Fireburn, Nature Strip Star at Randwick

The saying "form is temporary, class is permanent" rang true April 2 at Royal Randwick, as elite horses, trainers and jockeys excelled on Day One of The Championships, a meeting which for many days appeared a forlorn hope going ahead as rain pelted Sydney for much of last week.

Instead, the meeting proceeded—a card headlined by the Inglis Sires' Stakes (G1), the Bentley Australian Derby (G1), the Furphy T J Smith Stakes (G1) and the Star Doncaster Mile (G1)—and it was the proven performers who stood up to be counted.

Fireburn, the Longines Golden Slipper (G1) winner, established herself as the country's best juvenile to take out the Inglis Sires' and put her on a path to joining champions such as Pierro, while Hitotsu completed the Australian Guineas (G1)-Australian Derby double for his trainers Ciaron Maher and David Eustace, a feat not achieved since Mahogany triumphed in 1994,

Then, Chris Waller had Nature Strip  in peak condition for the T J Smith Stakes, his third in a row to match the feats of Chautauqua, the only other sprinter to achieve the hat-trick.

Mr Brightside's Doncaster Mile victory, his first at group 1 level, was significant for Lindsay Park's next generation of brothers and training partners Ben and JD Hayes, their first win at the highest level since taking control of the Australian racing operation from father David who is back training in Hong Kong.

"With all of the change we've had the past year with Dad (David Hayes) going to Hong Kong and Tom (Dabernig) leaving the partnership, to get a result like this with all of our team is just the biggest thrill," Ben Hayes said. "Brightside is a special horse to us. He was our first city winner and first stakes winner in Victoria and now he is our first group 1 winner."

Former New Zealander Mr Brightside was considered an outside chance in the Doncaster, but he lifted under Craig Williams to give the Hayes' brothers their first Sydney winner and their maiden group 1 together.

"A lot of our owners did back us, there were a couple that left but hopefully they come back now," Ben Hayes said.

"We're hungry and we want to succeed and we're getting it done."

Mr Brightside ran down fellow Victorian I'm Thunderstruck by a half-length with last year's runner-up Icebath again in the placings, another long neck away.

A NZ$22,000 2019 New Zealand Bloodstock May Sale purchase by agent Phill Cataldo, Mr Brightside was resold to trainer Ralph Manning and friends Shaun Dromgool and Ray Johnson through a Gavelhouse online auction in August 2020 for NZ$7,750. He had one start in New Zealand in February last year before being bought by Wayne Ormond and syndicated to clients of Lindsay Park.

"He was a little bit tricky to get on the track, so he came to us with a few little issues," Manning recalled. "We are 1,500 meters to the track and train off 20 acres and we ride them to the track and it just helps those horses mentally.

"He won his trial really easily for us and we put Opie on for his debut at Matamata and said 'he just wins'."

But the race didn't go to plan, with Mr Brightside finishing fifth behind Comme Bella Fille, herself now a city winner in Sydney, and Manning soon fielded calls from Australia.

"Full credit to the Hayes brothers. They just picked out the races nicely, going through the grades and placing him well. They have done an amazing job," Manning said.

Since then, Mr Brightside has raced 12 times for seven wins, culminating in the Doncaster victory, and amassing AU$2.476 million in prize-money.

"They're the future," Williams said of the Hayes brothers. "When they came into the yard today, Sydney's biggest race on the first day of The Championships, as young trainers they just said 'We'll leave it up to you—tricky barrier draw.'

"But they said this horse is going better than he's gone this whole prep. So they gave me the confidence and then we have to trust the horse and through their hard work and education and their processes, that's the end result, they won a group 1.

"The way that this horse has come over from New Zealand in one preparation, they just took the steps through his grades, really developed this horse. He's still not a furnished product yet, so I'm really looking forward to an exciting spring now that he will probably be a weight for age horse."

The trainers would not be drawn on what was next for Mr Brightside, declaring they didn't want to make decisions on race day.

Mr Brightside, meanwhile, is one of two winners out of the Tavistock unraced mare Lilahjay, who has a Darci Brahma  weanling filly and a yearling filly by What's The Story .

Fireburn 'Keeps Raising the Bar'

Earlier, Fireburn's trainer Gary Portelli made his intentions clear that his star filly would be back at Randwick on Saturday week chasing a victory in the Champagne Stakes (G1), the third leg of the Sydney 2-year-old Triple Crown, after her dominant Inglis Sires' victory.

