Group 1-winning pair create contrasting history
Group 1-winning heroes Alligator Blood and Militarize created history in very different ways with their respective victories at Caulfield and Rosehill on Saturday.
Alligator Blood’s (All Too Hard) ‘iron horse’ qualities were well known before Saturday’s Underwood Stakes (Gr 1, 1800m), when he became just the fourth Australian horse since 2000 to win a Group 1 race at seven, having also won at the top level as a three-year-old.
A total of 1,302 days passed between Alligator Blood’s first Group 1 success in the 2020 Australian Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) and his sixth (and latest) elite victory at Caulfield. To put that into some context, when he won that race at Flemington in March 2020, much of the world had only heard rumours of Covid and the idea of lockdowns and social distancing seemed the stuff of science fiction.
Only 12 horses have won more Australian Group 1 races than Alligator Blood this century, putting him in rare air, but only one of those horses, the legendary Winx (Street Cry), has been able to win a Group 1 race at three and, like Alligator Blood, still be at the top of her game at seven.
The other two horses since 2000 to have been three-year-old and seven-year-old Group 1 winners in Australia are Hey Doc (Duporth) and County Tyrone (Danewin).
Like Alligator Blood, Hey Doc won an Australian Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m), in his case in 2017, and then won the 2020 Manikato Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m), some 1,329 days later. In between he also won the 2017 Manikato Stakes and the 2019 Winterbottom Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m).
County Tyrone, who was trained by Max Lees, won the 2002 Queensland Derby (Gr 1, 2400m) and was still mixing it at the top level at seven when he won the 2006 Sydney Cup (Gr 1, 3200m), some 1,414 days later. He ran in six Sydney Cup and also won a Metropolitan Handicap (Gr 1, 2400m) in 2004. He was tough enough to be still racing at 10, placing in a Newcastle Cup (Gr 3, 2300m) at his final start.
Prior to that, we have to go back to a horse famous for his longevity and toughness, Tie The Knot (Nassipour). He won a Spring Champion Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m) in October of his three-year-old season and was still going at the top level as a late seven-year-old, winning the Chipping Norton Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m). He wasn’t included in the list above as his three-year-old season was in 1997-98, pre-dating the start of this century.
From Tie The Knot’s first Group 1 victory to his last – he won 13 in all – there was a 1,603-day gap, or four years, four months and 19 days. But that is not a modern-day record in terms of that stat. Bomber Bill (Air De France) had 1,862 days between his first and last Group 1 wins in 1998 and 2003.
The record for a horse raced entirely this century stands at 1,645 days, and is held by the ‘iron horse upon which all other iron horses are measured’: Takeover Target (Celtic Swing).
Takeover Target didn’t start his racing career until he was a late four-year-old and won his first Group 1 at five at his seventh start in the Salinger Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) at Flemington on Derby Day.
Over the next five years, he would travel the world, winning elite races in Australia, Japan, Great Britain and Singapore. The final of his eight Group 1 wins came in the 2009 Goodwood Handicap (Gr 1, 1200m), four years, six months and two days after his first Group 1 win at Flemington.
Group 1-winning spreads by days – Australian horses since 2000
| Horse | Days between first and last G1 win | Total G1 wins | Age at 1st G1 win | Age at last G1 win |
| Takeover Target | 1645 | 8 | 5 | 9 |
| Winx | 1414 | 25 | 3 | 7 |
| County Tyrone | 1414 | 3 | 3 | 7 |
| Hey Doc | 1329 | 4 | 3 | 7 |
| Alligator Blood | 1302 | 6 | 3 | 7 |
| Hartnell* | 1281 | 4 | 4 | 8 |
| Black Heart Bart | 1226 | 6 | 4 | 8 |
| Nature Strip | 1179 | 9 | 4 | 7 |
| Apache Cat | 1169 | 8 | 3 | 6 |
| Rebel Dane | 1123 | 2 | 4 | 7 |
*northern hemisphere-bred
Of all Group 1-winning horses in Australia this century, Alligator Blood (1,302) sits fifth on the most days between his first and most recent Group 1 win, behind Takeover Target, Winx (1,414), County Tyrone (1,414) and Hey Doc (1,329). The Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott-trained star, of course, has a chance to advance up that list should he continue on his winning ways.
Next follows Hartnell (Authorized) (1,281), Black Heart Bart (Blackfriars) (1,226), Nature Strip (Nicconi) (1,179), and Apache Cat (Lion Cavern) (1169). Sunline (Desert Sun), who like Tie The Knot had a career which straddled the centuries and so is not eligible for this list, had 1,281 days between her first and last first Group 1 wins. Black Caviar (Bel Esprit) had just 903 days from her first to 15th victory at the elite level.
Militarize (Dundeel), so brilliant in his victory for Joao Moriera and Chris Waller in the Golden Rose (Gr 1, 1400m) at Rosehill on Saturday, is writing history of a different kind.
He is just the sixth multiple Group 1-winning two-year-old in Australia since 2000 to go on and win a Group 1 at three, joining Guelph (Exceed And Excel), Helmet (Exceed And Excel), Sepoy (Elusive Quality), Pierro (Lonhro) and Viscount (Quest For Fame). Interestingly, of that list above, four raced for Darley/Godolphin/Woodlands, while the other one, Pierro, was bred by Darley.
Of that list only Sepoy, Viscount and now Militarize have claimed a three-year-old Group 1 win before the end of September, while Militarize becomes the first Golden Rose winner to have previously claimed multiple Group 1 wins at two, something that will no doubt feature heavily in his promotion when he retires to stud.
Militarize’s trio of Group 1 wins have come over the space of 175 days, which is quicker than Sepoy, who had 214 days between his wins in the 2011 Blue Diamond Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) and the 2011 Manikato Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m), with a victory in the Golden Slipper in between.
Viscount won the Sires’ Produce and the Champagne for John Hawkes and Crown Lodge in the autumn of 2001 and then returned to win the George Main Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) early the next spring. Just 154 days separated his first Group 1 victory from his third.
The shortest gap between the first and third Group 1 wins of an Australian horse this century belongs to Dance Hero (Danzero), who claimed the two-year-old Triple Crown, the Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m), Sires’ Produce (Gr 1, 1400m) and Champagne Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) in the space of 14 days in 2004. Pierro completed the same sweep of the Sydney two-year-old features, but they were spread over 21 days in 2012.
Multiple G1-winning Australian two-year-olds who have gone onto win G1 races at three since 2000
| Horse | G1 wins as 2YO | G1 wins as 3YO | G1 wins overall |
| Pierro | 3 | 2 | 5 |
| Sepoy | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| Helmet | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| Viscount | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| Guelph | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| Militarize | 2 | 1 | 3 |