Gytrash gives trainer Richards his first Group 1 in Lightning Stakes upset
Nature Strip’s campaign far from over despite shock odds-on Flemington defeat
Chris Waller and James McDonald have urged punters not to give up on sprinting enigma Nature Strip (Nicconi), who was coming off a career-high spring campaign, after performing well below his best in the Black Caviar Lightning Stakes (Gr 1, 1000m) as a short-priced favourite yesterday.
The three-time Group 1-winning five-year-old was upstaged by Adelaide gelding Gytrash (Lope De Vega), who won his first race at the highest level in the $750,000 weight-for-age sprint when overhauling the evergreen Redzel (Snitzel) to score by a length in a one-two finish for the rails-side runners.
Loving Gaby (I Am Invincible) ran down Nature Strip on the grandstand side to finish a head away in third. Nature Strip, the $1.50 favourite, finished fourth in the field of seven.
Nature Strip also ran fourth first-up last spring in the Concorde Stakes (Gr 3, 1000m) at Randwick but bounced back to take out the AJ Moir Stakes (Gr 1, 1000m) at Moonee Valley three weeks’ later.
“He was on the ball, flew out and wanted to get going, albeit he wasn’t miles in front, he was just coasting and doing it strongly,” jockey McDonald said.
“He just got tired the last furlong (200 metres). He was leading all the way up to then.
“It’s what happened last prep as well, he failed first up and then got better with a bit of racing under his belt.”
Waller said: “He was a bit fresh and will improve with the run, he just jumped and charged for the first two furlongs (400 metres).”
It is perhaps unfair that the focus for most was on the beaten brigade when the consistent Gytrash – whose Flemington record now sits at three from three – provided his Morphettville trainer Gordon Richards with his first Group 1 victory.
“I am 68 and I’ve won my first group 1,” said Richards, who has the chance to double his Group 1 tally with Bold Star (Needs Further) in Saturday’s Oakleigh Plate (Gr 1, 1100m).
“If ever I was going to win one, this horse was going to do it. He’s just a machine. All these lunatic owners were standing here waiting for the instructions and I just said to Mark (Zahra), you’ll work it out.
“Two of them go hard and you’ll be coming over the top of them as long as we can keep up.
“Jason Holder rides him fast work over there and he said this horse frightens him he goes that fast, but you can’t tell everybody that before the race because if he goes like a busted arse, you look like an idiot.”
Redzel’s co-trainer Peter Snowden and jockey Kerrin McEvoy considered lodging a protest after he and Gytrash raced tightly in the closing stages, but the pair elected not to proceed to the stewards’ room.
“He just got crowded over that last furlong but it was a great run,” McEvoy said.
“He’s shown that he’s come back in great order. He fought really hard.”
Gytrash (4 g Lope De Vega – Miss Barley by Fastnet Rock) was purchased for $40,000 at the 2017 Inglis Melbourne Premier Yearling Sale by Richards from the Maluka Thoroughbreds draft. From 15 starts, he has won seven and placed a further seven times for prize-money earnings of $886,750.
The sprinter had first been offered at the 2016 Inglis Great Southern Weanling Sale where he made $70,000 to the bid of New Zealander John Corcoran.
Gytrash was bred by Packing Investments Australia and Haltrow and Glastonbury Farms, who consigned him as a weanling at Oaklands Junction.
“He was always a lovely type as a weanling, a big, strong chestnut just as he is now, and for a Lope De Vega to make $70,000 as a weanling back then, he really did stand out in that sale,’’ Glastonbury Farms’ Duncan Grimley said.
“He might have surprised the punters a bit today but he didn’t surprise us. He’s always been a quality sprinter and it’s great to see him win a Group 1.
“That’s what you breed them for, to make nice money and to see them go on and win at the top level, so it’s a fantastic result for everyone.”
Luke Anderson of Maluka Thoroughbreds said: “We’re really proud to see Gytrash do what he did today. He was always a lovely type and this is what it’s all about for us, presenting quality yearlings to sell that we believe can go on to Group 1 success.”
Gytrash is one of five named foals and two winners for the unraced mare Miss Barley, who is a half-sister to the Listed winner Strawberry Storm (Thunder Gulch).
Strawberry Storm is also the dam of the stakes-placed Movie (Red Ransom), who in turn is the dam of Listed winner Goodfella (Snitzel).
Miss Barley was sold for just $4,000 to Perth trainer Justine Erkelens at the 2017 Magic Millions Perth Winter Mixed Sale and she has Gytrash’s unraced three-year-old half-sister Outlaw Miss (Rubick) and two-year-old filly Pouakai (Demerit) in work.
She was covered last November by Universal Ruler (Scenic) after missing the previous year.
Gytrash is the tenth Group 1 winner for former shuttler Lope De Vega (Shamardal), who stands at Ballylinch Stud in Ireland for a fee of €100,000.
