Moody saddles Group 1 double as Dissident closes out career
at Royal Randwick
Saturday’s Royal Randwick meeting could hardly have marked a better conclusion to the Sydney autumn carnival for champion trainer Peter Moody, who saddled the winners of both Group 1 races on the card as well as a Group 3 winner earlier in the day.
An hour after the two-year-old filly Pasadena Girl (Savabeel)
collected her first Group 1 win in the Champagne S., seasoned sprinter/miler Dissident (Sebring) closed out
his racing career in style while collecting his fifth Group 1 score in the All Aged S.
Dissident, who now goes to stud at Newgate Farm in the Hunter Valley, was let go the fourth
choice in what was considered one of the best lineups of the season. Breaking on top,
Dissident soon consented a narrow advantage to Australian Guineas (Aus-G1) winner Wandjina
(Snitzel), while last-out TJ Smith S. (Aus-G1) victor Chautauqua (Encosta de Lago) and highly rated sprinter Terravista (Captain Rio) traveled wide
in their wake.
Dissident headed Wandjina in midstretch and the stubborn three-year-old
fought back to reclaim the advantage for a few strides, but Dissident wore him
down thereafter to get his head in front on the line as Chautauqua made a
belated rally down the inside and Scissor Kick (Redoute’s Choice) battled on gamely on the rail.
“He has never gotten the accolades, this colt,” Moody
said. “He has raced at group level from day one, (and won) five Group 1’s. He won his first
start, he won his last — you’re mad if you don’t send a mare to him.
“I’ve had the pleasure of retiring three Group 1
winners — Typhoon Tracy, Black Caviar and Dissident,” Moody added. “The first two were Horse
of the
Year winners. This bloke has put his hand up to be number three. I am extremely proud of
him and my staff.”
Dissident was scooped up by Moody for A$210,000 at the
Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale in 2012, and he earned black-type right out
of the box when winning the listed Blue Diamond Preview on debut the following January.
Put out to pasture following a seventh in the Blue Diamond S. (Aus-G1),
Dissident recorded a string of narrow defeats to begin his sophomore campaign,
and at last saluted again in the Hobartville S. (Aus-G2) last March. He followed up with his first Group 1 win two weeks
later in the Randwick Guineas, but failed to measure up to his elders when 12th
in the Doncaster Mile (Aus-G1) to wrap up his season.
Dissident put that performance very
much behind him when kicking off his four-year-old season with back-to-back Group 1 scores in the Memsie S. and Makybe Diva S. in Victoria, and after getting nosed out of a third Group 1 in the Sir Rupert Clarke S., he ran sixth in the Caulfield S.
(Aus-G1) to wrap up his campaign.
Dissident picked up some new owners and a new set of silks over the winter holiday when the China Horse Club and Newgate Farm bought into him.
Kicking off his autumn campaign with a third in the Australia S. (Aus-G2) over 1200 meters at Moonee Valley
on January 24, he notched his fourth Group 1 three weeks later over this trip in the C.F. Orr S., and entered
Saturday’s contest off a third in the February 28 Futurity S. (Aus-G1).
“My staff in Melbourne have done a tremendous job to bring him back,” Moody
praised. “The last run we
were a little bit disappointed. We’ve had him up here (in Sydney) for 10 or 12 days. When
Jimmy (Cassidy) galloped him here last Friday, I wanted to convince him how well he was
going and he convinced all of us.”
Of his stable’s achievements on the day, Moody added,
“It doesn’t get much better than that. We’ve had multiple Group 1’s previously; I think
Pasadena Girl was the 50th for my stable. This one is number 51.”
While Dissident signed off on his career Saturday, Pasadena Girl swooped from near last to earn her maiden Group 1 in the Champagne, the
final leg of the Sydney two-year-old Triple Crown.
Kicking off her career just two months
ago, Pasadena Girl won Flemington’s listed Talindert S. going 1100 meters in her
February 21 debut, and followed up three weeks later when stepping up to 1200 meters in the Thoroughbred Breeders S.
(Aus-G3) over the same strip. She lost her unbeaten record over the heavy
going in the April 4 Sires’ Produce S. (Aus-G1) over 1400 meters, but nonetheless picked up in
the closing stages to make an eye-catching late move from last.
Taking up a similar
position near the back of the strung out pack with just one beaten early in this spot, Pasadena
Girl swung wide at the top of the lane and began to pick off rivals with each stride. She
hit the lead just strides before the wire but won cozily.
“She is a little gem,” Moody said. “It was
probably only the heavy ground that cost her the Sires’ the other day. She ran super and
she has backed that up today with another very solid performance.”
Moody noted that when he purchased Pasadena Girl for
just A$25,000 at Inglis Premier a year ago, he didn’t expect to yet see her at the races,
let alone winning a Group 1 as a juvenile.
“When I purchased her I expected her to be going to the
races this time next year,” he noted. “She surprised us. She has an unbelievable attitude
towards racing and towards her work for a little filly. She has buttered up for the fourth
time here and she has probably presented bigger and stronger each time even though she is
only a pony.
“She has showed us unbelievable ability, but I kept thinking she is a
little light Savabeel, she is a little light Savabeel, she is a little light Savabeel, this is going to
go sore, it will be in the paddock, it’ll go sore, it’ll be in the paddock — it’s not sore,
we’ll take her to Flemington (for her debut) and give her a run.”
Moody said spring plans for Pasadena Girl could include
the Thousand Guineas (Aus-G1).
“She is a Flight S. (Aus-G1), Thousand Guineas-type
filly, and then you look at the Wakeful (Aus-G2) and Oaks (Aus-G1), you would like to think.”
Jockey Hugh Bowman sat on Pasadena Girl for the first
time Tuesday when working her with a stablemate.
“She worked very well with a partner and I said when we
were coming back in to (rider) Steve Parr, what are you on?’ Dissident,’ he said, so my
confidence grew and she is certainly going to be a force in the springtime.”
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