Matt Vella has already done the job asked of him with lightly raced mare Twinkling Star, so he’s raised the bar as he looks for a breakthrough city win for horse and trainer at Canterbury.

The Hawkesbury mentor only ever prepares a small team, so runners in town are rare, as his major focus is in the breaking and pre-training world, but he’s occasionally given a project horse by Sir Owen Glenn.

Twinkling Star is one of those. She was winless in six starts for Michael Freedman and was sent to Vella by her owner to see if he could get her into winning form on Wednesday.

The four-year-old has responded by winning two of her three starts for him.

“This filly has kept progressing so the next step for her is to go to town and see if we can get some city quality on her page,” Vella said.

“Th

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