Champions downed at Flemington as old favourites return to form
Zaaki, Alligator Blood and Roch ‘N’ Horse take the spoils as Nature Strip and Anamoe suffer defeat on inaugural Champions Day
The narratives created from the newly formed Champions Stakes Day will shape its ongoing success, and the inaugural staging of the lucrative meeting will be remembered for the downing of champions as Nature Strip (Nicconi) and Anamoe (Street Boss) both had their colours lowered at Flemington yesterday.
However, defeat for the Champion Sprinter and seven-time Group 1 winner was counterbalanced with a return to the elite echelons for champions of former years as Zaaki (Leroidesanimaux) and Alligator Blood (All Too Hard) claimed the Champions Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m) and Champions Mile (Gr 1, 1600m) respectively, while Roch ‘N’ Horse (Per Incanto) justified her place at the top table of speedsters with victory in the Champions Sprint (Gr 1, 1200m).
A fresh concept perhaps required fresh blood, but few factored in the impact of a fresh-up Roch ‘N’ Horse, who proved her $101 win in the Newmarket (Gr 1, 1200m) in March to be no fluke, as she again defied long odds to cause an upset in the Champions Sprint – formerly known as the VRC Sprint Classic – on her return to the Flemington straight.
At six-years-old the gallant mare is no emergence of youth, but with just 18 starts to her name and yesterday’s triumph marking a first success in a Group 1 at weight-for-age, she leads a cohort of challengers vying to tumble the existing order.
Organisers breathed a sigh of relief when connections of Nature Strip (Nicconi), backing up off a gruelling fourth in The Everest (1200m), elected to bring their champion sprinter to Melbourne. For what is Champions Stakes day without its champions? But he again lacked the spark that was seen so devastatingly at Royal Ascot in the European summer, and in this race last year when he toyed with a field of quality sprinters to rout his opposition by three and a quarter lengths.
The Mike Moroney-trained Roch ‘N’ Horse, who was trimmed from $26 to $20 in the minutes leading into post time, tracked nearside group leaders Rothfire (Rothesay) ($41) and Nature Strip ($1.75) as the field of 14 split into two, with Everest hero Giga Kick (Scissor Kick) ($6) assuming a position towards the rear of the stands’ side challenge.
Roch ‘N’ Horse and rider Jamie Mott made their move at the 300-metre mark, overhauling Nature Strip inside the final 200 metres and always had enough in hand to defy the Chris Waller-trained seven-year-old and Baller (High Chaparral) ($61), who came through late to take third. The margins were a neck and the same, while the field from first to tenth was split by just a length and a half.
New Zealander Levante (Proisir) ($18), on a day her sire claimed victory in the New Zealand 2,000 Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) through Pier, finished fourth, with Giga Kick unable to make an impression when trailing in fifth.
A jolt of lightning and crash of thunder was enough to convince Moroney to bypass the Manikato Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) with an agitated Roch ‘N’ Horse, and connections reaped the rewards of that decision yesterday as the Little Avondale Stud-owned mare was primed to perfection on her return to her favoured straight track, having not raced since her second to Private Eye (Al Maher) in the Gilgai Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) on October 1.
“It’s a great effort. When you watch the replay, she kept coming and hanging on in there, and for a while there I thought they were going to sprint away from her, but she just hung onto them and after then she really bulldogged to the finish,” Moroney told Racing.com.
“I think the decision we made not to run her in the Manikato, and I was with her there when the lightning came, she really got frazzled over it, I’m glad we did it because I think she’s definitely better on the fresh side.”
For Mott, who picked up the ride at the expense of a suspended Paddy Maloney, this success on the daughter of Per Incanto (Street Cry) represented the biggest of his career to date and added to his victory on Callsign Mav (Atlante) in the Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) earlier this spring.
“It’s what dreams are made of. I’m lost for words. Callsign Mav was a special feeling but this takes it to a whole new level,” Mott told Racing.com.
“All the talk was about Nature Strip and Giga Kick and our girl had done nothing wrong, she’s a very good mare. She’s been overlooked a little bit, but how tough is she? She jumped, travelled good on a good speed. I had no cover from about the 600 so I was exposed, and it’s not easy to do it, but she did have free running, and once they all came under pressure she kept at them and she was strong.
“Not many go past Nature Strip, so if I was going to get past I knew that not many others were.”
Roch ‘N’ Horse (6 f Per Incanto – Rochfort by Cecconi) became the first mare to win the Group 1 sprint since Black Caviar (Bel Esprit) landed the second of her two victories in 2013, while she is the first New Zealand-bred horse to strike in the race in 17 years, when the Waikato Stud-owned Glamour Puss (Tale Of The Cat) won the 2005 running.
In winning, Roch ‘N’ Horse, who was retained by Little Avondale Stud having been passed in as a yearling with a reserve of NZ$40,000, took her prize-money earnings to just shy of $3 million with this her fifth career victory.
The mare is the only winner from three to race out of the unraced Rochfort (Cecconi), herself a half-sister to stakes winners Travolta (Handsome Ransom) and Weissmuller (Handsome Ransom), as well as the Group 1-placed Harlow Gold (Tavistock).
