Axzelina lands fighting debut win at Sandown

Education time is over as a number of the two-year-olds on the books of Ciaron Maher and David Eustace are about to hit the racetrack.

Two fillies from the powerful stable stepped out for the first time at Sandown on Saturday with Axzelina scoring in the Ladbrokes Racing Club Handicap scoring while stablemate Links finished in fifth place.

Assistant trainer Jack Turnbull said the stable had a number of juveniles ready to hit the track and it was a matter of switching them around their stables to find the right race.

Ridden by Linda Meech, Axzelina ($7) was headed in the straight before fighting back to score by a short-head from Austmarr ($8) with Mislead ($101) a further 2-¼ lengths away third.

“It’s good condition wise for them to now have a run,” Turnbull said.

“I’m not saying they will go to the paddock, they may have one or two more runs, but there is no set plan for them.

“We’ll see how they come through this and map out a plan from there.”

Turnbull said expectations were not high with the fillies, although the stable thought both Axzelina and Links could run well.

“They had trialled up well, but it was hard to split them as they had been working up well at home,” Turnbull said.

“We debuted a colt on Thursday night that we thought would have run well, but he didn’t, so with unraced horses, you don’t know how they’re going to go, but thankfully they both ran well.”

Axzelina was dwarfed by the runner-up Austmarr, but Turnbull said the winner, a daughter of Snitzel from the Zabeel mare Axiom, was a ‘tough little filly’ that would grow out and strengthen in time.

Meech said Austmarr had headed her in the straight, getting around a neck in front inside the final 200m of the race.

“But she pulled out her good breeding and her good training and took off,” Meech said.