Alligator Blood prevails in a C S Hayes for the ages
Queensland’s rags-to-riches gelding Alligator Blood (All Too Hard), the unwanted yearling, and New Zealand’s shining light Catalyst (Darci Brahma) evoked memories of Australia’s great match races with a thrilling duel in the C S Hayes Stakes (Gr 3, 1400m) earlier on the Flemington card.
Yesterday’s three-year-old race – narrowly won by Alligator Blood after a stirring performance to hold off a sustained challenge from Catalyst, previously unbeaten this season in his home country – can justifiably stand alongside the 1986 Cox Plate (Gr 1, 2040m), the 1999 Caulfield Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) and the 2002 Yalumba Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m) among others.
Bonecrusher (Pag-Asa) and Our Waverley Star (Star Way) at Moonee Valley; Redoute’s Choice (Danehill) versus Testa Rossa (Perugino) and Lonhro (Octagonal) duelling with Sunline (Desert Sun), both at Caulfield, are synonymous with those great races and now Alligator Blood and Catalyst’s C S Hayes Stakes at Flemington can be talked about long after they are retired.
The $160,000 contest was not the feature on the Flemington card when the program was released, but it was being billed as a potential classic between two emerging stars in the lead-up, and they did not disappoint.
Ryan Maloney, an adopted Queenslander who made the Sunshine State home in 2018, immediately took Alligator Blood to the front, while James McDonald pushed forward on Catalyst to sit on his outside to ensure the favourite did not gain a significant break on his rival.
The duo paired off before the 400 metres, going head and head for the entirety of the famous Flemington home straight before it was Alligator Blood who nosed out New Zealand’s rising star by a short-head.
Lightly raced three-year-old Chenier (Medaglia d’Oro), who missed the spring through injury, made an encouraging return to finish a length away in third.
Maloney said Alligator Blood “wanted it more” in the final strides and the stature of the race was not lost on Alligator Blood’s trainer David Vandyke as the horses returned to scale.
“Well that’s what racing is all about,” Vandyke said.
“I looked up at the sectionals there and they were rolling before the corner.
“I thought ‘gee whiz he’s going to have to be good’.
“What about that? That will go down in history, that race will. The little Queenslander gets up off the canvas and comes back and does it.
“That was amazing. It was Australia and New Zealand. Fantastic. Now we’re looking forward to the Australian Guineas.
“They are a couple of stars, those two.”
He continued: “They were going stride for stride and when he just got the edge that last 50 metres and showed his class I thought ‘wow, that’s his best performance’.”
The two protagonists are set to return to Flemington in 13 days’ time for the Australian Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) and Catalyst’s trainer Clayton Chipperfield is confident his horse will be better suited over a mile.
“I could not be disappointed with that,” Chipperfield said.
“We used this race to see if we’ve got the quality against these colts and geldings over here and he answered that question with ease, to be fair.”
With rain falling throughout the meeting, the track was downgraded to a soft 5 by the time the C S Hayes Stakes was run, prompting the Hawkes’ to scratch lightly-raced colt Spend (Snitzel), who ran fourth first-up in the Manfred Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m). It reduced the field to just six runners.
Alligator Blood (3 g All Too Hard – Lake Superior by Encosta De Lago) has won nine of his ten starts, his only defeat coming when runner-up to Super Seth (Dundeel) in the Caulfield Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m), and has earned $2,205,084 in prize-money.
He was bought by the Ezybonds No.1 Syndicate for $55,000 from the Baramul Stud draft at the 2018 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale after initially being passed in.
Alligator Blood is one of two winners for the unraced Lake Superior, who in turn is a half-sister to Listed winner Cantonese (Redoute’s Choice) and the stakes-placed Chateau Margaux (Redoute’s Choice) and Monteaux (Medaglia d’Oro).
His third dam is Tracy’s Element (Last Tycoon), a Grade 1 winner in South Africa who is also the dam of Australian Horse of the Year Typhoon Tracy (Red Ransom).
Lake Superior died in 2017 without producing another foal after Alligator Blood was born.
Light Fingers and blinkers the perfect fit for Flit
A key gear change demonstrated the intent the Godolphin hierarchy had for MRC Thousand Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) winner Flit (Medaglia d’Oro) and the addition of blinkers proved decisive in the filly’s first-up Light Fingers Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) victory at Randwick yesterday.
The James Cummings-trained three-year-old led home a Godolphin-owned trifecta in the $200,000 race, with the filly defeating the Anthony Freedman-trained Lyre (Lonhro) ($5.50) by one and three-quarter lengths, with the winner’s stablemate Kiamichi (Sidestep) another half a length away in third.
The well-backed favourite Libertini (I Am Invincible) ($1.80) could not make up ground and finished fourth under jockey Tommy Berry, three lengths behind the winner.
