When Waitakere trainer Leanne Franklin says her Darley Plate winner Beautiful Girl is a potential Kelt Capital Stakes runner next spring it may pay to listen.
The 6-year-old Black Minnaloushe mare, who gave Franklin a career highlight group three win at Ellerslie yesterday in the $100,000 feature, has beenshunning convention since she first appeared.
She tackled the 2006 1000 Guineas in just her second start, shrugged off almost two years out with a career-threatening tendon injury, and won her first race in three years only last October.
"I never thought she'd be a sprinter, but sprinting has allowed us to work her more," said Franklin, who only has one other horse in work, maiden Try Time.
"Her temperament is only going to improve as she gets over more ground and I think she's up to Hastings in the spring.
"She was favourite in a group one race [the Railway Handicap] so I'm not the only one who thinks she's a good horse - she's a class mare and she's proven that."
Franklin blames a couple of factors for the late bloomer's Railway miss - the race wasn't run to suit and she was too easy on the headstrong mare after her impressive lead-up win at Ellerslie in December.
"I just let up on her and she got away on us a bit," she said.
Franklin, whose year-long ownership lease of Beautiful Girl expires in July, is grateful for the support of owners Costa Feneridis and John Collinson.
They've allowed her to take a patient approach with the horse when others might have pulled the pin.
"She's a difficult mare - it's fair to say she was injury prone early on," said Franklin.
"She still does a fair bit of her work off a lead and at Muriwai Beach for variety.
"But she's just needed time to mature more than anything."
Feneridis, an Auckland banker, hand-picked the horse out of the Karaka ring for just $13,000 and was so enamoured he's since snapped up dam Piccadilly.
"I bought her off instinct more than anything - she looked the part for me from the moment I saw her," said Feneridis.
