Winning Debut For Makybe Daughter

[Wandering Eyes]

Makybe Diva (GB) (Desert King {Ire}) has not had the fastest start to her broodmare career, her first five foals failing to reach much acclaim on the racetrack. But the legendary stayer and winner of three Melbourne Cups could be leaving her best until later, with her 3-year-old daughter of All Too Hard (Aus), Divanation (Aus), having won in eye-catching fashion on debut at Werribee on Friday.

The A$300,000 Inglis Premier graduate is trained by Tony McEvoy, whose representative Michael Shepherdson told Racing.com, “She’s been a slow build but it was great to see her do that today. We’ll build on this and hopefully there are some better races in store. She just looked like she was in a good rhythm the whole way and she was the last off the bridle and she could let down nicely and pricked her ears so it was a great debut. We’ll see how she comes out of this race and Tony will have some fun finding the next one for her.”

Let go at A$2.50, Divanation sat as much as five lengths off the pace down the backstretch of the 1625 metre contest. Winding up three-wide passing the 400, the bay swept to the lead at the top of the stretch under a Luke Currie handride and was a very handy 2 1/4 length winner from a fast-finishing Ishkabibble (Aus) (Reliable Man {Ger}).

Makybe Diva has an as-yet unraced 2-year-old by world champion sprinter Starspangledbanner (Aus) named Demand Attention (Aus), and a yearling filly by another standout sprinter in Brazen Beau (Aus). She was not covered in 2016.

While Divanation’s sire is Black Caviar (Aus)’s half-brother All Too Hard, the filly’s ownership also includes one of that other great mare’s owners, Neil Werrett. While the retirement of Black Caviar’s first foal, Oscietra (Aus) (Exceed and Excel {Aus}), was announced this week, her second foal, the 2-year-old Prince Of Caviar (Aus) (Sebring {Aus}), makes his debut on Saturday at Sandown.

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