Wings of Desire Takes Flight

There was much interest at Hawkesbury on Sunday in the debut of blueblood filly Wings of Desire (2f Pride of Dubai x Vegas Showgirl, by Al Akbar) and the three-quarter sister to world champion Winx stepped out in a maiden and duly returned a winner.

Trained by Michael Freedman for her owner breeder John Camilleri’s Fairway Thoroughbreds, Wings of Desire had her first trial back in February when she did plenty wrong and was out of the placings behind Too Darn Lizzie.

This time in work her two trials have both been excellent with Wings of Desire hitting the line strongly each time after finding her feet early and that was what she did on race day.

A touch awkward out of the gates, she soon found her rhythm for Tommy Berry settling fourth on the fence and when angled into clear ground she accelerated to win the 1100m dash by a length with ears pricked. Her time was slightly better than the colts division won by After Match, the half-brother to King's Legacy.

It was a good experience for the filly, who has been given plenty of time by connections.

“She’s quite a big filly and has just needed that time,” said Michael Freedman speaking before the race.

“She’s going to be better at 1400 to a mile, but they have to start somewhere.”

Wings of Desire is the final foal from star producer Vegas Showgirl, who sadly passed away last year at Segenhoe.

She becomes her sixth winner from six foals to race and is a three-quarter sister to $26.4million earner Winx (by Pride of Dubai’s sire Street Cry) and half-sister to Group III winner El Divino.

Pride of Dubai has had a phenomenally successful year with his star mares Pride of Jenni and Bella Nipotina, so there will be high hopes for Wings of Desire.