Yulong bid for further Group 1 riches in All Aged Stakes
Outstanding mares Kimochi (Brave Smash) and Magic Time (Hellbent) will be striving to raise another Group 1 victory for their Yarraman Park sires – and yet another for owners Yulong – when they contest Saturday’s All Aged Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) at Randwick.
With a blistering field assembled for Sydney’s last Group 1 of the season, their respective trainers Gary Portelli and Grahame Begg say they can only be hopeful rather than confident, even despite the habit of the green and white silks turning everything to gold this season.
The two Yulong mares finished fifth and sixth at their last starts in the TJ Smith Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m), with Kimochi 0.05 of a length ahead of Magic Time.
Not much is likely to split them again this Saturday stepping up to 1400 metres – a more favourable trip for both. Kimochi scored her much–deserved top–level breakthrough over the distance in last November’s Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m). Magic Time won that race 12 months earlier, while her other Group 1 success came in the All Aged Stakes last year.
But in the best All Aged field in years, there are plenty of other chances among the 14 starters who are out to thwart Yulong’s bid for a stunning 14th Group 1 this season.
On Thursday afternoon bookmakers had Kimochi at $13 and Magic Time $12. TJ Smith winner Briasa (Smart Missile) was a pronounced favourite at $3.50, ahead of the swooping gelding who ran fourth in that race, Jimmysstar (Per Incanto) at $6.
Chris Waller’s talented, if mercurial, mare Joliestar (Zoustar) was rated a $6.50 chance to redeem herself after running ninth in the TJ Smith, when she, like Magic Time, was hampered by taking inside lines on the worst part of the track.
Also amid a host of mares out to boost their value as the breeding season approaches, five-year-old dual Group 1 winner Sunshine In Paris (Invader) was at $17 after her eighth in the TJ Smith.
And representing the mares’ division but from a different formline, and perhaps over the odds at $19, is Benedetta (Hellbent). The other Group 1 winner, aside from Magic Time, for Hellbent (I Am Invincible) – who stood at Yarraman for $38,500 (inc GST) last year – Benedetta comes off a strong-finishing second in Moonee Valley’s William Reid Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m).
Godolphin’s stable star Broadsiding (Too Darn Hot) was at $6.50 for his audacious attempt – with a three-year-old’s advantage at weight-for-age – to drop 600 metres from his Rosehill Guineas (Gr 1, 2000m) triumph of four weeks ago.
And last spring’s MRC Toorak Handicap (Gr 1, 1600m) winner Antino (Redwood) is another at each–way odds at $14 as he resumes from a spell after running 11th in December’s Hong Kong Mile (Gr 1, 1600m) at Sha Tin.
Portelli on Thursday said he was delighted with the progress since the TJ Smith of Kimochi, the sole top-level winner for the Japanese-bred Brave Smash (Tosen Phantom), who stood at Yarraman last year for $33,000 (inc GST).
But with his four-year-old mare drawing gate ten for Nash Rawiller, the Warwick Farm trainer is hopeful race tactics can boost her chances.
“I wouldn’t say I was all that confident,” Portelli said. “It’s a very tough race. You could run it five times and get five different winners.
“But my mare is doing great. She came out of the TJ Smith very well, and that was a tremendous run, but she’s a 14-1 shot for Saturday and I’d say that’s about right.”
The barrier gods have not been kind to Kimochi, who was bought for just $21,000 by original owner Leo To at the 2021 Inglis Australian Weanling Sale before moving to Yulong’s ownership after being sold at last year’s Chairman’s Sale for $2.2 million.
She drew gate 13 in the TJ Smith, and while Rawiller initially pushed up towards the lead, he instead took a sit and was forced to travel three–wide without cover.
A comparatively gentle pace aided that transit, and while Briasa enjoyed a better passage in the one-one and kicked clear, Kimochi was still coming on at the line to finish 1.69 lengths behind him in a bunched finish.
Portelli is hoping Rawiller can find a run closer to the rail this week, perhaps outside the likely leader, Bjorn Baker’s Belclare (Per Incanto).
“We’ve got a tricky draw but there looks to be a lack of speed in the race which might help us get across,” Portelli said. “There wasn’t much speed in the TJ Smith, and I can’t see there’ll be more speed over 1400 metres this time.
“We could be outside the leader. If they go 13 seconds to the furlong, that’s perfect, but if they go ten [seconds] to the furlong then you’re gone. It will all come down to luck in running and what the other jockeys do.
“Briasa’s got the biggest boom on him. Broadsiding coming back from 2000 metres is interesting. And Joliestar’s one of the best horses in Australia. If the tempo is on, she could come right over the top.”
With only two runs under her belt this campaign, Kimochi is set to continue to the Brisbane carnival for the weight-for-age Doomben 10,000 (Gr 1, 1200m) and the Stradbroke Handicap (Gr 1, 1400m). Her future beyond that has not been decided, but still aged only four, there would be plentiful racetrack riches to pursue yet.
The same goes for Magic Time, bought privately by Yulong from owner-breeder John Muir last November. Though now five, the mare has had one start less than Kimochi, at 19, and trainer Begg said he would be advocating that she race on after this campaign.
Though she’s been installed as an $11 equal–favourite in a mare-dominated Stradbroke market, alongside Kimochi and another female in Stefi Magnetica (All Too Hard), Begg said Magic Time would “probably” spell after Saturday to prepare for the spring, should the decision be made not to retire her.
“I think she’s got plenty of racing ahead of her, although as the breeding season looms, her owners may have other ideas,” Begg said.
“But from my point of view, she hasn’t been overly taxed in her career. She’s sound, and their earning capacity is so great on the racetrack nowadays. That’s been pretty evident in the last few years, with mares who’ve raced on to six and seven and been really hitting their straps, like Pride Of Jenni and Bella Nipotina.
“If she does race on, she’ll probably have a break and get ready for the spring.”
Begg has warned punters to expect a stronger showing this Saturday from Magic Time, who has barrier seven for Jordan Childs.
For two years in a row, Magic Time has drawn gate one in the TJ Smith and struggled to show her best. Her sixth this year was preceded by a seventh in 2024 – one run before she charged down the outside, the widest runner on the turn, to win the All Aged on a Heavy 10 after jumping from barrier six.
“We felt she went very well last start in the TJ Smith,” Begg said. “She drew barrier one, which wasn’t a great gate for her on the day. It was a bit of rinse-and-repeat from last year, unfortunately.
“When you draw one, you try to hold your position, and you ride them a little bit closer than you want to. She was ridden just behind the leader, and the inside wasn’t the best place to be. Apart from that, you’re getting dictated to the whole time. You don’t get a chance to go through your gears like you do when you get to the outside.
“This week, we’ve got a good middle draw, and I’ve always found she’s a better horse when she’s on the outside of runners in clean air. Hopefully, she gets that recipe on Saturday.
“But I’m under no illusions. There’s not a lot between any of the horses in this race. It was two lengths from first to tenth in the TJ Smith, and it’ll be similar on Saturday. It’s the horse who gets the right run on the day.”
Randwick was a Soft 7 on Thursday, but with fine and mostly sunny conditions forecast until race time.
Begg said conditions would come all the same to Magic Time.
“People have her down as a wet tracker, but I don’t think that’s the case – she just handles it better than most,” he said. “She won the All Aged on a bottomless pit, but she won the Rupert Clarke on a Good 3.”