Solid Kiwi filly bidding for Gold in Queensland Derby
Solid Gold (Savabeel) will be out to extend a streak while also breaking a drought as she strives to continue a strong run of serendipitous success for her Waikato Stud family as the lone filly in Saturday’s Queensland Derby (Gr 1, 2400m).
The daughter of Savabeel (Zabeel) will try to become the sixth straight New Zealand-bred winner of the $1 million event, a trail of success in the last Australian derby of the season which – for the later-blooming Kiwi three-year-old – contrasts a barren record in the first, spring’s VRC Derby (Gr 1, 2500m).
But on the flipside, Solid Gold will attempt to become the first filly in 16 years to take the Eagle Farm Classic. While six females have won in the past 39 editions of the race, the last to do so was 2010 winner Dariana (Redoute’s Choice), trained by the master Bart Cummings.
Solid Gold – the full-sister to Waikato’s Australian Derby (Gr 1, 2400m) winner Major Beel – will also need to snap another bleak streak for her Cambridge trainers Roger James and Robert Wellwood, who must be wondering which barrier god they forgot to put on their Christmas card list.
The Cambridge trainers took their New Zealand Derby (Gr 1, 2400m) winner Road To Paris (Circus Maximus) to the Australian Derby and he drew gate ten of 13, running seventh. They also had She’s A Dealer (Ace High) at Randwick in the autumn and she pulled barrier 11 of 13, running fifth.
James and Wellwood started Sweynesday (Sweynesse) at Gosford and Doomben recently and drew 11 of 11 (fifth) and 12 of 16 (11th).
And now Solid Gold – who drew 13 of 16 for her Australian debut fifth in Doomben’s Rough Habit Plate (Gr 3, 2000m), has barrier 18 in the Queensland Derby, though she’ll come in four gates if all five emergencies are out.
James and Wellwood can at least take inspiration from their previous Queensland Derby winner, the Cambridge Stud-owned Pinarello (Tavistock) in 2022. He was one of those five recent Kiwi victors along with Kukeracha (Night Of Thunder) the year before, and Kovalica (Ocean Park), Warmonger (War Decree) and Maison Louis (Super Seth) in the seasons since.
Pinarello started from the widest gate of 17, but in a superb final flourish by Kiwi jockey Leith Innes in what he then announced was his last ride, the gelding was one off the fence in midfield even before the first turn.
James isn’t sure where Tommy Berry, who retains the ride after Solid Gold’s eye-catching Rough Habit Plate run, will end up on the deep-chested filly, who raced just off the pace in her previous run when she became a stakes winner in Ellerslie’s Championship Stakes (Gr 3, 2100m).
But though Thursday’s rain at Eagle Farm wasn’t on the stable’s wishlist, James said Solid Gold was in a peak state to tackle the boys in the Derby, after which a decision would be made on the “slight chance” of pursuing a Queensland Oaks (Gr 1, 2200m) start next Saturday.
“I haven’t really looked at the map yet, but Pinarello won the Derby from a wide gate, and he didn’t go back,” James told ANZ News.
“I think the extra 400 metres from her last run will really suit her. I don’t have any issues with the distance. And she’s come on really well from her last start. She’s never missed a beat on the whole trip really.”
Solid Gold is the latest exciting product of a family which happened to become Waikato’s in a crisis-solving deal when the owners of her second dam – Gold Rocks (Oratorio) – fell on hard times. They’d sent her to the famed New Zealand stud, in-foal to So You Think (High Chaparral), in order to be covered by Savabeel.
The results of those two matings became Matamata Breeders’ Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) winners in Gold Rush (So You Think) and Gold Fever (Savabeel). Back in Australia, Gold Rocks’ earlier daughter Calaverite (Lonhro) won two Listed races for Godolphin and threw their multiple stakes-winning Caulfield Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) hero Golden Mile (Astern).
Waikato continued to breed from Gold Rocks and she also delivered them Gram (O’Reilly), the unraced dam of Major Beel and now Gram’s second stakes winner from three runners, Solid Gold.
