VOVO turns on the afterburners

Lightly raced mare VOVO dispatched her maiden to the tune of 8.5 lengths at the Sunshine Coast’s Friday night meeting.

The emphatic performance came at just her third career start and was her first outing since finishing a close fourth at the same track in May.

The state’s current leading jockey Ben Thompson was able to seize control of the race inside the first two furlongs, despite the pair jumping from an awkward barrier in eight of 10.

VOVO ($1.80 favourite) was still travelling on the bit rounding the home turn and in the blink of an eye, spaced her rivals to win in a blistering time of 1:09.98 – just 0.06 seconds outside the course record set by The Pines in 2019.

Adding merit to the victory was the fact it was VOVO’s first look at 1200m, having raced over 1000m in her only two previous career starts.

Racing in the familiar butcher stripes colours of UNCOMMON JAMES fame, VOVO is a daughter of VANCOUVER and half-sister to the Group 3 winner RUN HARRY RUN.