Encryption - New Winner

At the start of August we ran a story about the 3YO’s that were entered for this year Cox Plate and aside from the usual suspects there were some ‘Cox Plate dreamers’ and one of them was unraced Lonhro colt Attica, who capped his meteoric rise to fame with a thrilling victory in the $2million Group I ATC Spring Champion Stakes (2000m) at Randwick on Saturday.

The 2-year-old Encryption filly Data Scramble came with a barnstorming finish to make a winning career debut in the Teddy Bears Picnic 3 August Maiden Plate (1200m) at Eagle Farm on Wednesday.

The Cliff Brown-trained Von Hauke swamped his rivals late under a patient rider from Ethan Brown to land the Gr.2 Crystal Mile (1600m) at The Valley on Saturday.

When breaking his maiden by five lengths at just his second start last season, Ghaiyyath's colt Observer looked to have above average ability, but it was his third last start in the Group 1 MRC Caulfield Guineas (1600m) that had everybody talking about the exciting prospect.

Te Akau Racing made a blistering start to the afternoon across both New Zealand meetings on Saturday, racking up six wins in a three-hour period including with a pair of potential candidates for next month’s Gr.1 New Zealand 1000 Guineas (1600m).

Already a dual Group1 winner, Bjorn Baker’s 5yo All Too Hard mare Stefi Magnetica added the $2m Group 2 ATC The Invitational (1400m) to her impressive record, with her earnings smashing through the $7m mark for her ownership group headed by the Cunningham family.

Exciting young sire Home Affairs opened his account with his first winner in New Zealand on Saturday with a dominant debut victory for race favourite Harvey Wallbanger at Ellerslie.

Progressive I Am Invincible colt Ohope won the $1million ATC Tapp Craig (1400m) at his previous start, however was not rewarded officially with Black Type for that result, but he did achieve stakes-winner status at Randwick on Saturday when scoring a determined win over quality colt Rivellino in the $1million ATC Callander Presnell (1600m).

A previous Group 2 winner at Moonee Valley a few years back, Jigsaw’s connections would’ve headed into Saturday’s Group 2 MVRC McEwen Stakes (1200m) with a level of confidence despite tackling last start Group 1 MVRC Manikato Stakes winner Charm Stone.

A genuine champion sire should be able to produce the horses that win the very best races in the country in which they stand and the late great Fastnet Rock have us a demonstration of that when his high class Northern Hemisphere bred offspring Via Sistina (IRE) and Buckaroo (GB) fought out an epic finish to the $6million Group I MVRC WS Cox Plate (2040m) at Moonee Valley on Saturday.