Youngster Has People Talking

Sweet Nitro had Nowra racegoers singing her praises after she notched her third win in four starts on Monday, rocketing over the 365m in 20.43.

That time was only .34sec outside the track record set by Horchata in December, 2021, and were remarkable figures for a bitch who does not turn two until June.

Her trainer Jeff Alaban, a recently retired butcher, said: "There are three of us in the syndicate which owns her along with two other members of the same litter.

"One of the syndicate members, a mate of mine, wanted to get some pups from Sweet Nitro's dam line and we were fortunate enough to secure them when they were five months old.''

Sweet Nitro and her Alaban-trained siblings, the unraced duo Perfect Dawn and Pinky Magic, were produced by Sweet Daisy, whose previous litter includes Tasmanian star Manila Prince, so far a winner of 11 from 16 starts.

Monday was a successful meeting for Alaban who also won with Zinnia Herrera over 365m in 20.80, although the double was well short of the four winners he landed at Nowra several years ago.

Alaban concedes he is unsure if Sweet Nitro will eventually "get" 520m, although he said her run home times are promising and improving.

"I have no doubt she will run 440m because while she has not had a lot of work, she is a really good chaser and her run home times are getting better,'' Alaban said.

"When she started off she was getting home at Nowra in 12.30 but now she has got down to 12.10 and 12.05.''

When Fascinate Trump posted fastest time, a flying 22.28 in the 400m Australia Day Cup heats at Maitland on Monday, he scored his 12th win, lifting the tally attained by himself and his siblings to 104 successes.

Fascinate Trump was bred by Noelene Holloway through the mating of her brood bitch Fascinate Mary with boom sire Aussie Infrared, and his breeder is naturally thrilled with the litter's strike rate.

"It's pretty remarkable considering they have only been racing for 12 months,'' Holloway said.

Fascinate Mel, with 16 wins, will be chasing another victory at Wentworth Park on Saturday night, while other members of the litter are Quick Shadow (24 wins), Fascinate Aussie (16), Fascinate Donald (15), Super Aussie (12), Super Edition (six) and Fascinate Model (three).

Mister Perfect, who has the potential to be the next She's A Pearl, is back in training after a sore hock ruled him out of the recent group 1 Ladbrokes National Derby series.

An October, 2020 whelping, Mister Perfect would have been among the oldest Derby candidates so was the perfect age for the January 13 heats.

"He is on the way back,'' trainer Michelle Sultana said of her budding superstar, who has won three of four Wentworth Park outings where he boasts a personal best 520m time of 29.67.

His three winning margins at headquarters total a mind-boggling 36 lengths!