The Mission with another juvenile trial winner on the Gold Coast

7 min read

Written by Jessica Owers

The 2-year-old season continued to emerge on Tuesday, with a number of juvenile trials hosted by the Gold Coast Turf Club. First off the bat was a victory for the smart filly Perfect Mission, who gave her Queensland-based Aquis Farm sire The Mission another reason to cheer.

Trained locally by Michael Costa, the filly was having her very first trial, and she was away smartly from the barriers for jockey Andrew Mallyon.

The early speed was set by Rose Of Shiraz (Deep Field) and Cripps Tonite (Spirit Of Boom), with Perfect Mission bringing up the rest of the pack in third.

In the straight, Cripps Tonite dropped out, leaving the Costa filly to range up alongside Rose Of Shiraz, and the pair coasted to the line untouched. The final margins were Perfect Mission by 0.4l to Rose Of Shiraz, with 3.4l to third-placed Louisiana Star (Star Witness).

The 1000 metres was knocked off in the good time of 59.14s for the juveniles.

A natural athlete

Perfect Mission handled the trial beautifully in the eyes of her trainer, with Michael Costa's tactics being little more than exposing the filly to a good experience.

Michael Costa

“The instructions to Andrew were to keep a strangehold,” the trainer said. “We weren’t out there to win the trial, and we weren’t out there to do anything special. We just wanted to let her go under her own steam and have a positive experience. We didn’t even mind if we were out the back just following them around. They were very strict instructions.”

Costa said the effort looked minimal for Perfect Mission, but there was more to it. He was impressed that she got it done after only one proper jump-out behind her. Previous to that, the filly had only been in and out of barrier education.

“She’s just a natural athlete,” the trainer said. “She has continued to improve and continues to flourish in the stable, and we’re excited to see where can take us. It’s too early to place them in the pecking order, of course, but from all she’s indicating, she’s showing that she’s well above average.”

“She’s (Perfect Mission) just a natural athlete. She has continued to improve and continues to flourish in the stable, and we’re excited to see where she can take us." - Michael Costa

Costa didn’t pay much heed to the time, but he said the 59.14s was good enough, given the soft track.

“It did look like one of the slicker times for the day so, for the 2-year-olds to do that on the wetter surface, I think there’s a bit of merit behind the time.”

On a Mission

Perfect Mission was picked up by Michael Costa at the 2021 Magic Millions QTIS March Yearling Sale. She was Lot 52, the first foal from the unraced Lonhro mare But Perfect.

Perfect Mission as a yearling | Image courtesy of Magic Millions

The page shows that the filly is from the family of Typhoon Billie (Rory’s Jester), who won the G3 Mannerism S., and further along are the stakes winner Ovidio (Danehill Dancer {Ire}), who was a Group winner in South Africa, and Infamous Fox (Foxwedge).

Costa paid $26,000 for Perfect Mission from the draft of JJJ Thoroughbreds, while the filly was an earlier $5000 weanling, sold by her breeder Aquis Farm to JJJ Thoroughbreds at the Magic Millions National Weanling Sale in 2020.

“She was a lovely, sweet filly,” Costa said of the yearling Perfect Mission. “She was probably only medium-sized, but she had a great hip and the body frame that suggested she would grow into something nice. I bought her solely on type, and with The Mission being in his first season, it was a little bit of a punt for owners to buy in, but she sold out extremely quick.”

“She (Perfect Mission) was probably only medium-sized, but she had a great hip and the body frame that suggested she would grow into something nice." - Michael Costa

Costa said The Mission has been going great guns with his first crop in Queensland.

“He’s doing very well with the results I’m seeing on the Saturdays with the 2-year-olds,” the trainer said. “I’ve had only one in the stable, and it’s this filly, but I believe I bid on another at that particular Sale, and I certainly liked a few others. It’s probably a little bit early to tell, but it’s looking promising for him.”

Costa said he has plans mapped out for Perfect Mission, but it all depended on how she pulled up from Tuesday’s effort. The filly is pointed at a Gold Coast Saturday meeting in just over a fortnight’s time, with a $100,000 juvenile race on the card.

The Mission | Standing at Aquis

“If she could win that, it would give us a bit of time up our sleeves to potentially have her as a Magic Millions horse,” Costa said. “That’s the big goal, but it’s all based on how she recovers.”

Breeze-up buy

Alongside Tuesday’s trials, Costa was ringside at Magic Millions on Monday for the 2-Year-Olds In Training Sale, snatching up a Dawn Approach (Ire) colt from the KBL Thoroughbreds draft for $150,000.

The horse was the only purchase for the trainer at the Sale and, equally, one that Costa knew well, because Lot 47 had been in his yard for a number of weeks already.

Lot 47 - Dawn Approach (Ire) x Windshift (colt) | Image courtesy of Magic Millions

“I don’t take on many breeze ups at all, but through having a good relationship with Kandice (Pritchard) at KBL, I took on a few and this horse was one of them,” Costa said.

“He came through the paces really well, and he just blossomed, turning into this beautiful horse. He’s got the most lovely brain and attitude for a racehorse, which is fantastic to see, and he’s got very good action that propels him forward as quickly as possible.”

On paper, Costa’s new colt is the third foal from the Exceed And Excel mare Windshift, which is the family of G1 Thousand Guineas winner Flit (Medaglia D’Oro {USA}).

“He (Lot 47) came through the paces really well, and he just blossomed, turning into this beautiful horse. He’s got the most lovely brain and attitude for a racehorse, which is fantastic to see." - Michael Costa

However, he is also a half-brother to Deep Blast (Deep Field), who sold last year as one of the most expensive breeze-up results in Australia at $610,000. Deep Blast went to Louis Ho and the Macau Jockey Club from the draft of Lime Country Thoroughbreds, those buyers having a particular presence in absentia on Monday, securing a total of nine lots at the Sale.

Costa’s colt, meanwhile, headed back to the yard from whence he’d come, with the trainer admitting he was pleased to have him return.

“You do get attached to them,” the trainer said. “The hardest part is that we’ve only got limited boxes and we’re racing in a competitive region, so once they’ve reached their mark or they retire, it’s hard to see them go. I don’t know if I’ll ever find that part of things easier, so it was nice to have this colt come back to us after the Sale.”

“You do get attached to them... so it was nice to have this colt (Lot 47) come back to us after the Sale." - Michael Costa

Lot 47 will be spelled for a few short weeks but, having come from Costa’s care, the trainer knows exactly what the horse needs going forward.

“He’ll be ready for a full campaign after four to six weeks in the paddock and, based on what we’ve already seen, he’ll have every opportunity going all the way forward to the races in his first preparation,” Costa said.

Trial results

Across the remainder of Tuesday's trial meeting at the Gold Coast, the Extreme Choice colt Extremaarty won the second of the juvenile trials for trainer Kacy Fogden, while Chayse 'N' Menari for trainer Les Kelly posted a nice win for his Newgate sire Menari in the last of the three 2-year-old events.

Extremaarty was a $220,000 purchase for Fogden at this year's Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale, sold from the draft of Lyndhurst Stud Farm.

Chayse 'N' Menari, meanwhile, cost her trainer $31,000 at the same Sale when she sold from the draft of Elswick Park.

Perfect Mission
Michael Costa
The Mission
Magic Millions 2YOs In Training Sale