West is best for She’s Tough

[Wandering Eyes]

By Joshua Smith, Harness News Desk

She’s Tough showed her aptitude for the West Coast climate when scoring at Reefton on Sunday.

The Brad Mowbray-trained mare was victorious at Westport on Friday and backed up with a convincing win in the Inangahua-Grey Valley Cup (2500m) two days later.

The daughter of He’s Watching once again showed her brilliance from a stand, stepping away quickly from behind the 10m tape to take an early lead for driver Kimberley Butt.

She soon handed up the lead to Copperhead Rose and enjoyed the trail for the rest of the journey before she was asked to improve down the home straight and proved too tough for her rival, securing a 2-1/4 length victory, with a further 7-1/2 lengths back to Just Holla in third.

Mowbray was duly rapt with the result.

“Her manners came to the fore. She got herself into the perfect spot and everything went to plan,” he said.

“It was the first time she had backed up two days later, so you are always a little bit concerned, but she obviously took no harm out of the first day.”

It was the first time Mowbray has campaigned a horse on the West Coast and he now plans on heading across the alps more often but admits it will be hard to maintain his 100 percent winning strike rate in the region.

“She obviously enjoys the climate over there. We’ll have to head over there more often with her now,” he said.

“A 100% strike-rate is great, but it can only go downhill now.”

She’s Tough has now earnt a couple of days in the paddock while Mowbray works out her next steps.

“It is a quiet enough time and she has gone up plenty of points so it will be hard to figure out where to place her now,” he said.

A day prior, Mowbray was in Southland campaigning a team of three horse and came home with a placing courtesy of Almighty Clever.

“Almighty Clever went well, but obviously the winner was too good,” Mowbray said.

“He is going in the right direction and we will have a fair bit of fun with him.”

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