SUNDAY: April 24, 2022: THREE winners for the week – and it could easily have been four!

Leading Hawkesbury trainer Brad Widdup’s victory with lightly-raced filly Mum’s The Boss at Kembla Grange yesterday followed successes with Global Ausbred at Canterbury last Wednesday and Travelling Kate at Newcastle a day later.

Taking Brad’s season tally to 42, Mum’s The Boss ($3.70) broke through in the Maiden Plate (1600m) at only her third start.

Jockey Alysha Collett was intent taking the initiative on the Foxwedge filly, who was sporting blinkers for the first time, and had her away smartly to take up the running.

Mum’s The Boss was never seriously threatened and scored comfortably from French import Funambulist ($2.10 favorite) and Ninja Star ($6.50).

A three-year-old daughter of Foxwedge and the Galileo mare Second Draw (a Brisbane and Sydney winner), Mum’s The Boss was bred and is raced by Sydney businessman Adrian Whittingham under his Honeycomb Stud banner.

“Adrian shares in the ownership of the champion mare Verry Elleegant, and is a good supporter of my stable,” Brad said today.

“He named this filly after his wife Karen, and I also have Mum’s The Boss’ two-year-old half-brother Ra Ra Grandpa (by Dissident) for him.

“Ra Ra Grandpa ran sixth on debut at Goulburn earlier in the month and is having a break.

“Mum’s The Boss has been a work in progress, but has been really good this campaign.

“She was backward early on and I didn’t race her as a two-year-old.

“If she continues to improve, there’s a chance she could go to Brisbane for the winter carnival.”

Mum’s The Boss ran third when resuming at Newcastle over 1400m on April 9 on a “Heavy 10”, and her trainer had no qualms about starting her yesterday on similar ground.

“I was confident she would handle the conditions, and was my only runner yesterday,” Brad said.

“I had two other acceptors at Kembla Grange (including Sneaky Island in the same race as Mum’s The Boss) and another at Randwick, and withdrew them all.”

Mum’s The Boss is also a half-sister to the John Thompson-trained Le Lude (by Lope De Vega), who has won five races, including three in town; the latest being the Group 3 Aspiration Quality on a Randwick “Heavy 9” last month.

Whilst Brad is delighted with how the stable is going, he was disappointed Outlook didn’t win a Benchmark 72 Handicap (1600m) at Warwick Farm last Monday on resumption.

“She was very unlucky not to have won, and hit the line strongly to finish third, narrowly beaten for second,” he said.

“She is coming up nicely this preparation.”

. This is Brad’s best season in terms of prizemoney since taking out his licence five years ago. His horses have earned just under $3.9m, and almost $13m since he won with his first starter Junglized on Canberra’s ACTON (synthetic) track on May 26, 2017.