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News.com.au
01-07-2025
- Sport
- News.com.au
2024-25 Champion Australian Racehorse awards: Via Sistina's a special but other categories wide open
The Horse of the Year award is a lock but try selecting the champion two-year-old or the best three-year-old filly. The three-year-old male award is up for grabs, the title of best sprinter isn't cut and dried, and neither is the stayer category for that matter. Unlike most years when these awards are reasonably predictable, most of the 2025 Champion Australian Racehorse award categories are wide open with the obvious exception of Horse of the Year which the Chris Waller -trained Via Sistina will win by about as far as her spectacular eight lengths Cox Plate romp last spring. The two-year-old award is one of the tightest as there was a different winner of each of the five Group 1 juvenile races this season including Marhoona and Devil Night who both scored their only stakes win in the Golden Slipper and Blue Diamond respectively. Nepotism won the Group 1 Champagne Stakes and Group 3 Baillieu Handicap while Vinrock was unbeaten in three starts and became first horse since Full On Aces (1981) to win the Group 2 VRC Sires Produce Stakes and Group 1 ATC Sires Produce Stakes double. Cool Archie made a late season surge with five consecutive wins including the Listed Dalrello Stakes, Group 2 Champagne Classic, Group 2 BRC Sires Produce Stakes and Group 1 JJ Atkins. Even Tempted — who won twice at Group 2 level and was luckless in the Blue Diamond (seventh) and Golden Slipper (third) – O' Ole (Magic Millions) and Within The Law will have some support. Aeliana 's outstanding ATC Australian Derby win by more than five lengths puts her into the conversation, Autumn Glow is unbeaten after four starts with three at stakes level, and Lady Of Camelot might have been winless this season but she was placed four times at Group 1 level and ran fourth in The Everest. Broadsiding (Golden Rose, Rosehill Guineas) was the only multiple Group 1 winner in the three-year-old male division but unbeaten Private Harry (The Galaxy), Linebacker (Randwick Guineas, defeating Broadsiding), Switzerland (Coolmore Stud Stakes), Private Life (Caulfield Guineas) and Maison Louis (Queensland Derby) will collate votes. It's anyone's guess for Champion Sprinter. Did Bella Nipotina do enough winning The Everest (and Russell Balding Stakes) to edge out dual Group 1 winners Joliestar (Newmarket Handicap, Kingsford Smith Cup) and Jimmysstar (Oakleigh Plate, All Aged Stakes), or Briasa (TJ Smith Stakes), Overpass (Winterbottom Stakes) and Schwarz (William Reid Stakes)? Bella Nipotina wins the $20million TAB Everest, and is the first mare to do so, after fighting off 2022 champ Giga Kick! @CWilliamsJockey gets his second Everest and the stable of @cmaherracing their first!ðŸ'¥ðŸ'¥ðŸ'¥ #TABEverest @tabcomau @SkyRacingAU @7horseracing @racing_nsw — Australian Turf Club (@aus_turf_club) October 19, 2024 Champion Stayer often goes to the Melbourne Cup winner but this was Knight's Choice 's only win of the season which brings the likes of Duke De Sessa (Caulfield Cup), Dubai Honour (Tancred Stakes), Arapaho (Sydney Cup, Sandown Classic), Campaldino (Brisbane Cup), Alalcance (Manion Cup, Chairman's Quality), Land Legend (The Metropolitan) and Zardozi into the mix. But champion mare Via Sistina was the standout of 2024-25, winning seven of her nine starts, all at Group 1 level to equal the record for most majors in a season set by all-time great Winx in 2018-19. "A CENTURY OF THE VERY BEST!" After a dramatic week, VIA SISTINA wins the 2024 Cox Plate & gives @mcacajamez 100 Group 1 victories ðŸ'š @cwallerracing â€' (@Racing) October 26, 2024 • Via Sistina is back … and she'll again blaze her record-breaking trail Via Sistina also won the Winx Stakes, Turnbull Stakes, Champions Stakes, Verry Elleegant Stakes, Ranvet Stakes and Queen Elizabeth Stakes over distances ranging from 1400m to 2000m so she will also claim the Middle Distance award, too. With Via Sistina certain to win Horse of the Year, it will be the eighth time in 10 years a Waller-trained galloper has won the coveted title. Waller also prepared the only four-time Horse of the Year winner, Winx (2015-16, 2016-17, 2017-18, 2018-19), as well as Nature Strip (2019-20, 2021-22), and Verry Elleegant (2020-2021). Selected racing officials and media start voting on the awards this week with the winners announced at a special Hall of Fame-Horse of the Year function in Brisbane on August 31.
