Racing: Jamie Richards pulls off rare Group 1 double in Australia

Te Akau Shark won the A$600,000 Chipping Norton at Randwick. Photo / Supplied

The Shark won all the hearts in Sydney on Saturday but it was stablemate Probabeel who may have been the biggest winner.

The two Jamie Richards-trained superstars produced stunning late bursts inside 45 minutes of each other to capture the A$500,000 Surround Stakes (Probabeel) and the A$600,000 Chipping Norton (Te Akau Shark) at Randwick, sending Kiwi racing fans into parochial rapture.

It was a rare Group 1 double on the same day in Australia for a New Zealand trainer, although it has been only three-and-a-half years since Tony Pike pulled off the same with Sacred Elixir and Provocative at Eagle Farm.

For Richards, it was only a matter of time before he showed Sydney racing fans what most other Australasian punters already know; he is a 30-year-old with the racing world at his feet.

With the buying and syndication might of Te Akau and David Ellis behind him, he gets well-bred horses and gives them the chance to reach their potential. That is half the game right there.

"One thing I have learned in the last two years is you are only as good as the stock you have and I am lucky in that regard," says Richards.

The Shark is a marketer's dream, a big, bold chestnut, able to swoop home from last, looking the living ghost of Super Impose or Bonecrusher.

Chuck in some loud owners wearing crazy hats and a horse who can run his last 600m in close to 32s and it's party time.

Te Akau Shark mowed down some serious Group 1 horses in the hands of Opie Bosson on Saturday and now is hot favourite to do so again in the George Ryder in three weeks and is second equal favourite for the A$4 million Queen Elizabeth on April 11, where he meets Japanese star Danon Premium.

But while The Shark wins money and fans, Probabeel's first Group 1 may end up being worth much more.

Already a two-time Karaka Million winner, she added an Australian Group 1 against magnificent fillies, overcoming a flat spot at the 600m to come from near last.

The 1400m was below her best distance and she might keep stepping up all the way to the 2400m of the Oaks on April 11.

Every Australian Group 1 adds to her enormous broodmare value for Brendan and Jo Lindsay, who are rejuvenating the broodmare band at Cambridge Stud.

They have some serious female horses around them now, with Probabeel the best, and she could become the famed stud's next champion. So what she achieves this autumn and beyond could pay off for years, decades to come.

Like Richards, Probabeel might just be starting her own legacy.