The only Group I race in Australia for three year-old fillies run at less than a mile, the $750,000 Group I ATC Surround Stakes (1400m) is named in honour of the only three year-old filly to ever win a Cox Plate, so who was she?
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Everyone loves a memorable grey filly, and there have been few - if any - better or more memorable than Surround, the great NZ- bred daughter of Sovereign Edition who blazed across the Australian turf in one unforgettable three year old season which catapulted her to immortality.
Surround was bred by Cambridge Stud and foaled in 1973.
Her sire, the imposing Grey Sovereign grandson Sovereign Edition (GB) arrived at Ra Ora Stud in 1966, where he left an indelible mark of excellence on the Australasian thoroughbred, particularly through his daughters, who became broodmares beyond compare.
He formed a legendary nick with Cambridge Stud's flagship Sir Tristram, with 17 Stakes winners bred on the cross including the champions Gurner's Lane, Empire Rose and Sovereign Red.
Both these mighty patriarchs were renowned for a tendency to attack their grooms, but in their progeny such dangerous temperament was not seen, instead manifesting as extreme heart and courage on a racecourse.
Sovereign Edition was also a sire of sires - his great sprinter Plush and his Caulfield Guineas winning son Beau Sovereign, who became a Hall Of Fame sire in Western Australia, being two examples.
Surround's dam Micheline was a superbly bred mare.
The daughter of four time NZ Champion Sire, the French-bred Le Filou, Micheline would become the first NZ Broodmare Of The Year recipient to be represented by two G1 winners in the same season (1977), with Surround and Purple Patch (Pakistan II) notching up seven majors between them. Five of those were Surround's, highlighted by her amazing Cox Plate triumph.
Blue Hen Micheline wasn't done - she later produced another G1 winner Lord Hybrow (Doomben Cup) - and he was a three quarter brother to the champion Balmerino, who had won 5 G1s the previous season, earning Micheline's dam Dulcie (Duccio) her own Broodmare Of The Year crown.
Of course Balmerino went on to become a great broodmare sire himself.
Dulcie produced four stakes winners in all and they included the G1 winners Fulmen and Gay Philou, plus G2 winner Fileur, all sired by Le Filou.
Dulcie’s granddaughter Belle Cherie (Sovereign Edition), a three-quarter sister to Surround, received her NZ Broodmare Of The Year title in 1988 when the Bart Cummings trained Beau Zam won four G1s.
Beau Zam was yet another freak from this family, sweeping the AJC Derby / Spring Champion / Tancred and Queen Elizabeth Stakes ( beating Bonecrusher!) at three - he was also runner up that season in the Caulfield Cup to Lord Reims.
Surround was bred 5f x 5f to Frederico Tesio's Blue Hen Delleana 5m x 5f through son Donatello (by Blenheim) and daughter Donatella (by Blenheim's son Mahmoud) - the dam of Duccio, who sired her grand dam Dulcie.
This was her only inbreeding in five generations.
What a family! What a filly she would become.
Surround was inspected by her trainer Geoff Murphy as a baby frolicking amongst a group of youngsters at Cambridge Stud.
Just the day before, Bart Cummings had toured through and hadn't seen anything that took his fancy - a rare and uncharacteristic misstep by the legend, who was famous for picking future champions out of the weanling paddock that no-one else would look twice at.
Geoff saw something in the little grey and arranged to lease her on behalf of clients until she should turn four years of age.
Years later he recalled that fateful day.
“Patrick Hogan said, let's go out in the paddock and look at the weanlings. We looked at a good few, and I said to him, what's that grey over there?
He said - oh you don't want that one it's back in the knees and it's this and it's that. I walked over and had a good look and said, I'll take her.
Patrick said, look, Bart was here yesterday - he didn't like her. I said never mind what Bart likes - I like her! And the next year when I went back, she'd grown into a lovely filly.”
Surround was shipped to Australia and installed at Murphy's stables in Bacchus Marsh, where the youngster quickly revealed her talent and her toughness as she thrived under his rigorous training regime.
She matured into an immensely strong individual, but she would never grow much over 15 hands in height.
The little filly won five races as a two year old, including two stakes races over 1000m - remarkable, given the stamina she would exhibit the following season!
Surround was partnered to 16 of her 17 wins by jockey Alan Trevena, who always called her simply “my girl.”
In early 1976 she commenced her 3YO season with no immediate hint of the gobsmacking greatness she would soon unleash.
The diminutive grey won some minor races in Melbourne then travelled to QLD and placed in a mile Stakes race before picking up a couple of handicaps and returning home for a well earned rest in the paddocks at Bacchus Marsh.
Up until that point, Trevena had thought of Surround as a nice enough horse, but nothing exceptional.
“I'd seen her at trackwork and ridden her and thought she was just a nice little horse, that's all” he would later recount.”
“ My first win on her was a 900m race. She drew barrier 17, and inside one furlong she was on the fence and leading. She won very comfortably. But it wasn’t until the next spring, when I rode her in a trial, that I realized what we had.
We had another filly Savoir ( more on her in a bit!) in the trial before her, and she was an exceptionally good filly.
I rode Savoir and she won well, then I rode Surround in hers - and never in my life have I ridden anything that's won anything easier. She never got out of first gear - and all of a sudden I woke up to the fact that this was something really special.”
