Since being elevated to Group 1 status in 1986, the G1 Chipping Norton S. has been won by some of Australia’s greatest horses, the likes of Super Impose, Octagonal (NZ), Lonhro and of course the two horses which won the race on four occasions, Tie The Knot (Nassipour {USA}) and Winx (Street Cry {Ire}).
On Saturday, two star mares, Verry Elleegant (NZ) (Zed {NZ}) and Colette (Hallowed Crown), will look to add their names to that illustrious honour board, in a race which only the best mares have won over the years.
The signs were positive for the high-class Hallowed Crown mare Colette in Saturday’s $250,000 Group II Yulong Apollo Stakes when the skies opened in Sydney on Saturday morning.
Colette had trainer James Cummings rethinking his autumn carnival plans for the talented mare after a brilliant return to racing at Royal Randwick on Saturday.
“I was thinking of aiming her at the Sydney Cup but I don’t know if we will go that way now,’’ Cummings said. “She has just been going so well and she well and truly has the Queen Elizabeth Stakes on the radar.
Can the Hallowed Crown filly Flexible do a Colette and win the ATC Australian Oaks? You wouldn’t bet against it the way she powered to the line over 1400m at Randwick-Kensington on Wednesday.
The long-awaited and deserved maiden Group 1 success for Hot King Prawn in the G1 Centenary Sprint Cup at Sha Tin on Sunday also provided a breakthrough for his sire Denman, who has been rewarded for his own consistency with elevated status as a Group 1-producing stallion.
Denman’s progeny had come close on several occasions to elite-level success, with Hot King Prawn placed three times in Group 1s before his latest success, while the likes of Kuro (NZ) and Denmagic had also finished inside the top three in Group 1 races in Australia.
The now Twin Hills Stud resident has produced 16 stakes winners across four countries, including the American-bred Angaston (USA), conceived in his one season shuttling to Darley in Kentucky.
Hot King Prawn (Denman) washed away months of frustration and doubt with an emphatic performance to claim his first Group 1 title with victory in yesterday’s Centenary Sprint Cup (Gr 1, 1200m).
Entering Sunday’s G1 Centenary Sprint Cup at Sha Tin, the likeable Hot King Prawn (Aus) (Denman {Aus}) had won half of his 22 career starts and had been out of the top three on just four occasions. His record at Group 1 level left more to be desired, as he had been blanked from seven previous tries, but the John Size trainee righted that wrong with a convincing success Sunday.
Yao Dash (Smart Missile) gave the Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott training partnership their second winner on the Gold Coast card when none of Yao Dash’s rivals could match his superb acceleration over the final 200m.
That ability to change gears on cue and to do so with such meaning was the major contributing factor to Yao Dash being able to claim the third win of his career in the Magic Millions Rising Stars Three-Year-Old and Four-Year-Old Colts, Geldings & Entires Class 4 Plate.
A horse being replated behind the gates is often the end of its chances in a race but Rule The World (Hallowed Crown) made light of that theory with his win in the Travis Stillman Handicap (1400m).
Tennis legend Lleyton Hewitt was on hand at Caulfield to cheer his horse Evening Glory (Smart Missile) to victory in the Warren Moore Handicap (1200m).
Hewitt, a Wimbledon and dual US Open champion, part-owns Evening Glory along with fellow former Australian tennis professionals Sam Groth and Peter Luczak as well as star coach and television pundit Darren Cahill.