Shiraz reverses form to snare Winter Challenge at Rosehill
IT had been nearly two years since the connections of Shiraz were able to pop the bubbles, but the drought was broken in the $150,000 Winter Challenge at Rosehill on Saturday.
The Kim Waugh-trained gelding hadn’t won since taking out the Group 3 Concorde Stakes at Randwick in September of 2015, but it has since finished second in the Group 1 Galaxy and a win was long overdue for its big team of connections.
The seven-year-old had been given the tag as a “wet tracker” by many form analysts, having won four of its 10 attempts on rain-affected ground, but it was able to get along the inside of runners courtesy of a peach ride by Kiwi jockey Jason Collett.
“I’ve been so happy with him, but I know everyone had sort of given up on him,” Waugh said about the $7.50 chance at Topbetta.com.au.
Waugh was pleased with the ride by Collett, who decided to come underneath runners in the better part of the track.
“10…11,” Waugh said on rating the ride of out 10.
The stable did a good job just getting Shiraz to the races after the 11-time winner suffered a foot injury earlier this month.
“His work has been sharp and really good, but he pulled half his foot off a few weeks ago,” she explained.
“We’ve had Equilox on and that has been a real problem, but today has been very pleasing.”
Waugh had just wanted to get the overdue win out of the way before making any future plans with the gelding which has now won in excess of $800,000.
“We’ll just see, I don’t know, I just wanted him to win this race today,” Waugh said.
“The owners have been so patient. They’re great people and they deserve a win.”
Waugh scored a race-to-race double only minutes later when Oxford Poet scored at Doomben in the Spring Racing BRC Open.