Cummings said Flit, who was spelled after running fourth in the Wakeful Stakes (Gr 2, 2000m) on November 2, was unlikely to run over an extended distance any time soon.
“We left them off (blinkers) and she won the Group 1 (Thousand Guineas) but then she was a little keen in the 2000 metre (fourth, Wakeful Stakes), so she is probably a little speedy for distances like that,” Cummings said.
“But the way she returned and trialled against the older horses, she was getting to the line well but she couldn’t afford to lose her focus for 50 metres when the pressure went on.
“With the blinkers on she was able to apply herself and show the promise we have been getting from her over the last 12 months.
“I dare say she is the filly to beat in two weeks (Surround Stakes).”
Flit ($11) was the second leg of a winning treble for Hugh Bowman.
“I think the blinkers have really helped, especially over these distances. It really switched her on,” Bowman said.
“Even in the Thousand Guineas, when she went from travelling to through her gears, she just didn’t do that well without the headgear.
“I didn’t think she was all that comfortable on the soft ground in the trial so to just switch on and perform like that on that ground, it is so encouraging and her work through the line was just as good.”
Cummings was also delighted with the third placing of Golden Slipper Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) winner Kiamichi but his father Anthony, the trainer of Libertini, was left scratching his head after his filly’s underwhelming performance.
“It is the first time she has disappointed and we just have to get her home and have a good look at her,” Anthony Cummings said.
A Godolphin homebred, Flit (3 f Medaglia d’Oro – Glissade by Redoute’s Choice) has won three races, all of them at Group level, to earn $1,028,040 in prize-money so far with the promise of more to come.
Flit is one of three winners for the Blue Diamond Prelude (F) (Gr 3, 1100m)-placed Glissade, making the Light Fingers winner a half-sister to the stakes-placed stablemate Flow (Street Cry).
Her second dam is the Group 3 winner Steflara (Zabeel) who along with Glissade is also the dam of the stakes-placed Pleiades (Redoute’s Choice).
Glissade has a yearling filly by Street Boss (Street Cry), who has been named Sliders, while she has a yearling filly by Frosted (Tapit) at foot. She was covered by Astern (Medaglia d’Oro) last October.
Alizee bounces back in Apollo Stakes
Godolphin’s stakes success at Randwick continued later in the day when James Cummings’ decision to run high-class mare Alizee (Sepoy) in the Apollo Stakes (Gr 2, 1400m) paid off despite the trainer having reservations about the wet track.
Alizee was no match for three-year-old Standout (Exceed And Excel) first-up in the Expressway Stakes (Gr 2, 1400m) when favourite a fortnight earlier, but Cummings and Hugh Bowman were satisfied with the five-year-old’s effort.
Yesterday, Bowman was able to settle Alizee closer to the speed and that proved the difference, with the mare winning by a short-neck over the well-backed Dreamforce (Fastnet Rock).
Veteran Happy Clapper (Teofilo) was another one and a quarter lengths away in third.
“She is a lot more settled now and she showed that first up so I wasn’t afraid to let her be where she was comfortable,” Bowman said.
“She gave me the confidence to ride her where she was happy and from barrier one that put her in the gun spot.
“I think the two best horses at that trip fought it out.”
Cummings sought feedback about the Randwick surface, which raced as a soft 7, before committing to yesterday’s race for Alizee.
“We were really 50-50 on whether we wanted to run on a soft seven. We deliberated over it very carefully,” Cummings said.
“I pestered (track manager) Nevesh Ramdhani all week, I even rang the jockey who did the raceday gallop this morning, Sam Clipperton, and he gave me a blow-by-blow account.
“She has come back and delivered against some very strong weight-for-age horses.”
The Chipping Norton Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) and Canterbury Stakes (Gr 1, 1300m) loom as potential options for Alizee.
One horse certain to head to the Chipping Norton is the Pat Webster-trained Happy Clapper, with Tommy Berry giving the nine-year-old gelding the tick of approval after his first-up effort.
“I was rapt. It was a bit of a sit and sprint and that suited the horses with a turn of foot,” Berry said.
Alizee (5 m Sepoy – Essaouira by Exceed And Excel) has recorded ten wins and six placings from 26 starts, with prize-money of $3,140,550.
One of two stakes winners and four stakes-performed horses out of juvenile winner Essaouira, Alizee is a half-sister to Golden Rose Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) winner and young Darley stallion Astern (Medaglia d’Oro) and a granddaughter of the Group 2 winner Alizes (Rory’s Jester).
Essaouira has an unraced two-year-old named Tangier (Medaglia d’Oro), a yearling by Medaglia d’Oro (El Prado) and a filly at foot by Sepoy (Elusive Quality). She was covered by I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit) last November.