The daughter of Home Affairs got her career off to the perfect start when she dominated her rivals in the $240,000 Group 3 Maribyrnong Plate (1000m).
It was a relief for Archibald to see her perform so well on debut, with the trainer having only recently sold the remaining shares in the filly who was a $700,000 Magic Millions purchase on the Gold Coast.
“I’m just so happy, it’s such a great ownership group (including) Peter Walsh, Damian Degenhardt.
“I rang him a few weeks ago and said, ‘I’ve got this filly I need to finish selling and I think she’s pretty good’, so I could have had egg on my face but it’s just a great fun group and she’s just very, very talented.”
An impressive debut for Amelia’s Affair in the Maribyrnong Plate on Cup day! 🙌
@archibaldracing @LaneDamian @FlemingtonVRC https://t.co/VSVCcK4o59
— SKY Racing (@SkyRacingAU) November 2, 2026
Amelia’s Affair carries the colours of Peter Walsh’s Amelia Park, which is where she was bred.
She showed a dazzling turn to speed when asked by jockey Damian Lane at the 300m of the Maribyrnong Plate to quickly put the result beyond doubt.
At the line the $8 chance had 2-3/4 lengths to spare over Royal Press ($4.20) with La La Lilly ($7) 1-3/4 lengths away third.
“When I let her down, I knew that she would put the race to bed because she just quickened really nicely,” Lane said.
Archibald’s job now is to work out a program for Amelia’s Affair, with a return to the Gold Coast for the $3 million Magic Millions 2YO Classic (1200m) and $5 million Group 1 Golden Slipper front of mind.
“It’s either Magic Millions or you put her away for the autumn,” she said.
“There’s obviously a lot of big two-year-old races, one big two-year-old race in March that we’d love to win as well, but we’ll just see how she comes through this.
“She only travelled down two days ago, so she’ll go straight back home and we’ll assess her from there.”