Waller, who praised the effort of his eight-year-old after The Everest, was similarly not disheartened by a second defeat this spring for the horse dubbed the world’s best sprinter.
“If you come to the races thinking you are going to win on a racecourse, it’s a pretty lonely life when you come home because it doesn’t work like that,” the champion trainer told Racing.com.
“Group 1 racing is Group 1 for a reason. It’s the pinnacle. It’s bringing a lot of horses together on the same day.
“Honestly, I am very proud of him and I am not just saying that.”
While Nature Strip lacked spark Anamoe was lacklustre, as he slumped to a comprehensive defeat in the Champions Stakes.
Sent off the $2.25 favourite, Anamoe was unable to overhaul Zaaki, who dictated the race from start to finish to win his fourth Group 1 and first since winning this race a year ago, when known as the Mackinnon Stakes.
Annabel Neasham, who claimed the quinella with Mo’unga (Savabeel) running second, marked the result as her biggest in her short time in Australia.
“It’s very special.. I just love this horse, he’s phenomenal,” she told Racing.com.
“I just said to Jamie [Kah, rider], in all of his wins he’s gone quick and that’s his greatest asset, his high cruising speed. I said ‘put your foot down, lead at all costs, and don’t die wondering.’ She did exactly that and he’s just so tough.
“This time last year it was just relief because he had that temperature before the Cox Plate and I wasn’t sure if I was doing the right thing in running him here. This year I’ve just been able to enjoy the day.
“I’m so proud of Mo’unga as well, he really toughed it out, he’s been a phenomenal horse as well. A wide draw but after that performance he’s certainly got another Group 1 in him.”
Zaaki, who had been defeated by Anamoe at his last two starts when fourth in the Cox Plate (Gr 1, 2040m) and third in the Caulfield Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m), won by a long neck ahead of Mo’unga, who gained second in the stewards’ room following an upheld protest against Hezashocka (Shocking), alleging interference in the closing stages.
Sourced by Stuart Boman of Blandford Bloodstock when purchased for 150,000gns at the Tattersalls Autumn Horses in Training Sale, Zaaki (7 g Leroidesanimaux – Kesara by Sadler’s Wells) gave many at the VRC cause for celebration, as the horse closed in on $10 million in prize-money, with several employees, including its chairman Neil Wilson, among the ownership of the horse.
“It’s a great thrill,” Wilson told Racing.com. “What a day. We are so buoyed by Champions Day and how it’s gone, but to have Zaaki get up in the Champions Stakes is such a great thrill.
“I do have to wear my chairman’s badge to present the trophy, but I’ve just got to find out which of the guys to present it to.”
James Cummings said he was proud of Anamoe, who finished fourth, beaten two lengths by the winner.
“He’s tried hard,” Cummings told Racing.com. “He’s had a massive campaign, so it’d be easy to conclude that maybe he was over the top, but if you had’ve told me that he’d beat I’m Thunderstruck home comfortably in the race this morning, then I’d have been bullish.
“It’s just unfolded that way and he’s bumped into a very good horse in Zaaki, who’s gone so well on the day.”
Another to confirm his revival to the elite-level this spring was Alligator Blood (All Too Hard), whose transformation from has-been to world beater was completed with victory in the Champions Mile, a performance that was enough to convince his co-trainer Gai Waterhouse of a tilt at Royal Ascot next year.
“This horse has gone through a lot with his back injury, but he’s come through and he’s racing to perfection, and today just showed he is the best of the best,” Waterhouse told Racing.com.
Should he travel to the UK next year to take on Europe’s best, a tilt at the Queen Anne Stakes (Gr 1, 1m) would appear most likely, although the Platinum Jubilee Stakes (Gr 1, 6f) could also come under consideration.
“We’ll talk to the owners, but I think he could be well suited over there,” said Waterhouse. “He showed there today what a good, tough horse he is.”
After winning the Australian Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) two and a half years ago for a tenth win from 12 career starts, Alligator Blood was tipped to be a champion himself, but his career became derailed following that success, failing to win in his next eight starts as he twice switched trainers to end up in the hands of Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott, who have rejuvenated his form.
The Gerry Harvey-owned-and-bred gelding was another to dictate proceedings from the front, as Tim Clark rode Alligator Blood to a half-length win over Toorak Handicap (Gr 1, 1600m) winner Tuvalu (Kermadec), with Mr Brightside (Bullbars) three-quarters of a length further back in third.
Alligator Blood won the Underwood Stakes (Gr 1, 1800m) at Sandown in September and dropped back to the mile following fifth-placed finishes in the Caulfield Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m) and Cox Plate (Gr 1, 2040m)
“The whole way through he’s never let us down really, it’s great to see him get another Group 1 win on the board,” Clark told Racing.com.
“He’s been an absolute beauty, he wears his heart on his sleeve and is as tough as they come.
“He didn’t have Zaaki up there on speed with him, but he flowed nicely and relaxed really well to give a really strong kick. He’s done a wonderful job.”
Alligator Blood (6 g All Too Hard – Lake Superior by Encosta De Lago) took his prize-money earnings through the $5 million mark having earned his fourth Group 1 success.