The Mark and Levi Kavanagh trained Churchill (IRE) three year-old First Immortal has been one of the finds of the winter in Victoria and capped his rise through the grades with a dominant victory in the $200,000 VRC Mahogany Challenge Final (2500m) at Flemington on Saturday.
Ridden by Blake Shinn and burdened with 60kg, First Immortal produced an electric turn of foot to power clear of his rivals and had enough left to win by more than a length taking his overall record to five wins from 11 starts with prizemoney just shy of $330,000.
First Immortal earned high praise from Blake Shinn.
“When he got out I really thought he’d win by three or four and put a margin on them, but as he has done previously he just doesn’t know how to put them away and that’s the exciting part, he got a bit lost in front," Shinn said.
“He’s a really nice horse for Mark and Levi going forward and they’ve done a tremendous job with him. When I won on him three starts back they had the option to go to Queensland, but decided to stay here for this series and got the job done today and can maybe put him away now and aim for something higher.”
A $160,000 Inglis Classic purchase for Kavanagh Racing from the Widden Stud draft, First Immortal was foaled and raised at Widden and is the best of two winners from Storm Siren, a half-sister by Excites to Group I winner Hot King Prawn and Group III winner Siren’s Fury.
Churchill returns to Coolmore Australia this spring at a fee of $22,000.
