Lights Of Heaven takes out Hollindale Stakes

Tough staying Lights Of Heaven showed her liking for the Sunshine State scoring another feature race win in the Group 2 $358,000 Wimmers Soft Drinks A. D. Hollindale Stakes (1800m) at the Gold Coast today.

Lights Of Heaven

Lights Of Heaven taking out the A D Hollindale Stakes at the Gold Coast. Photo by Daniel Costello.

The Peter Moody trained mare ran second to Shez Sinsational in this race last year before running second to Mawingo in the Group 1 $500,000 Kirks Doomben Cup (2000m) at Doomben.

Lights Of Heaven then went onto win a Group 2 Eagle Farm double by taking out the $250,000 Al Basti Equworld Eagle Farm Cup (2200m) and the $300,000 Australian Special Metals Brisbane Cup (2400m).

Moody had Lights Of Heaven cherry ripe for today’s weight for age feature after winning the Group 3 $125,000 Neville Sellwood Stakes (2000m) at Rosehill on April 6 and is now on track to go one better in this year’s Doomben Cup.

“That makes up for her head defeat in this race last year and it might be a good sign going forward to the Doomben Cup,” Moody said.

“She was second in that race as well last year so hopefully this is the turning point.”

“She’s been a tremendous mare for us winning a Group One race as a three-year-old and going on to win multiple times at Group Two and Group Three level,” he said.

“The good thing is we get to have a crack at putting another Group One on her CV in a couple of weeks time and the further she goes the better she’ll be.

“She was probably a bit dour today but she’s just looking for more ground and the step up to 2000 metres next time in the Doomben Cup and 2400 metres in the Brisbane Cup after that will be ideal for her.”

The Chris Waller trained Foreteller ($5) put up a tremendous effort after travelling three wide near the tail of the field, worked to the line hard to go down narrowly for second with Transporter ($15) also putting in a top effort to finish third.

Luke Nolen gave Lights Of Heaven ($2.80 favourite) a sweet run in fourth and fifth spot just behind the leaders and after easing her into the clear, the leading jockey timed his run to perfection to score a clear cut over Foreteller.

About The Author

Mark Mazzaglia

Mark is a passionate journalist with a life-time involvement in the racing industry. He spent many years as an analyst and form expert at the Courier Mail and also has hands-on experience working with some of Queensland’s top trainers.