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The curtain has come down on a highly successful black-type double act with Cambridge owner-trainer Murray Neal announcing the retirement of his versatile mare The Filly.

“She’s been a good girl and she’s done a great job, but she’s a seven-year-old and it’s time for her to be a Mum,” he said. “It’s sad, but she’s on the market now.

“I’ve loved her from day one - we were a team and not a bad one either.”

The Filly won 10 of her 47 starts and a further 19 placings swelled her career earnings to more than $260,000.

“She won or ran in the first three in half of her starts and not many can do that,” Neal said. “She also won on heavy tracks and on a Good 3, it didn’t bother her.”

The Filly’s career highlight came with her victory in the Gr.3 Taranaki Breeders’ Stakes, in which she beat the subsequent Group One winner I Do, in a result that provided Neal with a double dose of satisfaction.

“That was where it all began for me at Hawera, I did my apprenticeship there with Brian Deacon,” he said.

The Filly was also runner-up in the Gr.3 Concorde Handicap and the Listed Tauranga Classic and she twice finished third in the Gr.2 Foxbridge Plate and at Listed level in the Opunake Cup, Counties Bowl and the Rotorua Stakes (twice).

The daughter of Ishiguru was out of the money in her last three appearances, prompting Neal to call time.

“She didn’t finish them off and it’s no good knocking them about,” he said. “She’s fine and she’s done me proud.”