Owned by the Sri Lanka based Mr. and Mrs. Edwards, La Dona was trained by Darius Byramji and ridden by the Western India based champion jockey Sandesh.
A small field of four fillies lined up to face the Starter for the first Classic of the Mysore season.
La Dona was the strong favourite despite the fact that she was rated four points below Ice Glacier.
This meant that it was going to be close.
La Dona had to show improvement to get the better of the Glacier.
That's how it was on paper and that's precisely how it unfolded on the track.
La Dona was forced to make her own running and that is probably what took the edge off her performance that afternoon.
To go start to finish over a mile is not the best of options.
Had she not had to do all the work by cutting the wind, Ice Glacier may not have come as close to her as she did.
But it was a gutsy and courageous performance by the filly and make no mistake she has a truly bright future ahead.
La Dona is now a winner of three races from five starts.
She was extremely unlucky to lose the Bangalore Fillies Trial and then she suffered a bad setback which caused her to miss the Bangalore Summer Derby; but she was back with a vengeance, winning her prep race in Mysore - A Million affair in great style and she followed it up with her first Classic success.
One day later and the Sri Lanka based Edwards family had even more to cheer about when their 3 year old bay colt Reference - a son of Burden Of Proof cruised home to win the last race of the day in Mysore.
Reference too is trained by Darius Byramji and he was ridden by Suraj Narredu.
