Blinkers bring the best out of Defining

[Wandering Eyes]

The addition of blinkers allowed New Zealand-bred mare Defining (NZ) (Not A Single Doubt) to show her true colours in Saturday’s A$160,000 I Love 0% Cocktails Handicap (1400m) at Randwick.

The five-year-old had been consistently close up in all of her recent starts, finishing within two lengths of the winner in running three placings at Warwick Farm in May and June before a close last-start fourth at Rosehill on June 29.

Trainer Annabel Neasham put blinkers on for Saturday’s race and Defining delivered in style, settling in fifth and well away from the rail before swooping four-wide around the home turn to make her bid. Jockey Tyler Schiller drove the chestnut to the lead in the straight and she kicked clear, beating the strong-finishing Hellavadancer (Hellbent) by a length and a quarter.

“I can’t take much credit for that,” Schiller said. “She got stuck wide, she had to do all the bullocking work, and it looks like the blinkers did the trick because she towed me where we needed to be instead of having to force her there.

“She quickened up well in the straight. It was just a matter of whether she’d done too much work late, but she was very tough.

“She loves these wet tracks, which is probably a big bonus this time of year, but for a horse that big, she’s got a big heart. It was a really tough win today.”

Defining is raced by YES Bloodstock and Stallion Match and has had 19 starts for four wins, nine placings and A$280,550 in stakes. She collected black type earlier in her career with a second placing in the Listed Nitschke Stakes (1400m) at Morphettville in 2022.

Bred by Cambridge Stud owners Brendan and Jo Lindsay, Defining is by Not a Single Doubt out of the stakes-placed Encosta de Lago mare Seduced.

Defining was offered in the Cambridge Stud draft in Book 1 of Karaka 2020, where she was bought for $225,000 by Mitchell Bloodstock and G1 Goldmine.

Defining is the first foal out of Seduced, who has subsequently produced filly foals by young Cambridge Stud stallions Embellish and Hello Youmzain.

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