Next start will dictate spring plans for Princess

How Princess Amelie copes with 1400 metres at her next start will help trainer Lisa Latta plot the right course for the smart filly this spring.

Lincoln Farms’ latest find exploded onto the scene at Hastings yesterday when she downed a small but select field of three-year-olds at odds of more than 14 to one.

Given a perfect trail behind the leader by Johnathan Parkes, Princess Amelie really accelerated when angled out 200 metres from home, reeling in King Louis to win by a short neck.

It was a perfect resumption for the Snitzel filly who won at her third start as a two-year-old at Wairarapa in March.

“She’s improved out of sight since she was two,’’ says Latta. “And she’ll only get better with more time. She’s quite big and needs to fill into her body.’’

Latta was expecting a competitive run from Princess Amelie in the Windsor Park Stud Three-Year-Old despite her being only the fourth favourite, pitted against the red hot Cavallo Veloce and the only filly in the field.

Latta had fitted blinkers to the very laid back filly in her trackwork and found it had really sparked her up.

Johnathan Parkes brings Princess Amelie back to scale at Hastings“You like them to be laid back - some fillies beat themselves - but Jonathan said she was very easy to ride and he was very impressed.’’

While Princess Amelie is entered for the 1000 Guineas at Riccarton in November, Latta says being by the Aussie sprint sire Snitzel, she does not yet know if she will get 1600 metres.

“Some Snitzels are only 1200 metre horses but she’s so laid back I think she will.

“We’ll get a line on her when I step her up to 1400 metres next time. I’ll see if she lightens up first but we could go for other Hawkes Bay Guineas, wait for the Lowland, or head down south early. There are plenty of good options.’’

Latta’s last top filly Platinum Witness took the Hawkes Bay Guineas option in 2014 en route to running fourth against the boys in the 2000 Guineas then winning the 1000 Guineas.

“But she was very strong and carried a lot of condition, she looked like a colt.’’

Whatever the eventual course Latta sets, gaining black type will be the main aim, she says.

What $300,000 bought as a yearlingStreet paid $300,000 for Princess Amelie at New Zealand Bloodstock’s 2017 premier sale, one of the priciest yearlings Latta has trained for Lincoln Farms.

“John bought a couple of expensive ones that year and he wanted a Snitzel.’’

It’s little wonder Princess Amelie has waltzed home in a key race so soon in her career. Her grand dam Ballroom Babe topped the 1994-95 Free Handicap, winning five races at two, including the Ellerslie and Manawatu Sires’ Produce Stakes, and later notched a third Group I win in the Captain Cook Stakes at Trentham.

Mam’selle catches the eye

Latta’s second 1000 Guineas contender Platinum Mam’selle also turned in an eye-catching late run when fifth in Saturday’s feature Gold Trail Stakes.

While well beaten by last season’s top two-year-old fillies Avantage and Xpression, she was taking ground off the top pair late, closing to four lengths at the post.

Latta is expecting plenty of further improvement with the filly’s coat yet to turn.