Barbuda impresses

Promising three-year-old Barbuda always travelled like the winner when taking out his maiden in impressive fashion at Echuca on Monday.

Sitting third behind the leaders, the lightly raced gelding hit the lead at the 250m - racing away to win by a soft two lengths.

Having only his third start and this second this time in - a game Geelong second first up - the good-looking bay gave jockey Darren Gauci a good feel during the running.

"The only time I was a bit concerned," he said, "was at the 600m when the one on the outside of me had me in a bit of a pocket."

But fortunately the gap came and when it did Barbuda was able to accelerate in the style of a nice horse - "he proved just too good," Gauchi said.

Raced by Rupert & Cheryl Legh Racing, Dr John Kennedy, Kerry & Dian Good, John Phillips, Joe Del Mastro, Versace Racing, Wright Racing, the SHH Syndicate and the Cuba Syndicate, Barbuda is by Redoute's Choice's Black Opal Stakes winner Al Samer.

A $NZ44,000 purchase for Paul Moroney at last year's New Zealand Bloodstock Festival Yearling Sale, he is out of the placed Volksraad mare Cumulous, a half sister to the New Zealand Gr.3 winner High Grove.

Named after an island in the Eastern Caribbean (where cumulus clouds form), Barbuda hails from the same family as NZ Derby hero The Gentry and the Hong Kong superstar sprinter Silent Witness (pictured).