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Dawn Williams has her eye on a stakes win for capable sprinting mare Flower Bomb, who tackles the feature race at Tauranga on Saturday.
The Byerley Park trainer is solo at the helm this week, with husband and co-trainer Peter Williams at the Sydney Yearling Sales, rubber-stamping a $A340,000 yearling purchase for stable clients Sarah Green and Ger Beemsterboer on Tuesday.
That Lonhro filly out of Legal Consent will return to New Zealand and attempt to follow in the footsteps of two other star fillies to have raced in the Barneswood Farm colours - Planet Rock and Vavasour.Williams will saddle just one runner this week, with One Cool Cat mare Flower Bomb tackling the BDO Tauranga-Exceptional Client Service 1200. Sam Collett has been booked to ride.
"She's really well," Williams said."She's got over a few colds and coughs but it's hard with her because she's so small and you get to a stage where you end up carrying a fair bit of weight.
"She should have been late scratched at Wellington last start. There were a few playing up at the barriers and that held up the start and then she reared up and smacked her head on the gates and came back with blood streaming out of her nose."She would have had a fair headache and they apologised afterwards and said she probably shouldn't have run."
Safely through Saturday's race, the Williams’ will consider Flower Bomb for the Listed Windsor Park Stud Rotorua Stakes (1400m) on May 9 in a bid to add a stakes win to the mare's resume, which already boasts a Gr.3 Westbury Classic placing."We'll keep going with her because she handles wet tracks," Williams said.
Meanwhile, stable star Shuka - raced by Eric Parr - will have his final start of the season in Saturday week's Gr.3 Canterbury Gold Cup (2000m) at Riccarton, a race he won two years ago."He'll go back down and spell at Eric's farm, so why not have a go at the race before he goes out?" Williams said.
"He ran in the Easter Handicap this time last year and we looked at that option again but what's the use of flying home for a beautiful fourth or fifth again carrying 61kg. He can go back to Riccarton and be well placed under weight-for-age conditions."