"What a filly. She just turns up week after week and she raises the bar," Portelli said.

"She was set a task in the Slipper and she proved herself. A few people were knocking her before the race today thinking it might have been a one-off thing, but they don't do that in Slippers and still win.

"All week she has been telling me she has been spot-on and ready to go so I just couldn't wait for the race.

"She's got a big motor and these horses come around once in a lifetime. We've got the Winx Stand and hopefully one day we put the Fireburn stand beside it."

The Gai Waterhouse-trained Pierro was the last and just the sixth to complete the Golden Slipper, Sires' and Champagne Stakes treble, the 2-year-old Triple Crown, since its inception in 1957.

Burst (Marauding) is the only filly to win the Triple Crown, which was achieved in 1992, while Merlene (Danehill) was the last filly to win the Slipper and the Sires' back in 1996.

"If she pulls up all right she will go around (in the Champagne)," Portelli said.

"I'm not leaving a group 1 on the table for a filly. If she was to win the Triple Crown, she is a special filly and she will be remembered forever."

Starting a drifting AU$2.50 favorite, Fireburn, under Brenton Avdulla, made her run closer to the inside rail before demonstrating a superior turn of foot to overhaul fellow filly She's Extreme by a length and a half. The Danny O'Brien-trained colt Let'srollthedice was another four lengths away in third.

Avdulla, who only returned from a career-threatening race fall last August earlier in the autumn carnival, said Fireburn "deserves to be champion 2-year-old".

"A bit of history, I don't think any filly has done it for a long time and there's no reason why she can't do the Triple Crown. If she does that, she's one of the greatest of all time," he said.

Fireburn is set to face a rematch with She's Extreme, whose trainer Anthony Cummings thought she had the race in the bag when shooting clear.

"She has run really well. I have to find a length and a half in two weeks," Cummings said.

The future of Fireburn's sire, the former Portelli-trained group 1-winning sprinter Rebel Dane , whose rise to prominence has come courtesy of the dominant juvenile and group 3 winner Subterranean from just 54 live foals in his first two crops of racing age, is expected to be known in the coming days.

International Thoroughbred Solutions' Mark Player was recently appointed to handle negotiations with Hunter Valley stud farms on behalf of Rebel Dane's owners which include Laurel Oak Bloodstock's Louis Mihalyka, Steve Grant and Ken Lowe to stand the stallion in NSW.

A rising 13-year-old, Rebel Dane spent his first five years serving mares in Victoria, most recently at Glen Eden Stud where in 2021 he covered 49 mares, his biggest book to date.

Suffice to say, he will cover significantly more —and at a higher fee than AU$8,800 (inc GST)—when he relocates to his new home later this year.

To date, Fireburn has won AU$3,776,250 in prize-money, a big return for the filly out of Mull Over (So You Think ), who was bought by Laurel Oak Bloodstock for AU$22,000 at the 2018 Magic Millions Gold Coast National Broodmare Sale.

Mull Over has a Hallowed Crown  yearling colt and she was covered by Pierata last year.

Nature Strip Matches Chautauqua

After two years of "will we, won't we" the Royal Ascot campaign for top sprinter Nature Strip  appears well and truly on after the rising 8-year-old joined Chautauqua as a three-time winner of the T J Smith Stakes.

Having had his colors lowered in the Black Caviar Lightning Stakes (G1) by stablemate and possible Royal Ascot travelling companion Home Affairs and again by Eduardo and autumn revelation Shelby Sixtysix in the Hyland Race Colours Challenge Stakes (G2), Nature Strip returned to his brilliant best at Randwick Saturday.

It was Nature Strip's eighth group 1 victory and Saturday's AU$1.45 million first prize-money cheque has moved him into second place on the all-time Australian stakesearners list, trailing only Winx.

Winning trainer Waller felt he and jockey James McDonald erred by not using Nature Strip's speed in the Challenge Stakes, but the pair did not make the same mistake Saturday, with the gelding taking up the lead and heading off any potential challenge from sparring partner Eduardo.

"We took it a bit cheap last start, we got him to button off and relax but he's actually got to put a bit of pressure on them," Waller said.

"Nature Strip's biggest arsenal is to put the others out of their comfort zone early. He is a better horse in the autumn and he's a good horse over 1200 meters."

Waller confirmed connections had a trip to Royal Ascot in their sights with Nature Strip but so too was a fourth tilt at The Everest, a race he won last October at Randwick.