Off the back of that famous trial Surround returned with a facile win over 1200m at Moonee Valley before Murphy tasked her with taking on the boys in the G2 Ascot Vale Stakes. She won easily.
Next stop was the G2 Moonee Valley Stakes at the mile, where she beat the favourite and her stablemate Savoir - who was another grey daughter of Sovereign Edition! Savoir would have been the champion of her generation in any other year but she would play the bridesmaid to Surround.
At Surround's next appearance she was thrown in the deep end - the G1 Caulfield Guineas, and she was up against a future champion and Cox Plate winner in Family Of Man.
“In the Guineas she was back worse than midfield, and right in front of us was Family Of Man” remembered Trevena.
“Coming towards the home turn, as we went past the old Guineas stand there at Caulfield, I could hear the broadcaster's voice - " Here comes Family Of Man!”
And I thought to myself, we're only two lengths behind him - she's got him well beat!”
Indeed the star colt had no answers to the challenge from the filly - she won going away by two and a half lengths in blistering time.
Now it was on to the Holy Grail, the WS Cox Plate, a Herculean task for a three year old filly!
Debate raged as to whether or not she really was exceptional enough to etch her name on that ultimate WFA honour roll.
Geoff Murphy had trained the three year old Sovereign Edition colt Abdul to win the Cox Plate of 1970. He knew what the breed could do in this great race. But a filly?
The universe got right in on the drama, because the running of the 1976 Cox Plate took place in the middle of a rare total Solar Eclipse.
The skies darkened over the Valley, creating an intensely eerie atmosphere as the Cox Plate field went to the start.
Peter Cook was riding Surround that day because Alan Trevena couldn't make the weight.
Earlier in the afternoon, the two jockeys had watched a race televised from Sydney which one of Cook's regular mounts had won. He had turned to Trevena and said “Look, I should have been riding that”
But Trevena reassured his stand-in and good mate.
“I told him no, you'll win the Cox Plate on this filly” he recalled.
The great race got away in the unnatural gloom. Surround began best as she always did, but Cook soon had her settled just behind the leader, fellow three year old Unaware.
The future Derby winner Unaware led the Cox Plate field along at a cracking pace with Surround travelling kindly in fourth on the rail.
“No one could have ridden her better than Peter that day - it was an absolutely brilliant ride” said Trevena.
“ I'd said to him before the race, when you're ready to go don't pull the whip on her - just show it to her. That's all you have to do. And at about the 500m mark that's what he did, and she was away - and she was home”.
The crowd roared as the great filly dispensed with Unaware and Better Draw in the straight and bolted in, hands and heels, by three lengths - in track record time. In short, she eclipsed them.
This was now officially freaksville territory.
Was there nothing this little grey wonder couldn’t do?
Surround went to the VRC Oaks and romped that in, beating Savoir (who had won the Thousand Guineas and Wakeful on her way to the Oaks), thus extending her winning sequence to ten races, over distances of 1200- 2500m.
The two Murphy-trained daughters of Sovereign Edition completely dominated that Spring in Melbourne.
Savoir’s Thousand Guineas and Surround’s Caulfield Guineas gave Sovereign Edition an extremely rare Classic double which would not be achieved again until Written Tycoon sired Ole Kirk and Odeum to win those the two G1 features in 2020 - almost four and a half decades later!
In the autumn Surround won the G1 Orr Stakes at WFA beating the great mare How Now - and then the G2 Blamey at the mile.
Her incredible streak ended in the Futurity Stakes, when she dropped back in distance and was narrowly beaten by outsider Bonfield. Then she ran fourth in the Australian Cup.
Was it all over? Not quite. Surround would destroy the AJC Oaks field by three lengths, then take the QLD Oaks and the Grand Prix Stakes.
She remains the only filly to win three G1 Oaks in her Classic season - just casually collecting a Cox Plate along the way!
It was a season unlikely to ever be equalled, let alone surpassed, and it earned Surround the Australian Horse Of The Year title.
How could such exploits not take their toll? They did.
The grey resumed with a gallant second in the Feehan Stakes before she irreparably strained a tendon that had given her trouble before.
Like a shooting star, she was gone - but her achievements on the track would remain untouchable in the decades to come.
Surround did not transition into the role of broodmare easily. Still in the care of Geoff Murphy and her owner group, she was initially kept in Victoria. The grey needed extensive rehabilitation before she could be expected to safely carry a foal, but eventually this marvel would produce eight of them.
Only one, a gelding by Danzatore named Bowral, would become a stakes winner - but that fact doesn't do her breeding career justice, as seven of her foals raced and all but one were winners - including her G2 placed daughter Watchful ( Marceau) who bred on successfully, and winner Coralle ( Sir Tristram) who would become the grand dam of the fine stayer Silver Baron.
A crowd favourite of the early 2000s, the gallant grey was G1 placed in the Spring Champion Stakes, South Australian Derby and Adelaide Cup as a three year old, showing that familiar brand of toughness he had inherited.
He would go on to place to the great Northerly in the G1 Craiglee ( now Maybe Diva) Stakes.
Coralle had a promising full brother Frame who was Stakes placed at two but sadly died before he turned three.
Fortunately the blood of Surround remains extant - and her immediate family thrives. No superstar has come from the two Surround daughters who bred on - not yet.
Mighty Surround passed away at the age of 17.
The unforgettable little grey was inducted into the Australian Racing Hall Of Fame in 2014.
