The daughter of Bettors Delight USA brought up her third win from just six starts in the heat after she lead all the way from barrier one in the opening heat on the night, with a comfortable win in 2:00:7 over the 2130m trip with Deni Roberts in the gig.
"We had a big opinion of her (In The Spotlight) but we got offered extremely good money to the states for her that we couldn't pass up, well Greg couldn't, we didn't speak for two weeks over it." Skye joked.
"His theory was we still had 'the blood' as we had In A Wink back in New Zealand that we had bought at the yearling sales."
After breaking in well in NZ, even labelled as fast, she failed to impress the Bond team when she first made her way here to the west, but after her last two preparations they have confirmed she has continued to progress and, in their words, 'keeps stepping up'.
"She is the most delightful little filly who is a joy to train, and we are excited to see where she can go."
The second of the heats went the way of the WA bred Xceptional Arma for trainer Colin Brown. Already showing she has quite the ability, the win brought up her total to five from just nine starts, with her stakes just shy of $100,000 (not including the Westbred bonuses on offer).
Driven by Maddison Brown, she started as the $1.38 favourite from barrier two, proving too strong for her rivals when she sat in the breeze throughout the 2130m journey, coming out on top with a winning margin of 3.1m in 1:59:3.
"I was super confident, she had been working with the free for all mares, American Arma and Fifty Five Reborn, and well and truly being competitive with them,
"Aiden had said he was going to lead in the morning, and I told Maddy don't worry about it, just breeze and we'll beat him,
"That's how well she had been working." Colin Brown said.
The 2YO Fillies Sales Classic winner from earlier in the year, Water Lou continued to show her dominance with an impressive win on Tuesday night in the third and final heat.
Starting from barrier one in the heat, she was able to lead easily, with the $1.55 favourite pulling away to win by 20.7m for Kevin Keys and Shannon Suvaljko in the fastest heat on the night, with a winning mile rate of 1:57:5.
Unbeaten in all six of her starts, Kevin Keys confirmed that the barrier draw in the final will play a big part, but he is very happy with his filly.
"That's the disappointing part, it doesn't matter how well they're going, you have to wait until Tuesday afternoon at 4 o'clock to see how you're going to go,
"I'm just so wrapped that Jim and Wilma Giumelli have a really nice horse, they have spent a fortune, and they deserve to have some luck,
"She's laid back, good to do everything with and I'm just very happy with her." Kevin Keys said.
The first four runners of each heat go through to next week's final at Gloucester Park, the Gr1 $100,000 Diamond Classic on August 18.
