By Barry Street
Unbeaten filly Sunline made her eighth race yesterday seem no more difficult than a brisk training gallop. But, as always, appearances can be deceiving.
Deceptively, there was an enormity to her performance that not even her
trainers, Stephen and Trevor McKee, were fully aware of.
Fresh from a three-month spell and reckoned to be only 90 per cent fit, the freakish Takanini filly overcame 62.5kg and a poor start to win the Windsor Park Breeder of the Year Sprint at Ellerslie by half a length in 1:10.74.
Trevor McKee admitted to having made a boo-boo in calculations when engaging champion Sydney jockey Larry Cassidy instead of a weight-claiming apprentice.
"I thought 62.5kg was the [metric] equivalent of 9st 8lb," he said.
"You say it's 9st 12lb. Heck, when did a 3-year-old filly last win a race with that much?"
Nobody at Ellerslie yesterday, including the retired top jockeys Norm Holland and Johnny Anderson, could recall a performance of that magnitude since 1951 when Wandering Ways won Ellerslie's Easter Handicap, as a three-year-old filly, with 9st (57kg).
Conceding the runner-up, Delphic, 10kg, and third-placed Blue Veil 9kg, Sunline had only two behind her after her tardy start.
She then cruised to within three-quarters of a length of the pacemaker, Mendacity, at the 600m and took the lead soon after straightening for the run home.
The consistent Delphic was her only serious challenger.
Comeback jockey Lance O'Sullivan paid Sunline a terrific compliment after the race.
O'Sullivan rode Sunline's stablemate Blue Veil and told the McKees that at the straight entrance he gave himself a good chance of an upset.
"I was right on Sunline's heels," he said, "and with 9kg the lighter weight I thought I might make a race of it.
"But only five strides later I was no hope. The other filly had gone and was just too strong."
Larry Cassidy, who rode with a huge 10kg dead weight in his lead bag, said that Sunline could have won by more but for "standing there" as the others jumped.
"I also had to take hold of her on the turn," he said. "After she drew up to the leader she wanted to take off.
"To me she felt more relaxed and stronger than when I rode her in Sydney in the spring.
"She can be lazy when she gets to the front and was no different in that regard today.
"But I didn't have to go for her much. The main purpose of the exercise was to win again but with as little effort as possible."
Sunline boosted her earnings to $506,269 with a $5850 first prize - chicken feed compared with what she stands to win in her next few races in Australia.
They include the Victorian Triple Crown for 3-year-old fillies worth $A1.9 million with a $A250,000 bonus for the winner of all three.
Those races are the Armanasco Stakes at Caulfield on February 20 and Kewney Stakes at Flemington on March 6, both at 1600m, and the Moonee Valley Oaks over 2040m on March 20.
Australia's glamour 3-year-old filly Grand Archway, winner of the Victorian Oaks and Australia Stakes for Aucklander Eric Watson, is not expected to meet Sunline until the $A1 million Moonee Valley Oaks.
Horse Racing: Sunshine has improved - Cassidy
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