Mark Davidson believes Bella Cena can perform over longer and rise to city level after winning her third consecutive race over 400 metres on Saturday night as part of a double for the Brandy Hill trainer at The Gardens.
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The almost two-year-old bitch jumped from box seven in race nine and settled in second before overpowering Soy Sauce on the turn and clearing away for a 1.5-length win in the 5th grade race in 22.98 seconds.
It took Bella Cena's record to five wins in 13 starts and three in her past four. She was third at Gosford over 388m two starts back.
"She's a nice bitch and she can run the 500, but we'll just go through our 400m races at this stage," Davidson said.
"She's a good beginner and just puts herself into the race, and is strong at the end. There's probably a good future for her."
Davidson believed Bella Cena could step up to city grade, when racing returns there following the coronavirus pandemic.
"She's been over the 500 and has run some good time in her trials," he said.
"We tried her over it a couple of times early but she had a few niggly things, so we dropped her back in distance.
"Since we've ironed those out, she's been jumping to the front and she's won at Gosford, Richmond, The Gardens and she backs up well. Those shorter runs don't hurt her and once all this settles with the virus, she will be a nice Wentworth Park bitch."
He plans to back Bella Cena up next week at The Gardens over 400m.
Her win on Saturday night followed the maiden victory of Zipping Gibson. At his sixth start, the blue dog won race three (400m) to breakthrough after back-to-back thirds at Gosford and The Gardens. Jumping from two, he was third before railing well to beat Stilton Mary by a neck in 23.16.
"That's his best run to date and first time he's put it all together without little mistakes," Davidson said. "He's still immature and probably in a couple of months when he settles, he might turn out to be a nice dog."
"He's into 5th grade now. He won his maiden in reasonable time for last night's meeting. I think he'll be competitive as he goes along."