News.com.au
22-04-2025
- Sport
- News.com.au
Via Sistina the only certainty in open Horse of the Year awards
The close of Sydney's showpiece autumn carnival usually provides clarity for the various Horse of the Year award categories each season – but not this year! The only certainty is that Via Sistina will claim Horse of the Year after successive autumn carnival Group 1 wins in the Verry Elleegant Stakes, Ranvet Stakes and Queen Elizabeth Stakes, bringing her tally of big-race wins in 2024-25 to a record-equalling seven. The champion mare also wins the middle distance category and is a contender for the miler title although she has opposition from Epsom Handicap-King Charles III Stakes winner Ceolwulf, Mr Brightside (Makybe Diva Stakes, Champions Mile) and Fangirl (Queen of the Turf Stakes). But with 12 Group 1 races left this season – four in Adelaide and eight in Brisbane – the other awards categories are wide open, particularly the three-year-old filly division. Melbourne's wonder filly Treasurethe Moment won eight races in a row during the season including three at Group 1 level in the VRC Oaks, Vinery Stud Stakes and ATC Australian Oaks. But is that enough to secure champion three-year-old filly honours? Lady Shenandoah will have her admirers after an unbeaten season that included her Group 1 treble in the Flight Stakes, Surround Stakes and notably her defeat of the mares in the Coolmore Classic. Aeliana 's absolute dominance of the 'boys' in the ATC Australian Derby puts her into the conversation but unbeaten Autumn Glow 's obvious potential probably isn't enough to earn the fillies title. The two-year-old award is similarly contentious with four different winners of the juvenile Group 1 races this season. Marhoona only had three starts culminating with her Golden Slipper win so she has to be among the main contenders. Unbeaten Vinrock won his three starts and is the first horse since Full On Aces (1981) to win the VRC Sires'-ATC Sires' double, while Team Hawkes won two-year-olds majors with the very impressive Nepotism (Champagne Stakes) and Devil Night (Blue Diamond). Godolphin's Tempted was the unlucky two-year-old in both the Blue Diamond (seventh) and Golden Slipper (third), but won the Reisling Stakes beating Marhoona in a brilliant 1min 8.49sec and claimed the Percy Sykes Stakes despite enduring a wide run. But her luckless losses in the majors will most likely cost her the juvenile title, too. The champion three-year-old colt or gelding is also up for grabs although Godolphin colt Broadsiding has a compelling case as the only male in the age group to win twice at Group 1 level so far this season with success in the Golden Rose and Rosehill Guineas. He was also placed in the Cox Plate. But Private Harry, unbeaten in five starts, burst on to the scene like a comet this season culminating with wins in The Sunlight and then the Group 1 The Galaxy against older sprinters ensuring he will have plenty of support. Linebacker did beat Broadsiding in the Randwick Guineas (Aeliana was fourth) but that was his only win for the season so he probably hasn't done enough to claim the three-year-old colt or gelding award. Jimmysstar became the only dual Group 1-winning sprinter so far this season with his fast-finishing All Aged Stakes triumph last Saturday complementing an Oakleigh Plate win. But The Everest winner Bella Nipotina is arguably still slight favourite to win the sprinter division although this is a hotly contested award with Briasa (TJ Smith Stakes), Joliestar (Newmarket Handicap), Sunshine In Paris (Champions Sprint) and Overpass (Winterbottom Stakes) all contenders. Similarly, the champion stayer category is also very open. The Melbourne Cup winner often has the advantage but Knight's Choice is behind the likes Duke De Sessa (Caulfield Cup) and Arapaho (Sydney Cup). â– â– â– â– â– 2024-25 HORSE OF THE YEAR AWARD CONTENDERS HORSE OF THE YEAR: Via Sistina CHAMPION MIDDLE DISTANCE: Via Sistina
