Srikandi Caps Rare Double in Tiara
Description:
Srikandi concluded her winter campaign, leading nearly all the way to win the Tattersall's Club Tiara (Aus-I) June 20 at Gold Coast.
The victory capped off a rare double, as just two weeks earlier at Doomben, the 4-year-old daughter of Dubawi won the Stradbroke Handicap (Aus-I) against males.
Srikandi is the third group winner this week for Darley's hot sire Dubawi, following Erupt's triumph in the Prix du Lys (Fr-III) June 14 at Chantilly and Time Test's win in the Tercentenary Stakes (Eng-III) June 18 at Royal Ascot. She is one of 19 group I winners for her sire.
The Tiara is the final top-level contest of 2014-15 racing year in Australia and Srikandi won with authority after breaking from the far outside post. Hazard was first out the gates, but was quickly displaced by Srikandi, who held command throughout. In the stretch, Avoid Lightning launched a strong challenge, but Srikandi got the win by a length. Lumosty was 4 1/2 lengths back in third.
Srikandi, trained by Ciaron Maher in Melbourne and ridden by Kerrin McEvoy, was the favorite in the field of 15 and finished the 1,400 meters (about seven furlongs) in 1:24.38 on soft turf. Srikandi's mutliple group-winnning paternal half-sister Catkins, the second choice, was a nonthreatening sixth.
Bred in Australia by John Collins, Srikandi is owned by a large group and has a 9-1-1 record from 13 career starts. Her dam is the winning Hurricane Sky mare Raining, who also is the dam of South African group III winner Rain Gal (Galileo).