Sterling Express stepped up to Group level for the first time in Saturday’s Gr.2 Waikato Stud Foxbridge Plate (1200m) at Te Rapa, and a stunning last-to-first performance showed that he belongs.
Gloria Macrae and Brian McKeagg’s homebred son of Shamexpress had already racked up seven wins from a promising 18-race career, with three smart victories as a three-year-old followed by another four last season. His last start had produced his biggest win yet, storming home from the back of the field to take out the $60,000 Winter Championship Sprinters’ Final (1400m) at Ruakaka in late June.
However, the Foxbridge Plate is a completely different challenge to a winter open handicap. Sterling Express had finished last in the Listed Trevor & Corallie Memorial (1500m) at Te Rapa in December 2023 in his only previous start in black-type company, and now he found himself in a $150,000 season-opening Group Two, taking on high-class opposition at weight-for-age.
That challenge was made even tougher by the way the race was run. Sterling Express was slow to leave the starting gates and had to come from last in a race dominated by those racing on or near the pace. The first four horses around the home turn all finished in the first six, headed by Lhasa, who sat outside the front-running Sacred Satono before taking command early in the straight.
But what Sterling Express did in the final 350 metres of the Foxbridge showed that he could be a rising star of New Zealand’s weight-for-age ranks. He flew down the outside, passing 12 horses in the straight and powering to victory by a length in the hands of Masa Hashizume.
Lhasa held on for second in a career-best performance, and the same could be said for $51 outsider Dusty Road who flashed home late for third. Twain, Gospodin and Sacred Satono stuck on solidly to round out the top six.
Sterling Express is trained by Mark Brosnan at Matamata. That training centre has now produced four consecutive Foxbridge winners, with Sterling Express following on from Bonny Lass (2024), Dragon Leap (2023) and Imperatriz (2022).
“That’s very satisfying,” Brosnan said. “I thought he was pretty good, but he’s actually even better than I thought.
“I wasn’t too worried after his slow start. He’s done that before and shown that he can run home. But I was a bit surprised how well he did it against such a strong field. Masa rode to the plan we thought up, and the horse did the rest. It’s a good result.
“We obviously have to go to the Proisir Plate (Gr.1, 1400m) now. That’s going to be a stronger field again, but we’ve got to go there after that run.”
The TAB reacted to Saturday’s performance by cutting Sterling Express from $61 into $16 for the Proisir Plate, which will be run at Ellerslie on September 6. Legarto and the defending champion Grail Seeker remain the equal favourites at $4. Sterling Express has also been a big mover in the markets for the Gr.1 Howden Insurance Mile (1600m) and Gr.1 Livamol Classic (2040m), where he is now rated a $16 and $18 chance respectively.
Saturday’s win continued a strong run of form for Brosnan, who won 10 races from only 93 runners last season including a recent big-race win by Diamond Jak in the $100,000 Taumarunui Gold Cup (2200m) at Te Rapa on July 26.
“We’ve got a couple of good horses around us at the moment, and that makes it easy,” Brosnan said.
Saturday’s win marked a triumphant return for Hashizume, who has been back riding for two weeks after almost four months off the scene.
“I’m very emotional,” he said. “Mark has been a big supporter in my career. This is a top horse. He came from an unbelievable place today. I’m very happy.
“He was sitting in the gate. He was fresh and he was getting a bit toey. But we were always going to go back anyway, and I just wanted to follow Michael (McNab, riding Mali Ston) – a good jockey riding a good horse.
“I wanted to come out and give him a chance in the straight, and he responded very well.
“He’s definitely competitive in weight-for-age now. He’s proved that. Fresh up today, he’s definitely going to improve from this.”
Sterling Express added a second mention of the Foxbridge Plate to his pedigree page. His granddam Jennibegood, who won five times up to Listed level, finished fourth behind O’Malleys Boy, La Bella Dama and Millennium in the 2002 edition of the race. – LOVERACING.NZ News Desk.