“It’s been quite the family, quite freakish really, especially when you consider Gold Rocks basically fell into our laps,” Waikato boss Mark Chittick told ANZ.
“And it’s funny, because of the whole family, Major Beel is basically the first one to have won a stakes race at further than a mile. I thought he was an anomaly, but hopefully lightning can strike twice and we can have another Derby winner with Solid Gold.”
While Waikato sold Major Beel – for $260,000 at the 2021 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale to trainers Waterhouse-Bott and Kestrel Thoroughbreds – they retained Solid Gold in a no-brainer business move in further growing the family, since she’s a full-sister to a Group 1 winner.
She opened up last spring with a fourth and a third over 1300 metres and 1400 metres, before a small setback when bone chips had to be removed from a fetlock.
After resuming in late February with a fourth over 1400 metres and a third over 1600 metres, she won an Ellerslie maiden over 1600 metres before jumping 500 metres for her Championship Stakes win.
Plans were set for the $700,000 Queensland Oaks, but Solid Gold herself has prompted a detour to the richer Derby. She was noticeably making ground late in her 2.93-length fifth in the Rough Habit, after being near-last of the 16 entering Doomben’s relatively short straight, after Chris Waller’s Kilman (Super Seth) ran the field off its legs in a well-judged front-running ride from Ryan Maloney.
“I looked at the noms for the Derby after her last run, and I didn’t think the Derby held anything more fearful for us than the Oaks field, and the Derby distance will suit her better,” James said.
“It’s not that I’m cocky about taking on the colts, but I didn’t think it’d be any harder than the Oaks.”
“To be honest,” Chittick adds, “I’d thought we’d just get her back on track [after her bone chip procedure], give her a break and set her up for a good four-year-old career.
“But Roger and Robert have always had a very, very big opinion of her, and they were quite keen to have a crack at the Queensland Oaks.
“They’d always thought a gap between runs suits her, but it seems to me now that with maturity and race fitness that might not be so much the case. So we kept her in the Derby as an option, and they’re just so happy with her that that’s where we’re going.”
While it’s been 16 years since a female Queensland Derby winner, James isn’t concerned by history.
“I’ve won three New Zealand Derbies with fillies,” he said, referencing Orchestral (Savabeel) in 2024, Silent Achiever (O’Reilly) in 2012, and Tidal Light (Diagramatic) in 1986.
“And when you think it’s this stage of the season and they’re still getting two kilos off the colts, that’s a real advantage.”
James also feels he has country of origin on his side, as the Kiwi-breds’ recent record in late derbies shows.
Australian-breds have won nine of the past ten editions of the only pre-Christmas Derby – the VRC’s. But later in the season the tide turns the way of many, perhaps slower-maturing, New Zealanders.
Kiwi-breds have won eight of the past 16 ATC Derbies, in early April. In the next such Classic on the calendar – South Australia’s – they’ve won four of the past six, including through Wigmore (Sweynesse) earlier this month.
Now Solid Gold will seek to make it six in a row in the last Derby of the season at Eagle Farm, for which she’s around the $6.50 mark.
“The New Zealand horse on the whole is slower maturing, and probably the trainers are more inclined to be patient,” James said.
While the lone female in the race, Solid Gold has company on the nationality front, and at the top of betting. The other two Kiwi-breds in the field are Chris Waller’s pair Monopolistic (Savabeel), the $5 favourite, and Kilman at $10. Also, four of the five emergencies carry the (NZ) suffix.
Monopolistic represents Waller and the Newgate-China Horse Club axis, as does $6 chance Providence (Wootton Bassett). Ciaron Maher’s young British import Accidental Bid (Phoenix Of Spain) is around the $6 mark, despite disappointing as favourite in the Rough Habit.
James is hoping Eagle Farm’s longer straight than Doomben’s will help Solid Gold, should she go back. But while she’s a Kiwi, and her two wins have come on Soft 5 tracks, the trainer will be hoping the forecast fine weather dries Eagle Farm before race time.
“Rain would be hardly ideal,” he said, “but while you’re never confident going into these big races, all you can do is be happy with your horse and I’m certainly happy with her.”