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By Ray Hickson

Trainer Mark Newnham isn’t getting ahead of himself with the future of promising filly Fulmina but as far as this Saturday’s assignment at Rosehill is concerned he couldn’t be happier.

Wins don’t come a lot more impressive than Fulmina’s last start victory two weeks ago and Newnham would like to see her take the next step, against fillies and mares, in the De Bortoli Wines Handicap (2000m).

“She’s up against seasoned horses so she won’t want to make any errors,’’ he said.

“How I place her will determine how much she keeps improving, at the moment she is a good benchmark mare and hopefully better than that.

“She’s trained on really well and I’d be disappointed if she isn’t running to her best.’’

Punter’s Intelligence sectional data from Fulmina’s latest win, her third from her past four starts, shows she ran the fastest last 200m of the meeting (11.33) and that underlines the strength of the performance.

Newnham said Fulmina has been one of those work in progress fillies who wasn’t ready for the autumn carnival but she showed a glimpse of her promise by beating subsequent ATC Oaks winner Colette back in January.

Fulmina wins at Rosehill on June 27

“She was always small, a bit backward, bred to get a trip so needed a bit of time,’’ he said.

“Now she is a bit stronger and coping with the work better.

“She’s really gone ahead continuing on from her last preparation and you could nearly say she should have won her last four.’’

There is an 1800m race for three and four-year-olds on the Kensington track next Saturday that Newnham considered saving Fulmina for but given her benchmark is 71 he said there’s no guarantee she would have made the field limit.

That wasn’t an issue at Rosehill and the filly rises just the 0.5kg on her win two weeks ago under Rachel King, she’s a warm $3 favourite with TAB and Newnham is looking forward to seeing her at the extra distance.

“There’s no reason not to run her, she handles soft ground and she ran right through the line the other day so I don’t think 2000m will be an issue,’’ he said.

Stablemate Academy signalled a city win isn’t far off with his last start second at the same meeting two weeks ago and Newnham hopes that comes in the Bowermans Commercial Furniture Handicap (1500m).

The gelding produced a race best last 600m of 34.80 and last 200m of 11.88 when beaten half a length by Steel Diamond who he meets 1.5kg better.

Newnham expects Frosty Rocks to revert to his front-running tactics and that would assist Academy’s cause having drawn eight of 11. He’s a $8 with TAB.

“He won really well first-up with a wide trip at Wyong and he drew awkwardly the other day and had to go back but he was strong all the way to the line,’’ Newnham said.

“He’s drawn awkwardly again but it’s pretty much the same race and he’ll be more advantaged by going up in distance.’’

All the fields, form and replays for Saturday's Rosehill meeting