Our Sunny Whiz took trainer Ken Sefonte to the pinnacle of his career when winning the Gr.1 Rowe Cup (3200m) 12 years ago and he is hoping her daughter Whimsical Whizard has inherited some of her star quality.
The three-year-old filly will make her debut in the Host Your Special Event At Cambridge Raceway Trot (2200m) on Thursday and Sefonte is confident of a solid first-up run.
The daughter of Majestic Son has finished runner-up in both of her trials to date, including a 2500m hit-out at Pukekohe last Friday.
Although pleased with last week’s performance, Sefonte said he has carried out some corrective shoeing on the filly as she was touching hocks.
“She’s had a couple of nice trials, we just had to do a bit of corrective shoeing on her after he trial last week,” he said.
“She had her chance on Friday, Brent (Mangos, driver) just said she couldn’t get around the last couple of bends, she was just touching her hocks. Once she got into the straight she was alright and picked them up again.
“Hopefully we have fixed that with her shoeing, so we are all good to go. She has done a bit of mileage and the experience will do her good.”
Whimsical Whizard has drawn three on the frontline where Sefonte said she will be able to utilise her impeccable manners.
“She has got good manners, so she should step away. There are only four of them off the front,” he said.
Whimsical Whizard is the fifth progeny of her dam and Sefonte said there are a lot of similarities between the two.
“She is a bit like Our Sunny Whiz, but a different colour,” he said. “She is the most forward of all of her progeny as a three-year-old.
“She is a nice, big filly and I think she will go on a wee bit.”
While Sefonte is looking forward to Whimsical Whizard’s debut, he is also excited about the prospects of stablemate Strength Of Heart in the same race.
The three-year-old son of Bettor’s Delight has drawn just outside his stablemate and Sefonte is hoping he can break through for his maiden victory on Thursday.
Sefonte was pleased with his first-up runner-up effort behind Kristofferson at Cambridge Raceway a fortnight ago and he believes he has the ability to go one better this week.
“He is going alright, he just gets beaten by a better horse all the time,” Sefonte said. “Whether he will find a better one on Thursday in the filly (Whimsical Whizard) I don’t know.
“I think Strength of Heart will beat her out, but she is equal to what he has been doing in his races and he has gone six seconds so far with me.”
Sefonte said he is enjoying training his small team of five at Strength Of Heart’s owner Lew Driver’s Kumeu property, but is doubtful he will uncover another star like Our Sunny Whiz.
“I am the track manager here and I am a pensioner, so the days of bigger teams are gone now,” he said.
“It wouldn’t matter if I went for another 40 years training I don’t think I would get another one half as good, but we still hope.” – Joshua Smith, Harness News Desk
