This is about the time of year that racing fans start to get a little bit excited about the impending Spring Racing Carnival. Most of the local horses being set for the feature races in Melbourne have returned to work and, with Royal Ascot on this week, many of the internationals who might venture out here later in the year are in action on our TV screens late at night.
But, there remains one more Group 1 race in Australia this season, the $500,000 Tattersall’s Tiara (1400m), which will be run at Eagle Farm in Brisbane on Saturday.
Like last year, when won by Red Tracer, it is in line to provide a fitting farewell to the Group 1 season.
Red Tracer is back to defend her crown and both her trainer and jockey, Chris Waller and Nash Rawiller, are certain to win their respective national Group 1 premierships.
Both have won eight races at the highest level for the season, but only one together – Red Tracer’s win in the Myer Classic at Flemington last November.
That was part of a Derby Day double for Waller, who also won the Coolmore Stud Stakes with Zoustar.
They weren’t Waller’s only Group 1 wins of Melbourne Cup Week, also collecting the Emirates Stakes with Boban, while his other Group 1 success in Victoria also came at Flemington, where Foreteller won the inaugural running of the Makybe Diva Stakes at the highest level.
Waller’s other four Group 1 wins came in his adopted home city, Sydney, where Boban won the Epsom Handicap and Chipping Norton Stakes, Zoustar the Golden Rose and Sacred Falls the Doncaster Mile.
The latter wasn’t just a Group 1 win, however, it was a domination with Waller also preparing the second (Royal Descent), third (Weary) and fourth (Hawkspur) horses over the line.
Rawiller rode Royal Descent in the Doncaster, run on day one of the highly-anticipated The Championships, but he did leave Randwick that day with a Group 1 trophy, having partnered Peggy Jean to victory for Gerald Ryan in the ATC Sires’ Produce Stakes.
That was one of five Group 1 victories for Rawiller during the Sydney Autumn Carnival, having won both the Ranvet Stakes and The BMW aboard the Roger James-trained Silent Achiever, The Galaxy on Tiger Tees (Joe Pride) and the All Aged Stakes on Japanese visitor Hana’s Goal.
Rawiller, who was raised in Bendigo, did not go without Group 1 success in his native state, however, partnering Solzhenitsyn (Rob Heathcote) to a second straight win in the Toorak Handicap and John Sargent’s Kirramosa to victory in the Crown Oaks at Flemington.
It is ironic that Rawiller will be crowned the nation’s premier Group 1 rider in a season that he also had to deal with arguably the biggest blow of his career – losing the ride on Fiorente just two starts before that import won the Emirates Melbourne Cup.
The Gai Waterhouse-trained entire won the Cup with Damien Oliver in the saddle in what, after some confusion around Oliver's earlier feature wins, was later revealed as the champion jockey’s 100th victory at the highest level.
Oliver will finish the season with 102 Group 1 wins to his name after later claiming the Australian Cup, again aboard Fiorente, and his maiden Stradbroke Handicap aboard the Natalie McCall-trained River Lad.
Oliver was one of two jockeys to log their 100th Group 1 success during the season.
Jim Cassidy raised his bat after winning the Coolmore on Zoustar, having earlier won the Golden Rose on that colt, while he later won the Randwick Guineas aboard the Peter Moody-trained Dissident and Coolmore Classic with Steps In Time.
Cassidy rides the latter, who is prepared by Pride, in the Tattersall’s Tiara.
The only other horse in Saturday’s Group 1 to have already won at the highest level this season is Sportingbet Classic victor Driefontein, one of six Group 1 winners in 2013/14 for Waterhouse.
The Hall of Fame trainer also won the Sydney Cup with The Offer, Queen of the Turf with Diamond Drille and the J.J. Atkins with Almalad – all with Tommy Berry in the saddle.
Like Oliver and Cassidy, Waterhouse has celebrated in excess of 100 victories at the highest level but there were a number of trainers who joined her on the Group 1 winner’s list during the season.
River Lad’s Stradbroke win was McCall’s first at the top level and came 40 minutes after Henry Dwyer won the Queensland Derby with Sonntag at his first Group 1 attempt.
Another Derby, the South Australian version, provided Richard Jolly with his first Group 1 win thanks to Kushadasi (Steven Arnold), while Wez Hunter also broke his Group 1 duck in Adelaide, when Smokin’ Joey won The Goodwood with Ben Melham aboard.
Tim Bell and Ryan Wiggins were jockeys to celebrate their maiden Group 1 success, Bell’s coming on Rex Lipp’s Tinto in the Queensland Oaks, while Wiggins teamed with Noel Mayfield-Smith to win the BTC Cup with Famous Seamus.
There was no more significant maiden Group 1 success this season, however, than Chad Schofield’s win in the Cox Plate on Shamus Award.
The son of Boban’s regular rider Glyn became the first apprentice to win the nation’s premier weight-for-age race when he scored an all-the-way win aboard the Danny O’Brien-trained colt.