"I'm sure the main aim is to have him back here for The Everest and if we can shoot over and see our friends at Royal Ascot it would be pretty special," Waller said.

"It's good to be taking the right horses and these two are the best sprinters in Australia."

McDonald has been aboard for all three of Nature Strip's T J Smith wins, and his Everest triumph, but the jockey was particularly moved by his win Saturday.

"It's just unbelievable isn't it? Three of them," McDonald said.

"He's got The Everest, he's won everything in Australia. He's just an incredible, incredible horse."

Nature Strip finished three and a quarter lengths ahead of Eduardo with Paulele another length and a quarter away in third.

Eduardo's jockey Nash Rawiller said if he had his time again he may not have pressed Nature Strip as much as he did for the early lead.

"Look, he ran super. I don't know whether I really did the right thing letting him go. I felt in my guts I was doing the right thing by my horse," Rawiller said.

Nature Strip, who is the flag bearer for Widden Victoria's Nicconi , is out of group 3 winner Strikeline (Desert Sun), a mare who has also produced stakes winner The Barrister.

He was sold at the Inglis Melbourne Premier Yearling Sale after initially being passed in by breeder Ultra Thoroughbreds.

Maurice's Hitotsu Completes Hat Trick

Hitotsu, the son of Arrowfield shuttler Maurice , made it a group 1 hat trick for the lightly raced 3-year-old colt, adding the Australian Derby to his Australian Guineas and Penfolds Victoria Derby (G1) victories.

In a fine training performance by Ciaron Maher and David Eustace, Hitotsu was second up in the Derby—his spring staying performance came third up —and his CV makes him an intriguing stallion prospect given he is by a Japanese stallion out of a mare by champion Australian broodmare sire Redoute's Choice.

For now, however, it appears Maher and connections' focus is on the Cox Plate (G1) in the spring, a race they won in 2020 with Sir Dragonet.

"We will get him ready for a Cox Plate now," Maher said.

"He doesn't need to race the older horses (in Saturday's Queen Elizabeth Stakes). As you can see, he is still furnishing and we'll take them on in the spring."

In a three-horse battle to the line, Hitotsu scored by a neck over Benaud with Alegron another long neck away in third.

No horse since Mahogany in 1993-94 had won the Victoria Derby-ATC Australian Derby double and Hitotsu managed the feat off the back of a single lead-up run in the Australian Guineas in Melbourne, which he also won.

Maher's confidence in Hitotsu was evidenced by his confidence pre-race push prior to the Australian Guineas and he was again optimistic about his prospects despite the horse having to race on testing ground in the Derby at just his second start for the preparation.

"I just thought he was better this prep than last prep. He's stronger and all his starts had suggested that," said Maher, who won last year's Australian Derby with Explosive Jack.

"The unknown was the track, but I thought his quality would get him there.

"At about the 200, I thought maybe the quality is not going to be enough but that's just it, he's all quality the horse."

Hitotsu and Benaud made their runs together, sweeping down the outside just as Alegron surged through closer to the center of the track.

The three came together at the 200 meters and Hitotsu, who was ridden by John Allen, was the one affected most by the scrimmage, but Maher said it only seemed to encourage his horse to dig deeper.

"Johnny Allen, he's got a lot of faith in him and you couldn't get a stronger rider than Johnny," Maher said.

"I think he won last year's Derby by the skin of your teeth and he's done it again here today, so fantastic."

Allen suggested that Hitotsu won the Derby even though he did not appear to appreciate the Heavy 9 conditions.

"He never handled the ground, he never really picked up the bit today I had to kind of squeeze him along the whole way. But back on top of the ground hopefully he'll be winning more good races," said Allen, who has now won nine group 1 Derbies since moving to Australia from Ireland where he rode as a jumps jockey.

Hitotsu was purchased as a yearling for AU$100,000 from the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale in 2020 by Kevin Kelly, husband of the colt's original trainer Wendy Kelly, for owner Kevin Payne.

Following his 2-year-old campaign, consisting of three starts in Melbourne juvenile races, Maher's bloodstock manager Will Bourne struck a deal to buy the horse for clients including Ozzie Kheir and John O'Neill, and transfer him to the state's leading stable.

Payne did, though, retain a share in Hitotsu.

Maher bought the Arrowfield-bred Shalaa  half sister to Hitotsu at the Inglis Melbourne Premier Yearling Sale this year while their dam, the unraced Love Is Fickle (Redoute's Choice), has a weanling filly by Arrowfield's young sire Castelvecchio.