Extreme Choice - New Winner

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).

The last British Group I race of the flat season was run overnight at Doncaster with Aidan O’Brien producing a trifecta of two year-old colts led by a son of the late Wootton Bassett (GB) in Hawk Mountain, who was too good for a pair of Frankel colts.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

Gelded after losing form following his tenacious victory in the 2023 Group I ATC Rosehill Guineas, the Chris Waller trained Lindemann has embraced life as a gelding and has been on fire this spring racking up a series of lucrative wins including the $750,000 Group III ATC Craven Plate (1800m) at Randwick 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.

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.