Schofield won three other Group 1s for the season – Newmarket Handicap on Lankan Rupee, Champagne Stakes on Go Indy Go (Leon Macdonald and Andrew Gluyas) and Queensland Derby with Sonntag – all aboard horses he was riding for the first time.
The Shamus Award story was a remarkable one, not only because he became the first maiden to win the Cox Plate, but because he was emergency and only gained a start after champion mare Atlantic Jewel was scratched.
The Mark Kavanagh-trained mare suffered a tendon injury the morning of the barrier draw, an injury that ended her career.
She did at least get to add to her Group 1 tally this season, resuming from 17 months off with a breathtaking victory in the Memsie Stakes – the first at Group 1 level – before later claiming the Caulfield Stakes, both with Michael Rodd aboard.
In between she suffered what would be the only defeat of her career when nosed out by It’s A Dundeel in the Underwood Stakes at Caulfield.
There was no shame in that, however, as the Murray Baker-trained star proved later in the season when he won the first $4 million running of The Championships’ flagship event; the Queen Elizabeth Stakes.
It’s A Dundeel was ridden to victory in both of those races by James McDonald, who also won Sydney’s second richest race, the $3.5 million Golden Slipper, aboard Mossfun for Michael, Wayne and John Hawkes.
McDonald scored one other Group 1 success for the season, the ATC Oaks, aboard Kiwi filly Rising Romance (Donna Logan).
Mossfun’s Slipper win came at the expense of the Peter Snowden-trained Earthquake, denying the star Darley filly the Blue Diamond-Golden Slipper double.
That Blue Diamond success was Snowden’s last Group 1 win as head trainer of Sheikh Mohammed’s Darley operation, having earlier in the season won the Flight Stakes and Thousand Guineas with Guelph, the Caulfield Guineas with Long John and the Spring Champion Stakes with Complacent.
Snowden’s successes were not Darley’s only Group 1 triumphs for the season with Guy Walter producing Appearance to register a fourth career Group 1 success in the Canterbury Stakes.
That was one of three Group 1s for Walter, who died just five days after seeing Streama make it two Group 1s for the season with her win in the Doomben Cup. Streama also won the George Main Stakes, both with Blake Shinn in the saddle.
Streama was one of 11 horses to win two Group 1s for the season, the others, in addition to those already mentioned, being Peter Moody’s Orr/Futurity Stakes winner Moment of Change (Luke Nolen), the David Payne-trained Rosehill Guineas and ATC Derby winner Criterion (Hugh Bowman) and Spirit of Boom, who won the William Reid Stakes and Doomben 10,000 for Tony Gollan and Rodd.
Lankan Rupee and Buffering, along with Boban, were the only horses to win more Group 1s.
Rob Heathcote’s Buffering, so long the Group 1 bridesmaid, completed a spring hat-trick of the Manikato Stakes, VRC Sprint Classic and Winterbottom Stakes with Damian Browne, who also partnered Earthquake to Blue Diamond victory, aboard.
The Winterbottom is one of three Group 1 races run in Perth each season, the others being the Railway Stakes, which was won by the Trevor Andrews-trained Luckygray, and the Kingston Town Classic, which went the way of Fred Kersley’s Ihtsahymn.
Not to be outdone by Buffering, the Mick Price-trained Lankan Rupee completed a Group 1 hat-trick of his own the other side of Christmas, winning the Oakleigh Plate ahead of the Newmarket Handicap before a scoring a stunning win in the T.J. Smith Stakes at Randwick.
Craig Newitt was in the saddle for the two wins either side of the Newmarket and was also aboard for Price’s other Group 1 success this racing year, Samaready’s Moir Stakes blitz at Moonee Valley.
The remaining Group 1 sprint conducted in Victoria in the past year was the 1000m Black Caviar Lightning, which went the way of the Gerald Ryan-trained Snitzerland (Brenton Avdulla).
Polanski, a $4000 buy, provided one of the fairytales of the season when he held off Darley’s Complacent to win the Victoria Derby with Bowman in the saddle.
Bowman won two further Group 1s for the season, the Vinery Stud Stakes in Sydney aboard Lucia Valentina for Kris Lees and The Metropolitan aboard Seville for Robert Hickmott.
That was one of two Group 1 victories for Lloyd Williams’ private trainer, the other coming in the Caulfield Cup – with Nick Hall aboard – which was the first time Williams’ navy blue and white had been carried to victory in the race.
The Melbourne Cup might have stayed at home this year, but it was a breakout year for international performers with Side Glance and Gordon Lord Byron joining Hana’s Goal as overseas-trained runners to win in Australia.
Side Glance (Jamie Spencer) bounced back from a sixth placing in the Cox Plate to win the Mackinnon Stakes, while Gordon Lord Byron won the George Ryder Stakes with Craig Williams aboard.
Darren Weir was the other Victorian trainer to celebrate Group 1 success this season, preparing May’s Dream (Brad Rawiller) to win the Schweppes Oaks in Adelaide, while the two other Group 1s conducted in Victoria – the Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes and Turnbull Stakes – were won by Rebel Dane (Gary Portelli and Glen Boss) and Happy Trails (Paul Beshara and Dwayne Dunn) respectively.