The Luke Bailes owned and bred filly Northern Heritage, defied her 18/1 odds to win the grade 3 Champagne Stakes at a muddy Kenilworth on Saturday afternoon. The Western Winter Filly ran on exceptionally well in the closing stages despite the soft underfoot conditions to win her first group three in fine style  from a very game Kwitizina who held on well for second place.

We were really in two minds to run her here or not. She ran poorly in similar conditions at Durbanville over 1400m in her last start, where she was very unbalanced in the soft going, and at these weight for age conditions she was not well in at all.  She likes to come off a very fast pace in general as she tends not to have pace early on and drops out to last which she did again, but she ran an exceptional race to win surprisingly well under the circumstances.

She is now a 4 time winner from 13 starts with all her wins being run over 5/6 furlongs. Having said that, Candice Robinson is confident she will get further “I was very impressed with her run on Saturday, I don’t think she will stop here either, she is a very versatile filly” said Robinson. She went on to say “She is a very slight filly but her strength lies in the fact that she is very athletic and she is turning out to be a very smart little filly”

Brandon Morgenrood was equally impressed with his mount on Saturday and said she won comfortably in the end and was even able to ease her up on the line. “She has a terrific turn of foot” he said.

Owned and bred by Luke Bailes, she is By Western Winter out of the Royal Chalice mare Supreme Duel who is out of the multiple ARCSA champion filly Olympic Duel.