Pencarrow Racing’s three-year-old filly Secret Lily (Sakhee’s Secret x Desert Lily) has made the best possible start to her career with an impressive three length win in the $7,000 Kamo Club Maiden 1200m at Ruakaka yesterday.

“We thought she would go a pretty good race but we didn’t think she would be as strong as she was,” commented co-trainer Donna Logan. “The way she got to the line was super and she did it so easily which indicates she has a fair bit of ability.”

Trained on their home track by Donna & Dean Logan, the daughter of Sakhee’s Secret entered the race on the back of a trial win at the start of April. She was ridden to victory in the trial by Mark du Plessis who was also aboard three-year-old filly on raceday.

Starting from barrier 5, Secret Lily found herself sitting outside the leader over the sprint journey. When du Plessis asked her to quicken in the straight she was able to explode away from the field and sprint to a comfortable victory on a Dead 4 track.

“I’m in Brisbane at the moment but watching the race I was wrapped with the way she got to the line,” said Logan. “Mark didn’t knock her around and from all accounts he said he had plenty of horse left underneath him which is encouraging.

“I think she will get over a bit more ground and she has time on her side. She has a great temperament and we think she has a bit of a future.

“We will sit at the round table and have a discussion about her future. That was only her first start and it is hard to go up a grade as a green horse and compete against the older horses. We don’t want to throw too much at her too soon so we will take her through nice and slow and she will tell us what her capabilities are.”

Raced by Sir Peter Vela who bred the filly with Philip Vela, Secret Lily is out of Desert Lily (Green Desert), the dam of eight winners from as many starters. Secret Lily is a half-sister to dual Group 2 winner Lafleur (Zabeel), the dam of stakes winners Amaryllis (Red Ransom) and Papilio (Redoute’s Choice).

Desert Lily foaled a colt by Darci Brahma last year but was not served this season.

A race-to-race double was achieved by Pencarrow Racing at Ruakaka with Elysium (O’Reilly x Velvet and Satin) victorious in the following race on the programme at Rating 75 level.

Pencarrow also came close to victory in the United Kingdom on Tuesday with Mary McPhee (Makfi x Aunty Mary) finishing runner-up at her second start for trainer Charlie Hills and owners Sir Peter Vela, Qatar Racing and J Gompertz.