Oakland Park homebred North Face was always travelling like a winner at Bunbury on Sunday and there were no excuses for the beaten division after Lucy Fiore went for home in the Flyn & Peter Narkle Maiden (1200m).

North Face is trained by Adam Durrant and is the third new maiden winner in the last fortnight for Alwyn Park stallion Maschino following Chino la Diva and Dandy’s Gem.  He was a beaten odds-on favourite first-up behind Santanova (Santos) in the south-west earlier this month but improved panels to put a space on Magical Sequence (Rommel) and Zed Hot Express (All American).

North Face was given a gun run right behind the leader Lyn’s Star (War Chant) before Fiore angled into the clear and released the hand-brake.  “They weren’t getting anywhere near North Face!” Durrant Racing posted on Facebook.  “He’s a progressive gelding and is very raw but will be a force when he connects the dots.”

Oakland Park owners Neville & Susan Duncan bred him from their speedy Belmont specialist Shengmu whose only other foal to race is Ascot winner Toppa The Mountain (Sessions).  Her 2yo filly She’s Capitana (Sessions) is also with Durrant and her two most recent foals are also fillies by Maschino and Playing God.

Second-dam Perpendicular (Charge Forward) is a half-sister to Massimo (Sessions) who won consecutive renewals of the G2 Lee-Steere Stakes (1400m) at Ascot in 2021 and 2022 for Gangemi Thoroughbreds.  They descend from USA stakes winner Consular Belle (Pro Consul) who was imported to Australia by Robert Holmes a Court in the 1980s.

It’s a Heytesbury Stud family that generated the Is It True (USA) black-type winners Tell Me Straight (LR Belgravia Stakes) and Genuine Girl (LR Crystal Slipper).  Impressing Matters, a daughter of Oakland Park sire Viscount, was another closely-related feature winner of the LR Burgess Queen Stakes in 2007.