Exciting Queensland colt Grafterburners (Graff) stamped himself a potential superstar by extending his winning streak to four races unbeaten this preparation with a barnstorming victory in Saturday’s $3 million slot race, the Sunlight 3YO Plate (1100m) at the Gold Coast.
With the all-conquering James McDonald aboard for the first time, the Kelly Schweida-trained colt was sent out a dominant $2.25 favourite as he sought his sixth from 12 starts overall.
Jumping well from gate two, the handsome bay travelled sweetly in the run behind the leader
Swordplay (Shalaa) as a solid pace ensued. His backers may have had their hearts in their mouths early in the straight as Grafterburners was blocked for a run for some 50 metres, but taken on an inside path by McDonald, he quickly showed his class.
Grafterburners first ground his way to the lead then exploded with a paralysing burst to put the race to bed, streaking away to score by 1.55 lengths. Brad Widdup’s Nashville Jack (Farnan) took second at $71, with Michael Freedman’s Yulong-raced filly Sylph (I Am Invincible) third at $10.
Bred by Canning Downs, Grafterburners was bought for $70,000 by Schweida at the 2024 Inglis Classic Yearling Sale, in association with old friend and client Glenn Betts, himself a former jockey and trainer.
Saturday night’s $1.2 million first prize pushed Grafterburners’ prize-money earnings to $2.05 million, and followed on from his stakes breakthrough at his previous start when he took the Gold Edition Plate (Listed, 1200m) at Eagle Farm.
“I’m pretty proud of him,” Schweida said of Grafterburners, who raced in the slot owned by training giants Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott.
Eagle Farm-based Schweida admitted he’d been thinking of taking an alternative path with Grafterburners before the Sunlight slot offer first arrived.
“We were going to go a different option until we were offered a slot. We were going to go to the Vo Rogue Plate, but this will do,” he said with a smile.
Grafterburners (AUS)
3yo: (23Sep22 b c)
Trainer: Kelly Schweida
Owner: G A Betts, K S Swindail Et Al
Sire: Graff
Dam: Coralina
Dam's Sire: Dylan Thomas
Breeder: Canning Downs Pty Ltd
McDonald was also delighted with Grafterburners’ victory, calling him “a very good horse”.
“He was outstanding,” he said. “Credit to Kelly and his team. They turned him out immaculate. He was presented to win, he drew a good gate and he just put himself in the box seat.
“It’s nice to ride a beautiful colt”.
The first stakes victor, from 30 runners, for Kitchwin Hills stud’s double stakes-winning stallion Graff (Star Witness), first-crop son Grafterburners continues a rich Inglis Classic tradition for Betts and his main trainer Schweida.
They also struck gold at the sale in 2023, paying $50,000 for filly El Morzillo (Star Witness). The now four-year-old has won three races for $1.09 million, capped by her victory last March in the $1 million Inglis Sprint (1200m) up the Flemington straight.
Betts was understandably delighted after Grafterburners’ Sunlight triumph, reflecting on how a combined Classic sale outlay of $120,000 had brought two runners for him and Schweida who’ve carried Betts’s orange with the purple cap to claim $3.14 million between them - so far.
“We snoop around trying to buy horses at the right price and give them to Kelly and try to get him to turn them into good horses for us,” Betts said. “He’s certainly managed that very well this time.”
Also understandably, Betts calls himself “a huge fan” of the Inglis Classic sale, which will be held again at Riverside from February 8-10.
“Grafterburners has turned out to be a real bargain buy, at $70,000. I don’t know who the underbidder was, but they’re probably not very happy with themselves these days
“We’ll be back this year for sure,” said Betts, who now runs an international welding supplies company.
“Since we bought El Morzillo there the year before, you could say we’ve had a pretty good trot out of it.
“Grafterburners has turned out to be a real bargain buy, at $70,000. I don’t know who the underbidder was, but they’re probably not very happy with themselves these days.
“I really liked his pedigree, particularly on the dam’s side. There’s a Golden Slipper winner there [Overreach] and a Blue Diamond winner [Reward For Effort], and we were looking for something that’d go early.
“It just seemed to be a good family. I had a sneaky feeling Graff, who was a first-season sire at the time, was going to be a good sire.
“Kelly checked him over and liked him, the vet checks came up well, we managed to secure him for the right money and the rest is history.
“He’s just a lovely quiet horse with loads of ability.”
Betts said Waterhouse and Bott had made a concerted effort to secure Grafterburners for their slot via their long-term associate Bruce Slade, winning out ahead of several rival bidders.
“We had a few slot owners chasing him, but the Gai and Adrian team came up with the best deal,” Betts said. “Their form expert reckoned Grafterburners was the best horse by a fair way, based on what they thought would be in the race.”
Grafterburners is also eligible for this year’s Inglis Sprint at Flemington on February 28. Schweida said he’d be tempted to try to win that race two years in succession, though he will also consider the $500,000 QTIS Jewel 3YO (1200m) at the Gold Coast on March 7.
