Sirius Suspect keeps owners Dancing with Aurie’s Star success
Yesterday’s feature races in Australia were a reminder that you’re never too old to dance.
While nine-year-old Hard Empire (Hard Spun) caused a boilover as the $71 winner of the Missile Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) at Randwick, in the case of Australian Thoroughbred Bloodstock, owners of yesterday’s Aurie’s Star Handicap (Gr 3, 1200m) winner Sirius Suspect (8 g Wanted – Sirius Miss by Galileo), Darren Dance’s clients continue to bust their moves, and hope to be doing so long after their evergreen eight-year-old sprinter eventually retires to the paddock, with the unraced final foal from his dam.
With back-to-back stakes victories, Sirius Suspect’s second and third at black type level in his 39-race career, the Saab Hasan-trained gelding is in career-best form and showed professionalism down the Flemington straight – where he has gained five of his ten career wins – as others showed their inexperience in pulling furiously around him.
Race favourite and last-start Bletchingly Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m) winner King Of Sparta (I Am Invincible), making his first straight track start, had urgings to go quicker than Mark Zahra permitted, as did early race leader Kalkarni Royale (Nicconi) with Daniel Moor in the saddle.
As both faded to finish fourth and last respectively, the ever–consistent Sirius Suspect continued to thrive, eventually holding off the former Western Australian-trained horse and fellow eight-year-old veteran of the turf Stageman (Written Tycoon) to win by a length and a quarter. Queensland raider Shooting For Gold (Shooting To Win) finished third, a further half-length adrift.
“I think I’ll retire before the horse,” Dance said yesterday. “I wish he was still four. But he does seem to be getting better. He’s one of the all-time favourites because he’s so consistent and so honest. He tries so hard. You pretty much know what you’re going to get every time.
“I think it’s the change of training from moving from Flemington and up to the country property in Tabilk where he’s essentially being trained out of a paddock during the day. He just loves it. He’s carrying much better condition, he’s more relaxed and he’s obviously racing better.
“He’s a hot horse, but he’s finally matured and Saab has done a great job with him.
“We’ll go to the Bobbie Lewis in five weeks back at Flemington. So he’ll probably have seven days off in the paddock now and then head towards the Bobbie Lewis and, as long as he’s happy and healthy and everything’s right, he’ll probably go to the Gilgai after that.”
Emerging talent Ethan Brown has ridden Sirius Suspect in each of his last two wins, beginning with the VRC Sprint Series Final (Listed, 1200m) last month. They represent the jockey’s first two stakes victories in Melbourne and ones that were only possible due to Brown shedding more weight to ride at the minimum 54 kilograms.
“He travelled well early, he had an easy enough lead, and keeping in mind some of the horses behind us were first up, I let him roll from the 600 metres and that’s where I felt he won the race,” Brown said.
“He gave me a better feel this start than last start, and sustained a really strong gallop, and seems to be thriving with age and racing.
“He can go on with it although he was really well placed today and got in well at the weights.”
Sirius Suspect earned his first stakes success in the 2021 Standish Handicap (Gr 3, 1200m) and from his latest triumph the consistent performer has surpassed $850,000 in earnings, of which $667,700 has been collected since the horse’s sixth birthday.
Although Sirius Suspect, one of five stakes winners for his sire Wanted (Fastnet Rock), is showing no signs of slowing down, his syndicate of owners can also look to the future through the final foal they bred out of their now deceased mare Sirius Miss (Galileo).
The unraced three-year-old, the only surviving filly from six foals out of the one-time winner Sirius Miss, is by Vinery Stud’s Press Statement (Hinchinbrook), and from the evidence of her recent trials and work with Hasan, Dance believes the fun can go on for the breeding and ownership group.
Named Sirius Statement, the filly finished eighth in her first trial at Cranbourne in July, but improved when fourth in a trial at Tatura on July 18, beaten just a length and a quarter, and has now been sent to the paddock to further furnish.
“The mare passed away last year. She’s only got one more to go, an unraced filly by Press Statement that has just turned three. We’ve followed the same sort of path there using the Fastnet Rock line,” Dance said.
“She’s shown a lot. She’s been in, shown a bit and trialled up nicely. She’s only just turned three so we’ve tipped her out and she’ll have the whole spring in the paddock here and then we’ll see her next year.
“We’ve waited a while to get a filly. We’ll go to the next stage and race with her and the owners will no doubt want to breed with her to keep the line going.”
In the here and now, Dance hopes he and the owners can be celebrating again in the not too distant future, but knows as well as anyone that the journey, at least with Sirius Suspect, is in its twilight stage, and must soon come to an end.
“I love the fact he’s still doing it at eight. He’s a freak, he’s run 1.09 on a Soft 6 and it’s his fifth win today over the track and distance. Who would have thought he would be doing this?,” Dance said.
“He’s one good win away from $1 million. I can remember when we were all saying, ‘do you think he’ll get to half a million?’.
“At the first sign he’s done he’ll be retired. As soon as he puts in a bad one, that’ll be it, and the same applies to me.”