Magnificent seven for ‘superior’ Via Sistina
Via Sistina (Fastnet Rock) signed off a dominant 12 months in Australia by collecting a remarkable seventh Group 1 of the season in the Queen Elizabeth Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m), equalling the elite-level record won in a single term held by another great mare, Winx (Street Cry), who was also expertly handled by Chris Waller.
The mare’s win provided her owners Yulong with a fine Group 1 double on the day at Randwick, with her triumph coming hot off the heels of Treasurethe Moment’s (Alabama Express) gritty victory in the ATC Oaks (Gr 1, 2400m) two races earlier.
A Group 1 winner in her native Ireland, the daughter of Fastnet Rock (Danehill) announced herself on the Australian staying scene a little over 12 months ago with a fine victory in the Ranvet Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m), after which her bubble was temporarily burst when Pride Of Jenni (Pride Of Dubai) slipped the field in last year’s edition of the Queen Elizabeth Stakes.
The seven-year-old opened this current preparation with a win in the Winx Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m), which was followed up by a flop in the Makybe Diva Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) getting her career back on track by breaking her Flemington hoodoo in the Turnbull Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m).
Her reputation was then propelled into a different stratosphere when she produced a mind-blowing performance to win the Cox Plate (Gr 1, 2040m) in record-breaking time and closed off that preparation with another dominant victory in the Champions Mile (Gr 1, 1600m).
This preparation only has one blip on her record: a third-placed finish behind her stablemates Fangirl (Sebring) and Lindermann (Lonhro) first-up in the Apollo Stakes (Gr 2, 1400m). Victory in the Verry Elleegant Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) and a second Ranvet followed, before she atoned for last year’s defeat with a win in Saturday’s time-honoured Group 1.
An emotional Chris Waller was on track at Randwick to break down the win.
“She just keeps turning up every week, I’d like to have a few more like her,” Waller said.
“And we have, we’ve got a great team, but she just shows the difference between a good horse and a champion.”
Under regular rider James McDonald, Via Sistina looked in a spot of bother as the field entered the straight, but once she found daylight, the mare burst clear to defeat the William Haggas-trained Dubai Honour (Pride Of Dubai), who won the 2023 edition of the Group 1, by 1.75 lengths, bringing an end to his unbeaten Australian record.
Tom Kitten (Harry Angel) ran another valiant race to finish third, a further 0.75 lengths away.
“It was an economical run, we had the right man aboard,” Waller, who was surrounded by his family, said.
“James [McDonald] has continued to mature and not panic, that’s the key to winning these big races. The big jockeys win them all the time, to have one of them on your horse’s back is a big plus for your team.
“She’s a big big horse and she’s quite scary really, we don’t ask her too much at home, we just hold it together and know that it’s there raceday.
“You’re looking for them to sprint, and when she sprints, the acceleration is there. We’re still getting to know her, it’s as simple as that and she’s well into her twilight years. It’s scary, really, how good she is.”
After the triumph, McDonald was quick to heap praise on Waller.
“Chris just trains her up beautifully every time,” the winning rider said. “He did it for a Cox Plate, he’s done it for the Queen Elizabeth.
“You could poke holes in her performances coming into today because she hasn’t been winning by big margins, but that’s the type of horse she is now, she only does what she has to.
“She felt like she was going to rip away and then at the furlong she’s just doing enough.
“Very good horse. There was one little worrying moment, I thought the one I was following was going to kick for a gap and he just didn’t go for it and I ended up back off him, but she was superior, once I got those gaps, she sliced through and went bang.”
Via Sistina was bred in Ireland but by UK interests, from the quintessentially English-sounding Laundry Cottage Stud. While advertising as a small, family-run affair away from the Newmarket hub in North Hertfordshire, it can also lay claim to breeding outstanding racehorse and now exciting sire Wootton Bassett (Iffraaj).
The super mare is the fifth and very much the best of seven named foals for the unraced Nigh (Galileo). Suggesting major influence from Fastnet Rock in their mating during his shuttling career to Ireland, only one other of Nigh’s offspring has won, and that is Fougere (Bated Breath), who claimed only a Nottingham handicap in 19 starts.
Via Sistina is another example of Fastnet Rock’s potency when crossed with daughters of Coolmore’s perennial breed-shaping sire Galileo (Sadler’s Wells). She is among the nick’s 30 stakes winners, and is one of 11 Group 1 victors bred on the cross.
The yearling Via Sistina was sold by agent Jamie Railton to Stephen Hillen Bloodstock for just 5,000gns from Book 3 of Tattersalls’ October Yearling Sale in 2019.
From those inauspicious beginnings, she was bought by Yulong associate Evergreen Equine at Tattersalls’ December Mares Sale last year for 2,700,000gns, from the draft of Ireland’s Grove Stud.