McEvoy hoping Arabian Summer can bring him Sunlight joy
Inaugural running of $3 million race moved after Gold Coast track hit by vandalism
Tony McEvoy believes his “highly professional” filly Arabian Summer (Too Darn Hot) is well poised to take another successful step up as the trainer strives to win the first edition of the slot race named after his former champion female in Saturday night’s Magic Millions Sunlight 3YO Plate (1100m).
However, it will not be at the Gold Coast that the highly regarded filly and her rivals contest the inaugural running of the valuable contest with the meeting sensationally switched to the Sunshine Coast late on Friday after suspected vandalism left part of the Gold Coast’s new track unsuitable for racing due to poisoned grass.
With the first two races on the card, the Gold Nugget (1100m) for two-year-old colts and geldings and the Gold Pearl (1100m) for fillies, both allowing for final qualification for next Saturday’s $3 million Magic Millions 2YO Classic (RL, 1200m), delaying the meeting was problematic and the decision was made to make a late switch of venue.
Heading for the rearranged Sunlight, Arabian Summer is a classic case study in modern Australian racing – a horse who has accumulated more than $1 million in prize-money, winning four of her seven starts, yet still doesn’t have a black type victory.
She’ll have more than $2.2 million in the bank if she can prevail in the $3 million Sunlight, but still her only stakes mentions will be the seconds in her first two starts in Melbourne, at Listed and Group 3 level. Not that those earnings aren’t ample compensation for her owners headed by Mystery Downs’ Frank Cook and her breeder Sheikh Mohammed Bin Khalifa Al Maktoum.
Still, if she can take to another new level on Saturday in the style she’s shown with each rise in class so far, she will firm in the betting to finally achieve that black type win soon, perhaps in Caulfield’s Oakleigh Plate (Gr 1, 1100m) on February 22 according to McEvoy.
Arabian Summer’s career has made for compelling viewing so far. She was plucked out of Book 2 at the Gold Coast sale in 2023 as Lot 1167, bought by McEvoy Mitchell Racing and Belmont Bloodstock for $220,000. It was an astute bit of sniffing out.
She was one of five yearlings from the first crop of the untested Too Darn Hot (Dubawi) in Book 2 that year. Two years and mega success later, the stallion who’s become too good for Darley to shuttle of course has no representation in the secondary book at next week’s sale.
Arabian Summer broke through at start number three with an imperious 3.5 length victory in Ballarat’s Magic Millions 2YO Classic (1000m), followed with a 2.3 length victory at the Gold Coast before a solid fifth in the Magic Millions 2YO Classic behind Storm Boy (Justify).
She remained in Queensland to win the inaugural $1m Magic Millions National 2YO Classic (1050m) last May, and while she missed the spring due to two successive hoof abscesses, she returned in fine style to win over 1000 metres at the Gold Coast on December 20, with regular rider Harry Coffey flying to Queensland for the one ride that night.
That victory came against mostly local opposition, but the fact it came under lights has given McEvoy great reassurance for a similar evening-time test on Saturday. The filly will, however, know she’s in a contest.
Slightly easy at $7 on Friday, Arabian Summer – representing the Wheaton and RMA Bloodstock slot – comes up against resuming Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m) winner Lady Of Camelot (Written Tycoon), Sir Owen Glenn’s filly who was a $2.80 favourite, albeit also easing in betting.
Firming into $5 was Nathan Doyle’s exciting son of another Darley shuttler in Private Harry (Harry Angel), who’s unbeaten in three starts, including a 7.06 length romp over 1100 metres on a Good 4 at Hawkesbury on November 21 followed by a first city victory over 1200 metres on a Soft 7 at Rosehill on December 7.
At a solid $6.50 was Vestas (Toronado), who has a Cranbourne win and a Flemington Group 3 second from her two starts and will shoulder hopes of an upswing for the Clinton McDonald stable after its tragic loss of Blue Diamond (Gr 1, 1200m) winner Hayasugi (Royal Meeting) this week.
While this will be Arabian Summer’s toughest test to date – especially having drawn gate 11 of 12 compared to one and four for Lady Of Camelot and Private Harry – McEvoy remains confident his filly has a definite chance to win him the race named after his former star Sunlight (Zoustar), winner of three Group 1s and the Magic Millions 2YO Classic of 2018.
“Our filly’s a good filly. She hasn’t been to this sort of level before, so she’s got to come up a notch, but it’s a horse race, so you never know,” McEvoy, who co-trains in partnership with his son Calvin, told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“The great thing about her is that every step of the way she’s kept stepping up.
“And the thing I really love about her, after her last win Harry Coffey came back in and said he was looking for a run on the turn, but she saw the gap before he did, put her ears back and took off and nearly left him behind. It was incredible. He said he’d rarely felt that, where the horse just takes charge.
“So, she’s a real professional. She’s had the experience under the lights. Now it’s just a matter of having a bit of luck from the gate of course, and being good enough.
“It’d be great to win the first of these races named after Sunlight. It is a bit hard to line up some of these formlines. We know the Golden Slipper formline, but then you look at something like the unbeaten Private Harry and think, ‘What’s his ceiling?’. It’s hard to know at this stage.”
In similar unbeaten boats are a pair of fillies who are two-from-two.
