Demerit debutante Invincible Ruby came from last on the turn and was still good enough to ride a bump in the straight to win the Furphy Hcp (1000m) at Belmont on Saturday.

Invincible Ruby is a homebred for south-west trainer Jackie Panizza and her husband Mark.  The Dardanup couple race her under the family’s Grassy Gully Syndicate.

“She showed ability right from Day 1,” Panizza said.  “With the restrictions at Bunbury, her only grass gallops have been at Lark Hill.  She does most of her work with the kangaroos at Collie.

“I told Clint (Johnston-Porter) to sit back and work into the race because she’s not a super-fast beginner.  She doesn’t like being held up either so it worked out perfectly when the pace was on today.”

Stewards reported it wasn’t all plain sailing when Johnston-Porter attempted to split runners at the furlong.  “Duratime (S Parnham) shifted outwards resulting in Invincible Ruby being bumped and carried outwards on to Mocha Dream (P Harvey) which was carried outwards and became unbalanced.”

Invincible Ruby recovered quickly to go on and defeat Universal Flair (Universal Ruler) and Ortum Krisp (Lucky Street).  “They were a bunch of green horses running around a bit and we got into a bit of a duel,” Johnston-Porter said.  “I thought she would have to be good to pick up and win from there but she ran right through the line and is already looking for more ground.”

It was the first victory of the new season for Demerit and continued the remarkable run for the former Taunton Vale resident who sired 7 individual winners in the final 4 days of last season.  Among them were Belmont winners Revitup and Mia Gusto who earned a combined $121,190 to propel Demerit to the WA 2YO Sires’ premiership for 2021-22.

Invincible Ruby is a third-generation runner for the Panizza family.  “We raced her grandmother (Enticement by Middle Kingdom) and bred her mother (Nigella Bites by Danetime),” Jackie recalled.  “Fire Maker was our first foal from Nigella Bites and this filly is the last.”

Fire Maker (Husson Lightning) was a handy galloper winning five races at Pinjarra for the Panizzas but they’ve unearthed a gem with Invincible Ruby.

INVINCIBLE RUBY