SOME OF AUSTRALIA’S BEST HORSES HAVE WON GOLD COAST GLAMOUR RACE, THE HOLLINDALE STAKES. TODAY WE CONTINUE COUNTING DOWN OUR TOP SIX PAST WINNERS AHEAD OF SATURDAY’S BIG GROUP RACE.
KIWIS love the Gold Coast and 2012 Hollindale Stakes winner Shez Sinsational was no different.
The star New Zealand mare found her place in the sun when she beat a quality field to claim the 1800m feature race at the Bundall track.
Shez Sinsational had ventured across the Tasman a year earlier and gave an indication of what was ahead when she was placed in the Group 1 Queensland Oaks and Queensland Derby in Brisbane.
By the time she returned 11 months later, the four-year-old mare had added three New Zealand Group 1 race wins ranging in distance from 2000m to 3200m to her resume.
In 2012, Shez Sinsational ($5) looked the likely Hollindale Stakes winner at the 200m mark but the Peter Moody-trained Lights Of Heaven ($9.50) charged home to pressure her in the final stages.
The finish was so tight that New Zealand trainer Allan Sharrock thought his mare had been beaten.
“I personally thought she had got crushed right on the line,” Sharrock said.
“She’s a super mare. Not many win from 1200m to two miles.”
Shez Sinsational earns her
place in our list of Hollindale Stakes greats for her fighting win over a field that included Group 1 winners or subsequent Group 1 winners Lights Of Heaven, Mawingo, Foreteller, Scenic Shot, Wall Street and Triple Honour.