Agent of Mercy continues to impress

TRAINER Gary Clarke was keeping a lid on the ability of Agent of Mercy despite her comfortable win in the opening race at Fannie Bay.

Brendon Davis

TRAINER Gary Clarke was keeping a lid on the ability of Agent of Mercy despite her comfortable win in the opening race at Fannie Bay, the HOT100 TROBIS Class B Handicap.

The never-in-doubt win yesterday made it two firsts from two starts for the four-year-old mare but Darwin's leading trainer was not getting too excited.

"The two races she has won have both been TROBIS bonus races so she has a bit of money in the bank already," Clarke said.

"I don't know she will go all that fast through the grades but at the moment she is doing nothing wrong."

Agent of Mercy impressed on her Darwin debut last month, leading all the way over 1100 metres.

And she did not put a hoof wrong yesterday over a similar distance, cruising to victory ahead of Bullock Heart with debutant from the Dick Leech stables, De Souba Star, a fast-finishing third.

"She can't do much better than that," Clarke added of Agent of Mercy.

"She probably just suits the way they race here. She usually has pretty good gate speed although she was a bit tardy today.

"She has a good high cruising speed and can maintain it."

Jockey Brendon Davis was pleased with his winning ride on Agent of Mercy, his second successive victory.

"She's a nice horse this one. I think she'll go through her grades nice and comfortably," Davis said.

"She drew a good gate today, jumped straight on the steel and won well."

Davis said he was impressed with the way she stuck to her task.

"Never had any danger. I just gave her a couple (with the whip) to keep her on the job," he said.