Tavistock filly Loose Cannon made an impressive start to her raceday career at Ruakaka on Saturday when taking out the Northland Rural Mechanical Services (1200m).

The Stephen Marsh-trained three-year-old had shown ability with two trial wins, but had to overcome her outside barrier of 12 to secure her debut victory.

Wearing the Go Racing silks, jockey Mark Hills took the inside running with Loose Cannon down the straight after sitting off the pace, with the filly showing a good turn of foot in the last 150m to win by a head over Maison Roxanne.

Her run duly impressed Marsh, who has earmarked the filly for a tilt at the Gr.1 New Zealand 1000 Guineas (1600m) at Riccarton in November.

“The plan was to let her find her feet from that wide barrier and for her to be hitting the line well,” Marsh said. “The win was outstanding.

“We’ve thought for some time that she was high-class, so if all goes to plan, she’ll be on a New Zealand 1000 Guineas path.”

Loose Cannon was pinhooked out of New Zealand Bloodstock’s 2016 May Sale for $135,000 as a weanling and went back through the sales ring at Karaka at the 2017 Premier Yearling Sale where she was knocked down to Go Racing’s bid of $150,000.