Lil Red Corvette fights hard to win at Moonee Valley

Ellerton Zahra Racing has continued its great run with two-year-olds this season when Lil Red Corvette scored a gritty win in Friday night’s Swift Signs Handicap (1000m) at Moonee Valley.

Lil Red Corvette showed terrific pace to lead the $30,000 race before pulling out plenty to hold off Popular Acclaim to post a tough win.

The filly’s victory was Ellerton Zahra Racing’s fourth juvenile success for the season, taking the stable to the top of the Victorian two-year-old trainer’s list, joining the much larger Anthony Freedman and John Thompson stables.

“It helps when you have got a few numbers, getting them in and out and sorting them out, who is ready and who isn’t,” Mathew Ellerton said.

Ellerton and training partner Simon Zahra had Lil Red Corvette up and running in time for Melbourne’s first two-year-old race of the season at Flemington in October, where the daughter of Henny Hughes ran third to Cambiaso.

“She pulled up very shinsore when she raced,” Ellerton said. “She has had a break and come back, she has grown up a bit.”

Ellerton said Lil Red Corvette’s first run gave her the experience to perform strongly at her second attempt.

“With 59kg and a little filly, she has done a good job,” Ellerton said. “It’s always an advantage when they race in the spring and come back and had the run under their belt with the seasoning.

“She’s far from switched on she has good room for improvement.

Chris Symons was the winning rider.

Click here to see how Lil Red Corvette broke through at Moonee Valley.