Champion New Zealand mare SUNLINE has done it again!
Amidst a star-studded crowd in Melbourne,
SUNLINE made racing history when she was crowned Australia’s Champion Racehorse of
the Year for a record third year in a row.
In front of a sell-out audience of over
1200 local and international racing identities, the racing industry acclaimed both our
past and present elite at the inaugural ‘Australia’s Racing Champions’
dinner, held at Crown Palladium in Melbourne.
The Champion Racehorse of the Year win
completed a sensational night for the six-year-old Kiwi superstar as earlier in the night
she became the first horse still competing to be inducted into the Australian Racing Hall
of Fame.
Twenty new inductees to the Hall of Fame
were announced in four categories.
JOCKEYS:
Mick Dittman, Billy Cook, Bobby Lewis, Jim
Pike, Neville Sellwood
HORSES:
Manikato, Might and Power (NZ), Rising Fast
(NZ), Sunline (NZ), Wakeful
ASSOCIATES:
Sol Green (bookmaker/owner), Theo Green
(trainer of apprentice jockeys), Ken Howard (racecaller), James White (owner/breeder),
Wootton Family (owner/breeders)
TRAINERS:
Angus Armanasco, Etienne de Mestre, Fred
Hoysted, Maurice McCarten, George Hanlon
In one of the most hotly contested Horse of
the Year polls for many years, Sunline polled 62.5 votes to defeat Caulfield/Melbourne
Cups winner Ethereal on 53 and WA champion Northerly which polled 42.5. Star
three-year-old Lonhro polled one vote.
Votes for the Australian Champion Racehorse
of the Year award were cast by representatives of Australia’s Principal Race Clubs
and members of the Australian Racing Writers’ Association.
SUNLINE won five of her eight starts on
Australian racetracks in the past 12 months to earn $2,963,950 in prizemoney. She won
three Group 1 races and was also a close second to Northerly in a sensational running of
the Carlton Draught Cox Plate which Sunline had won in the previous two years.
Her career record now stands at 44 starts
for 31 wins and ten placings and prizemoney earnings of $11,019,741, an Australasian
record.
Such is SUNLINE’s popularity with
Australian punters that she has started favourite in 31 of her 32 starts on Australian
tracks.
Melbourne jockey Damien Oliver was
announced Mitty’s Champion Group 1 Jockey for the season while Gai Waterhouse
received the New Zealand Bloodstock award for Champion Group 1 Trainer.
Ethereal's trainer Sheila Laxon received
the Australian Racing Writers' Association’s annual Personality of the Year award
while the Warrnambool-trained Badger's Wood upstaged his better-known rivals when he was
voted the Magic Millions Bloodstock Australia’s Most Popular Racehorse by the public.
Category winners were:
YALLAMBEE STUD CHAMPION 2-YEAR-OLD VICTORY VEIN
NZ T’BRED MARKETING CHAMPION 3-YEAR-OLD LONHRO
VINERY STUD CHAMPION FILLY/MARE SUNLINE (NZ)
EXECUTIVE THOROUGHBRED TRAVEL CHAMPION SPRINTER FALVELON
CROWN CHAMPION MIDDLE DISTANCE NORTHERLY
RADIO SPORT 927 CHAMPION STAYER ETHEREAL (NZ)
ROSEMOUNT ESTATE CHAMPION JUMPER ST STEVEN (NZ)
IRT CHAMPION INTERNATIONAL PERFORMER FALVELON
AUSTRALIAN CHAMPION RACEHORSE SUNLINE (NZ)
MITTY’S CHAMPION GROUP 1 JOCKEY DAMIEN OLIVER
NZ BLOODSTOCK CHAMPION GROUP 1 TRAINER GAI WATERHOUSE
ARWA PERSONALITY OF THE YEAR SHEILA LAXON
MAGIC MILLIONS BLOODSTOCK AUSTRALIA’S MOST POPULAR
RACEHORSE BADGER'S WOOD |
