Three-year-old filly Florencenightngale (NZ) (Rip Van Winkle) made the perfect start to her career when winning on debut at Rotorua on Friday.

The daughter of Rip Van Winkle won the Laser Electrical Rotorua 1230 by 2-1/2 lengths and trainer Mark Walker was pleased with what he saw.

“She’s from a very good Windsor Park family and although shaping to be better as a four-year-old next season, it was a really promising start to her career,” Walker said.

“It was a thrill to see her win because I trained her grand-dam Polish Princess who was a stakes winner and Group One placed and went on to become a top broodmare.”

Polish Princess was purchased as a yearling in the United Kingdom by Windsor Park Stud, with the view of becoming a commercial breeding proposition for her owners.

“She (Florencenightngale) was pretty good, alright, and we were very happy with what she showed to win like that on debut,” said Windsor Park Stud Master Rodney Schick.

“Jamie (Richards, former trainer) had her going in and out of the stable and said she needed a bit of time, so we gave her that opportunity and Mark (Walker) thought she’d go a pretty good race today.

“He trained the grandmother for me, Polish Princess, and it’s been a good family for us. It a nice connection with Mark having trained her.

“She wasn’t the most correct filly and not the easiest to train and Mark did a bloody good job getting out of her what we did on the racetrack.

“We imported her as a yearling from England and she turned out being both a good race mare and broodmare, although she only had a few foals. Unfortunately, we lost her to laminitis so it’s pretty pleasing to have a nice filly like this to win on debut like that. I was pretty chuffed, actually, and she’ll only be stronger next year.

“It’s one of the Aga Khan’s good families. Polish Princess’s sisters and siblings sold around $800,000 pounds and we only paid $80,000 guineas because she was quite offset. It was just a way of getting into the genetics of the family.”