Lady Of Camelot’s Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott-trained stablemate Gerringong (Blue Point) has won twice at Canterbury for owners John Singleton and company. Despite rising from Benchmark 72 class, she firmed on Friday to $8.50 (from $12).
Spicy Martini (Justify), at $41, has won at Eagle Farm and Doomben and could make things awkward for the McEvoys, considering they’ve stabled Arabian Summer with that filly’s trainer Toby Edmonds for many weeks across her Queensland campaigns.
“I reckon if we nose Spicy Martini out in a photo I might just load Arabian Summer onto the float and get out of there,” McEvoy joked.
The McEvoys are not only celebrating diving in early for Too Darn Hot, but are also encouraged about having made an early move for another European shuttler who’s subsequently boomed.
Last January, they teamed again with Belmont to pay $475,000 for a filly from the first southern hemisphere crop of Coolmore’s Wootton Bassett (Iffraaj), who’s now flying high with two juvenile winners from six runners and four of the leading market fancies for the Golden Slipper.
The filly, Filigree Shadow, is currently spelling. The dam Maraam (Street Cry) had a full sibling born deceased in 2023 but gave birth to a brother in October, and was covered by Coolmore’s Shinzo (Snitzel) a month later.
“She’s a high quality filly and I like her a lot,” McEvoy said of Filigree Shadow. “She’s just had a few little troubles – not major, but enough to make us be patient.”
Lady Of Camelot, meanwhile, is a deserved short favourite for the Sunlight, according to Waterhouse.
The filly hasn’t won in five attempts since her Golden Slipper triumph, but Waterhouse doesn’t fear a repeat of the curse of the several modern females who’ve not won again after taking the Slipper.
Since 2010 these comprise Crystal Lily (Stratum), Overreach (Exceed And Excel), Mossfun (Mossman), Estijaab (Snitzel) and Kiamichi (Sidestep), with the exceptions being Gary Portelli’s pair She Will Reign (Manhattan Rain) and Fireburn (Rebel Dane).
Waterhouse feels Lady Of Camelot has already done enough to scotch any doubts she hasn’t backed up, albeit without winning. Her four spring runs included thirds in the Moir Stakes (Gr 1, 1000m) and Coolmore Stud Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m), and a 1.44 length fourth in The Everest (Gr 1, 1200m).
“People are quick to say these things, but I’ve had Slipper-winning fillies that haven’t gone on but I’ve certainly had ones who have,” Waterhouse told ANZ, citing Ha Ha (Danehill), who won five more race, including a Group 1, after her 2001 Slipper success.
“In any case, Lady Of Camelot has already gone on with it. She ran a cracking race in the Everest, when there were excuses for her not being closer, and ran good thirds in the Moir and Coolmore.
“She seems to have come up very well this preparation. We’re very happy with her. She’s got bigger and stronger and she looks like she’s made improvement.
“I think she’s got a great winning chance tomorrow, I really do. I think she’s well placed in that race – barrier one, Blake Shinn on board, it all looks good.”
Waterhouse also believes Gerringong will acquit himself well in his substantial step up in grade. She said: “I don’t think she’s out of it all. She’s a very talented, very speedy filly.”
Doyle was also heartened by Friday’s firming for Private Harry, who’s making a similar class rise.
“He’s done nothing wrong to date, and he probably deserves his opportunity in this race,” the trainer told ANZ of Private Harry, a $115,000 Inglis Classic purchase for Kurrinda Bloodstock.
“It’s an interesting race with a lot of different form angles. Everyone will have a different opinion but I’m happy with my horse.”
Asked where the colt’s ceiling might be, Doyle said: “It’s hard to tell until they get there. All you can do is keep raising the bar and see how far they can get, but he’s got all the attributes to make it as a nice horse.
“The colt’s got a beautiful action, and he’s a lovely type with a good racing style.
“He’s quite short in the market for a horse coming out of a Benchmark 72. He’s going to have to step up, but I’m quite confident he can.”
Meanwhile, an investigation has been launched into the suspected vandalism at the Gold Coast on the eve of the Magic Millions racing carnival. An area of around 25 metres by 10 metres near the 500-metre mark has been affected, with foul play by anti-racing groups not being ruled out.
Horses galloped on the track on Friday afternoon with a call made later to shift the meeting.
“Earlier today, Gold Coast Turf Club and Queensland Racing Integrity Commission officials raised concerns with a section of the course proper near the 500-metre mark which had become discoloured,” a Racing Queensland statement read.
“As a result, a series of course proper gallops involving senior jockeys was conducted at the Gold Coast this afternoon, with concerns raised that the meeting would be unable to proceed.
“Instead, a Magic Millions live site including all activations, functions and hospitality will be conducted at the Gold Coast tomorrow, with the ten-race card to be run in its entirety at the Sunshine Coast.”
It is understood representatives from a leading turf farm in NSW have been engaged to oversee urgent works on the track for it to be ready to race for the Magic Millions Raceday on January 11.
“Samples have been collected for testing and an investigation has been launched to ascertain the root cause of the discolouration impacting the Gold Coast course proper,” the statement continued.
“The affected grass is expected to be replaced ahead of next week’s The Star Gold Coast Magic Millions Raceday allowing the meeting to proceed as scheduled.”