Dubai horses lift the gloom Down Under
Dubai-owned horses gave something to cheer about during these tough times with Colette and Addeybb romping to stellar Group 1 victories, while jockey Glen Boss marked a big race double in the Sydney Autumn Racing Festival held in Randwick, Australia on Saturday.
Godolphin filly Colette strode to a scintillating victory in the Group 1 The Star Australian Oaks, while Jebel Ali Racecourse patron Sheikh Ahmed bin Rashid Al Maktoum’s Addeybb landed the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth Stakes at a closed-door Royal Randwick Racecourse of the Australian Turf Club.
Colette, the three-year-old filly from Hallowed Crown, showed good turn of foot and rode the perfect race to win the one-mile-and-four furlong contest on turf over Toffee Tongue.
Saddled by James Cummings and the mount of Glen Boss, Colette hit her strides at the 400-metre bend and swooped from the outside and took the lead with 300 metres of the stayers affair left to go, before winning by two and a half lengths.
Quintessa, trained by Mark Newnham and ridden by Nash Rawiller, finished third in the race run for threeyear-old fillies.
Colette had staked her claim for the Oaks when she won the Group 3 Adrian Knox Stakes last week at the same venue. Strikingly enough, it was an identical result then with Colette leading in Toffee Tongue and Quintessa.
It was also her fourth consecutive victory and her first Group 1 winner in seven starts and her jump from Group 3 to Group 1 by skipping a grade, marked Colette as one for the big races.
Meanwhile, it was Godolphin’s third Group 1 win this season and their 171st victory. Overall, Godolphin have 318 Group 1 winners.
“She’s from a really good Northern Hemisphere family out of a Singspiel mare and she just lapped up the staying journey today (Saturday),” said Cummings, who has the distinction of having trained both father (Hallowed Crown) and daughter (Colette) to Group 1 wins.
Cummings had saddled Hallowed Crown to the Golden Rose Stakes in 2014.
And Cummings also made it a special ‘family’ affair as he joined his father Anthony and his late grandfather Bart to have won the Oaks.
Bart had saddled seven Oaks winners, while Anthony had trained On Air to victory in 1998.
She’s got a wonderful future, she’s a really great example of coming through our system. She extended her campaign beautifully for what has been an excellent plan to come to fruition, to perform like that and to start favourite on the day against some well-performed horses and now she’s stormed away with an Oaks win, it’s an amazing highlight for her,” Cummings added.
Meanwhile, Boss, who replaced James McDonald, couldn’t praise Colette enough. “That was pretty simple.
It made it easy for me. Just point and shoot stuff really,” said Boss, who notched his fourth Oaks victory after winning it on Republic Lass and Serenade Rose in 2002 and 2006 respectively.
Incidentally, his first Oaks win was with Bart’s Danendri in 1997.
A little later, Boss got his second straight win onboard Etah James, with the seven-year-old mare from Raise The Flag, landing the Sydney Cup Group 1 Handicap.
Meanwhile, 22-year-old Tom Marquand piloted Addeybb, trained by William Haggas, to a two and three fourths of a length victory over Chris Waller’s Verry Elleegant in the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth Stakes.
“I think a lot of people are underestimating how much this means to me,” said Marquand.
“I’m very young and hopefully have quite a long time ahead of me in the saddle, but to come down here and win a QEII on an English horse, for someone who has given me a lot of support, at a time that has been tough for English racing, it could not mean any more,” added the Briton, who has been racing Down Under for the past four months after racing in England has been halted because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Meanwhile, Godolphin’s Flit, trained by Cummings, finished second in the Group 2 Arrowfield Sprint, on turf.