.

Youdell battled on to be a head away third as the winner rated 2:00.1 over 1730 metres.

“She went a lot better this time,” Bullock said. “We were as confident as you can be knowing she’d done things wrong a couple of times, but she was on her best behaviour.

“After she lobbed where we wanted her to be it worked out well and she finished it off nicely.

“The break and now that run have served her well and I can’t see any reason why she won’t keep improving.

“We haven’t got any huge ambitions with her, just take it one race at a time, which is likely to be against similar company at Bathurst next week.”