On the best card of the season so far, racegoers at Flemington were treated to a splendid duel between two Darley-owned gallopers in the G3 $250,000 Danehill Stakes (1200m) with the progressive Strategic colt Aichi getting the verdict by a nose from the impressive last-start Moonee Valley winner Time Thief. After the race, winning jockey Michael Rodd was effusive in his praise of the Peter Snowden-trained winner, saying, “He worked very hard up front but gave me plenty over the last little bit”.
Aichi is the first foal of the winning Quest For Fame mare Nagoya, who is a half-sister to the Stakes-placed Octagonal filly Hairpin, being a daughter of Suzuka, who herself is a half-sister to Quest For Fame’s former Listed winning two-year-old Le Mans. Nagoya proved to be the second Quest For Fame mare to breed a winner during the afternoon, because the second race on the card, the Henry Bucks Best Dressed Plate (1400m), had seen the former New Zealand-trained Lord Tavistock, a son of the Quest For Fame mare Upstage, confirm himself as a live Caulfield Guineas chance by beating a good field, the trifecta being completed by the Listed winner Romneya and the Exceed And Excel colt Excelltastic. After the race, winning trainer Mick Price confirmed that Lord Tavistock’s next two starts are likely to be the Caulfield Guineas Prelude (20 September) followed by the Guineas on 11 October.
Arguably the bravest winner on the card at Flemington was the seven-year-old Xaar gelding Stavka, whose amazing will to win has helped him to overcome a succession of training setbacks. Stavka showed all his courage to get the verdict by the narrowest of margins over The Fuzz – winner last season of the G2 Blamey Stakes at Flemington and the G3 Geelong Cup - in the $125,000 Hong Kong Jockey Club Stakes (Listed) (1400m), moving his trainer Peter Morgan to declare after the race, “To do what he’s done is absolutely magnificent”.