The colt is the sixth and best foal out of Coralina (Dylan Thomas), an unraced half-sister to Overreach (Exceed And Excel), who was Australia’s Champion 2YO Filly of 2012-13 after her Slipper victory.
He’s also Coralina’s latest offspring, with two misses and a deceased foal on her breeding record since Grafterburners’ birth in 2022. The mare was covered by Eureka Stud’s Spirit Of Boom (Sequalo) last week.
Graff, who covered 42 mares for $9,900 last year, has 11 winners from 30 runners, with his progeny also including the stakes-placed filly Royal Chic.
The ten-year-old is represented by one colt, Lot 862, at this week’s Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale, and by four lots at next month’s Inglis Classic sale.
Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale 2026
Lot 862: Graff ex Stella Di Paco
Type
Yearling
Sex
Colt
Colour
Bay
Vendor
North Bloodstock, Scone, NSW
Shiki shines in storming Gold Pearl win
Impressive Sydney-based filly Shiki (Too Darn Hot) gave an emphatic reminder of her class and stamped herself as a strong contender for next week’s Magic Millions Gold Coast 2YO Classic (RL, 1200m) with a storming victory in Saturday’s Gold Pearl (1100m) at the Gold Coast.
A $420,000 purchase for Kurrinda Bloodstock with trainers Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott at last year’s Gold Coast Yearling Sale, Shiki began her career with a bang by being the fastest winner at Sydney’s first official two-year-old trials in September, and by winning the Gimcrack Stakes (Gr 3, 1000m) on debut after racing on the pace.
The doubts rang out, however, when on resumption as a $1.80 favourite in a 1000-metre Randwick set-weights event on December 20, Shiki led but weakened to finish fourth of seven in a race taken out by Classic favourite Warwoven (Sword Of State).
But on Saturday, the filly looked far more like the Shiki of Gimcrack day, this time benefiting from a more conservative run, to firm into $6 for next week’s $3 million contest.
Jumping well from gate five of ten under Tim Clark, she settled well in midfield behind an even tempo, pushed up with ease four-wide on the turn, and burst to the front on straightening. While exposed a long way from home, Shiki powered away to score easing up by 2.04 lengths, as a slightly easy $3.40 second favourite.
Chris and Corey Munce’s Double Cool (Cool Aza Beel) produced an impressive Classic trial in taking second at $12, with the John O’Shea and Tom Charlton-trained Tigroni (Tiger Of Malay) third at $4.60, a further 0.29 lengths away.
Shiki’s stablemate By Choice (Written By) was fifth as $2.70 favourite.
Bott was delighted to have what appeared to be the real Shiki back, saying she had gone too hard in the lead on resuming.
“She did a few things wrong first-up,” the winning trainer said.
“We know she’s explosive and has a good turn of foot, but we just had to harness it and do it the right way, which is obviously important going into the big grand final next week.
“She has good acceleration, whether she can sustain that as she needed to be cuddled a bit. We’re teaching her to harness it. We had her a little free and fresh last start but she’s taken good benefit out of that.
“She had a good couple of weeks and arrived really well. This week, she really started to relax and did what we wanted to see in her work.
“With the draw and the set-up today, a lot of things have fallen her way. There was good speed in and around her, and hopefully that sets her up for next week.”
Bott intends keeping the filly on the fresh side for the Classic next Saturday.
“We’ll do very little with her this week,” he said. “We had this particular set-up in mind for her, which has been quite successful - we wanted her to have a look at the track here. She’ll potter around for the week and hopefully she’ll be nice and fresh for next week.”
Clark, who’ll ride Shiki again next week, said the filly had presented in far more impressive style on Saturday than in her first-up run.
“Credit to the team at home, to be able to turn her around in three weeks’ time [after] she raced very fierce, and to get her up here and race so tractably today,” he said.
“She was a completely different horse to what we saw at Randwick.
“She was too fresh that day and maybe surprised Gai and Adrian a bit. She presented a lot better and she’ll have more to come after today.
“She qualified by winning the Gimcrack so next week is when we want her to perform - not last time or today. It is all about getting her to peak up on the right day.”
“We know she’s explosive and has a good turn of foot, but we just had to harness it and do it the right way
Bred by South Australia’s Cornerstone Stud and Millar Racing, Shiki is the fourth foal out of three-time winner Jest Excel (Exceed And Excel). Her first runner is Love My Louis (Capitalist), a six-year-old Gladstone-trained mare who’s won four times from 36 starts, while the second, Excelboom (Spirit Of Boom), has won a Gatton maiden for Tony Gollan.
Just Excel’s yearling filly by Ole Kirk (Written Tycoon) will be offered as Lot 405 at this week’s Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale by Riverstone Lodge. She also has a filly foal by Artorius (Flying Artie).
