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Rosehill Trials Review
By Ray Hickson

It took her Group 1 winning half-sister four starts and two racing preparations to break through but Funstar has served notice of her talent with a dominant trial win.

She was the standout from last Friday’s Rosehill heats (May 24) and it’ll be interesting to see what path Chris Waller charts with Youngstar’s two-year younger sibling.

Funstar, By Adelaide, contested two trials in the late summer but didn’t race and what we saw in her almost length win over 900m was a sharp filly.

Granted she had the breaks sitting third on the fence and taking an inside run but no sooner did she dart through and establish a margin was jockey James McDonald slamming on the breaks.

Youngstar made her debut at 1400m and went on to win last year's Queensland Oaks. It appears likely Funstar will debut at Canterbury on Wednesday week in an 1100m event so keep an eye out for her.

Gwenda Markwell’s unraced filly Electric Girl might be worth noting down too, she was beaten three lengths but certainly wasn’t asked for anything.

Rotator runs third in her Rosehill trial on May 24

Grey filly Rotator has already displayed her promise with a narrow defeat in the Group 3 Widden Stakes on debut and a close fourth to Tenley in the Pierro Plate from her two starts.

She’s had a couple of trials now and her closing third behind Godolphin’s Aquitaine is a great pointer to her chances if she resumes this Saturday at Rosehill in an 1100m two-year-old event. Note Aquitaine is also nominated for that race.

Rotator went down half a length and she was hard to miss striding home under double raps from Jason Collett, appreciating a fairly fast run 900m heat. That might be the key to her, sitting off a solid tempo and sprinting, but she’ll be breaking her maiden status this time in.

Still on the youngsters, the Snowden stable’s colt Papal Warrior looked the goods in an all the way win in his 900m heat.

While the time was on the slower side among the two-year-old trials it was how he looked and slid clear shaking off Godolphin’s Tongariro who sat outside him in the run.

He’s had the one race start, for a third behind Belitsa back in February on a soft track, and with this cruisy trial under his belt can be placed to advantage.

Godolphin’s Knickpoint is an interesting colt and he’s trialled a total of five times since December with a handy second on Friday, running on nicely late, arguably the best of them.

He’s a half-brother to two stakes winners, one being Applegate who won a 1000m Listed races and the other Yulalona who was a Group 3 winner at 2400m. So which way he goes remains to be seen.

Of the older horses two from the Tim Martin stable will be worth following in restricted grade – Pinvincible and Pride Of Darci.

Pinvincible won on debut at Hawkesbury on April 9, the placegetters have both won since, he trialled over 1030m against some solid open company horses and held his own running a close third.

Pride Of Darci finished last of the six in his heat, which included Group winning stablemate Danawi, but he had plenty in the locker it would appear. He hasn’t raced since last June so may trial again but has a win and second from his two first-up attempts.

Check out the results and replays from Friday's trials at Rosehill Gardens