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By Ray Hickson

A filly formerly trained by Ciaron Maher has already been a bargain buy for trainer Garry Kirkup and with the prospect of a wet track he’s confident Apparate can keep up the good work at Sapphire Coast on Sunday.

The three-year-old had six starts under Maher and was sold for $11,000 to Kirkup and in two starts for him she’s already collected over $20,000 largely thanks to a first-up win and a BOBS bonus.

She’ll return to the scene of that victory a month ago in the Club Sapphire Handicap (1410m) having run fourth at Canberra, in a race that received a form boost on Friday, just over a week ago.

Kirkup said he had an inkling prior to her first-up success that she’d be effective in the wet.

“When we’ve galloped her on the grass it’s always a little bit wet and she’d always work up well on it before she won that race,’’ he said.

“We thought this horse will win a couple for sure and sure enough she came out and won first-up.

“She was only beaten 1.8 (lengths) one day at Kembla on a heavy, her best two runs have been on heavy tracks.

Apparate wins at Sapphire Coast on April 4

“When you’re only getting them for that much, and she was a BOBS horse and only a three-year-old, a lot of the time they keep improving and it’s worth the risk.

“She picked up nearly $19,000 for her first win, so we’re in front.”

Apparate stormed home from the back when she won at the Sapphire Coast but the switch to a soft 5 at Canberra and racing a little closer conspired to bring her undone as she finished behind the placings.

But her stablemate Miss Emma ran second in the race and her win at Wagga on Friday gave the form a boost and, given Kirkup thought Apparate would be a good chance against her that day, the trainer some confidence.

“She still found the line, sometimes second-up and jumping straight from a maiden can be hard,’’ he said.

“I’m sure it’s to do with the rating of the tracks that changed her form a touch. She’s trained on great and looks magnificent so I really expect her to go close.

“I don’t want to have her too close but I’d like to have her midfield all the way and hopefully pull her out and she’ll unwind like she did last time there.

“She’s a lot more competitive on a wet track so I’m hopeful it’ll still at least be a (soft) 7 by Sunday.”

All the fields, form and replays for Sunday’s Sapphire Coast meeting