Darley shuttler Too Darn Hot (Dubawi) - who claimed Australia’s first and second season champion sire honours in the past two terms - has 14 stakes winners in Australia from 137 runners at 10.22 per cent, and 31 from 418 worldwide at 7.42 per cent.
The nine-year-old covered 110 mares last season at Darley Kelvinside, where he stood for a fee of $275,000.
Too Darn Hot has 20 yearlings catalogued at the for the Queensland sale, including Lots 742 and 745, who like Shiki are out of daughters of Exceed And Excel (Danehill).
Itchintogo slams rivals in Gold Nugget romp
Speedy Brisbane-based gelding Itchintogo (Sun City) suggested he could have the measure of some more vaunted southern raiders in next weekend’s Magic Millions Gold Coast 2YO Classic with a dominant victory in Saturday’s main males’ lead-up race.
From the corner of master trainer Tony Gollan and jockey Ryan Maloney - who both won the Classic for the first time in 2023 with Skirt The Law (Better Than Ready) - Itchintogo jumped to the front in the Gold Nugget (1100m) and dashed clear in the straight to win by 4.57 lengths.
He won like a $1.60 favourite should in a six-runner field of locals, but the authority of the performance showed the gelding would be a definite chance in the Classic one week on.
Bookmakers cut his price for the $3 million event to $9 (from $15). He remains on the fourth line of betting in a market headed by Bjorn Baker’s colt Warwoven (Sword Of State) at $2 and another Sydney-based runner in Shiki, the filly who firmed to $6 after also winning at the Gold Coast on Saturday.
Another Brisbane-based runner, Chris and Corey Munce’s two-from-two colt Zip Lock (Hellbent) is at $7.
Itchintogo ran second to Zip Lock at the pair’s debut at Doomben in November before winning the Phelan Ready Stakes (Listed, 1110m) at the same track, just over a month before Saturday’s second success.
He’s the sole stakes winner from 40 runners - and so far the only third-crop runner - for relatively obscure sire Sun City (Zoustar), who stands at Queensland’s Telemon Stud for $8,800.
And after Saturday’s win, Gollan appeared warm on his two-year-old’s chances of further promoting his sire in next Saturday’s main event, endorsing the week-long back-up as the right preparation, even though Skirt The Law had more than a month between runs ahead of her 2YO Classic triumph.
“I wanted to have him in this after he won the other day. Bringing him here got that freshness off him, then give him an easy week and give ourselves a chance to give it a shake next week,” Gollan said.
“The seven-day back-up will do this horse the world of good. The stats on doing that have been phenomenal. I’m really looking forward to the next seven days.”
Gollan said he was delighted to see Itchintogo show the benefit of experience when on his best behaviour on Saturday.
“The seven-day back-up will do this horse the world of good. The stats on doing that have been phenomenal. I’m really looking forward to the next seven days
“It’s always a little bit nerve wracking with these young ones when they’re this short,” he said.
“He did a bit wrong last time and he did a bit wrong in the jump-out in between. But we were really happy with him in the last ten days.
“He paraded sensational and obviously he had a class edge on these. I love the way he executed the race today and that is the best he’s been for us.
“He’s changed and grown through the prep, which is unusual for a two-year-old in work. His muscle tone is great, his health is great.
“He had to show that he could be competitive and he’s done that today. He’s a quick horse and he can get going. If he can do that next week, he’ll put himself in a really good spot.”
Maloney concurred it was a reassuringly calm Itchintogo who presented for his Classic lead-up.
“I just loved the way he relaxed today. Even when Wootton You Know came up outside, he didn’t want to overdo it, which he did the other day,” the winning rider said.
“That holds him in good stead going into next week. He’s got a bit of cheek and he’s got the temperament to hold himself into next week.
“He relaxed a lot better than he did with me the other day. In his trial he was quite fresh.”
“If he can do that next week, he’ll put himself in a really good spot
Toby Edmonds’ Baciami (Castelvecchio) took second at $5, ahead of the Marcus Wilson-trained Written Acclaim (Aclaim) at $41.
Bred by Queensland’s Ben Lucas, Itchintogo was bought for $60,000 at Magic Millions’ Gold Coast March Yearling Sale by Victoria’s Glenhuntly Lodge, who left him in the Sunshine State with Gollan.
He’s the sixth, last and best foal out of Itchintowin (Nothing To Lose), who died last month, aged 16.
That mare was a city winner of five races from the same family as New Zealand stakes winners Sir Alberton (Red Tempo), Alberton Star (Stylish Century) and Straussbridge (Straussbrook) and, more recent stakes-winning Kiwi sisters Provence (Savabeel) and Damask Rose.
Sun City, who won the 2018 running of the BJ McLachlan Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m) at Doomben in a career cut short by injury to six starts, has 19 winners from 40 runners, and covered 42 mares in 2024, after serving 57 in 2023.



























