Breathtaking Attica bags Spring Champion
Attica (Lonhro) capped a golden day for Godolphin colts and his departed stallion while stamping himself a stud-bound star of the future with a breathtaking victory in Saturday’s Spring Champion Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m) at Randwick.
Sent out a $4 second-favourite at the fourth start of his first preparation, the Joe Pride-trained colt faced an almighty challenge at the top of the straight.
Settling third-last of the 13 after drawing wide for Adam Hyeronimus, the son of star Godolphin mare Savatiano (Street Cry) was still ten lengths off the lead as he commenced a run at the 600 metres.
Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott’s $3.20 favourite Shangri La Boy (Pierro) had sat second for Nash Rawiller as longshot Tambeloa (Tagaloa) set just a middling pace, and when Rawiller eased to the front at the 300 metres, his mount looked full of running.
Attica emerged from the pack as the most threatening chaser but still had three lengths to make up at the 200 metres, but under desperate riding from Hyeronimus, he resolutely ran down his quarry, defeating the gallant Shangri La Boy by 0.3 lengths.
Chris Waller’s filly The Pearls (Proisir) nabbed a Group 1 placing for her CV in running a 2.8 length third at $21, while Tameloa clung on for fourth at $201.
Handed to Pride when Godolphin switched to a public training model for this season onwards, Attica debuted with a 1400-metre Warwick Farm maiden win on September 3 before a Kembla Grange class 1 second and a breakthrough black type victory in the Dulcify Stakes (Listed, 1600m) on October 4.
Pride gave him a top-up trial last Friday, and was awestruck by what he saw in the Spring Champion, as Godolphin racked their second Group 1 success under their new model, following the Waller-trained Beiwacht’s (Bivouac) Golden Rose (Gr 1, 1400m) win.
“I was worried. I thought the race was over,” Pride said of his feelings at the top of the straight.
“You see Nash kick them away like that, it’s going to be a big effort to run them down. And I don’t think Shangri La Boy stopped – I think my horse has found what he needed to.
“We can’t get carried away, it’s early on in his life, but I’ve never had one win a Group 1 in their first preparation, so it’s pretty special.”
Pride said Attica hadn’t yet been “made” as a stallion, saying “we’re partway there” and expressing the hope he could adapt to a short trip in chasing the Randwick Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) in the autumn, after a spell following the Spring Champion win.
“He’s just a really exciting horse and I just can’t wait for the autumn,” he said.
“It’s hard to judge these horses. You’re racing the best of an age group quite early on in their life. But what I will say about this horse is, it’s not like he’s a precocious type you’d expect to be jumping out of the ground at this age.
“He’s got a lot of improvement to make, a lot of furnishing to do in that big frame of his.
“But the obvious thing is the engine that he’s displaying at the moment. There’s a proper V8 under the bonnet, and I just can’t wait to see what he does when he gets older.”
Celebrating his 21st Group 1 winner – and his first with a colt – Pride offered thanks to Godolphin for giving him “a quality horse” in Attica.
“This is a culmination of a lot of hard work [from the stable] but I’ve been handed a beautiful horse by Godolphin. Horses like this, they weren’t on my doorstep a couple of years ago, so it’s nice to be working with quality,” he said.
“Godolphin have been good enough to hand over some really nice horses, and horses that are bred to do exactly what this bloke’s done today, not necessarily pedigree-wise at the distance, but quality horses with deep pedigrees.
“His mother was a great racemare in Savatiano and his father was a champion in Lonhro.”
While eyeing the Randwick Guineas, the Warwick Farm-based trainer said Attica would have “no problems” handling a longer trip later.
“It was a win that required real stamina,” he said. “He was brilliant, but he won with a real test of stamina.”
Attica’s victory came on a glorious day for Godolphin three-year-old colts.
Thirty-five minutes earlier at Randwick, the Michael Freedman-trained Ohope (I Am Invincible) won the Callander-Presnell (Gr 2, 1600m), while 20 minutes after the Spring Champion, Ciaron Maher’s rising star Observer (Ghaiyyath) broke through for his first stakes win in Moonee Valley’s Vase (Gr 2, 2040m).
Two races before Attica’s success, another son of Lonhro (Octagonal) – Lindermann – continued his strong form with his third Group win in his past four starts, taking the Craven Plate (Gr 3, 1800m).
Hyeronimus paid tribute to Attica for his gritty performance and versatility, suggesting he could have put him in different positions and still won.
“I had about 85 different plans. I don’t think any of them were wrong,” said Hyeronimus, who knew what he was chasing, having ridden Shangri La Boy to victory at his previous two starts – and in trackwork on Tuesday.
“When I looked up and he’d dashed away, I was thinking, ‘Oh wow’.
“But I kept edging, and that last 150 metres, I knew I was going to pick him up. But for him [Attica] to do that and win in this fashion and the times that he’s run this early in his career, it’s very exciting.”
Attica is the first foal out of Savatiano, who won five Group 2s, a Group 3 and a Listed. She was also placed three times at Group 1 level, but her only elite “win” – in the Canterbury Stakes (Gr 1, 1300m) of 2021 – was stripped from her a year later due to a positive swab.
Savatiano has a two-year-old colt named Sabates (Palace Pier) awaiting his first start with Ciaron Maher, a yearling colt by I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit), and missed last year to Extreme Choice (Not A Single Doubt).
Lonhro, who was retired in 2023 and died in April last year aged 25, has 98 stakes winners from 1,528 runners at 6.4 per cent.