Champion trainer Chris Waller declared his three-year-old filly Awoke is ‘back’ after returning to winning form at Canterbury Park on Wednesday afternoon.
The promising filly failed to make the winners circle in her last campaign, with Waller admitting she went ‘missing’ in her last preparation.
However she was back to her best when beating The Pharoah by a nose, while Gitan finished 1-1/2 lengths back in third, much to the delight of Waller.
“I think she’s back,” Waller said. “She’s a more furnished product now.
“The writing was on the wall she was in for a good prep after a couple of good trials, so it was good to see her fight like that.
“She’s got form around Foxplay, so there’s not much better form around for a three-year-old filly.”
Meanwhile, star jockey Hugh Bowman believes Awoke has the ability to return to a level which saw her competitive in stakes company.
“It was a bit of a class drop compared to what she was racing against last time in, but she’s shown that she’s up to better company than what she met this time and it was nice to see her return in that form,” Bowman said.
“I would imagine she would make her way back to better class races, but I’ll leave that to the stable.”