Angel Express is unbeaten in both starts at Bunbury this season and she’s a standout for another reason besides those two odds-on victories that stamped her as a filly with a future.
The Jason Miller-trained 3yo is a daughter of Darling View’s Champion WA First-Season Sire Splintex (Snitzel) and is the only one of his 75 first-crop foals that’s a grey. She led from barrier to box for Willie Pike in the Swan Draught Hcp (1200m) on Thursday to defeat My Danny Boy (Playing God) by over a length.
“She was beautifully away for ‘Wiz’ and said we’re going for a spin,” Miller posted on Facebook. “They found the front and took control before kicking away in the straight. Two starts for two wins and this exciting filly is certainly keeping us smiling!”
Angel Express was the third-leg of a winning quartet for Pike at Bunbury and all four are 3yo fillies! “She was standing awkwardly in the gates but jumped clean and she took me for a ride,” Pike said. “She was a bit hot and I was concerned that first win might have put her over the top but she’s got ability and there was something in reserve.”
Miller’s wife Sarah bred her in partnership with Alan Bansemer at Namerik Thoroughbreds and she is a younger half-sister to their grey filly Admiration Express (My Admiration) who won four black-type events to Group 3 level in the 2022 Champion Fillies Stakes (1600m).
Admiration Express was sold to Greenfields Lodge owner Tony Patrizi for $280,000 out of the Magic Millions Digital Sale in April. Their dam Comme Ci (Verglas) is now owned by Darling View’s Atwell family and she has a yearling colt by Champion WA Sire Playing God at Mundijong.
Verglas covered two southern books shuttling from France to Alwyn Park in 2003 and 2004. He represented the grey-dominated Grey Sovereign (GB) sireline through Kenmare (Fr) and Highest Honor (Fr) and sired 57 winners of 205 races down here including the Ascot black-type winners Ma Chienne (Tattersall’s Cup), Royal Devotion (Jungle Mist Classic), Sheenasaidgrey (Perth Stakes), Spirited One (Champion Fillies Stakes) and Verossi (J C Roberts Stakes).
All five were greys and Verglas returned to Europe where the sireline continued through his Group 1 winners Silver Frost (French 2000 Guineas) and Stormy River (Prix Jean Prat). Another Group 1 winning son Vert De Grece (Criterium International) stood at Geisel Park before transferring to Brisbane Meadows in the NSW Southern Highlands.
