Supporters of the odds-on favourite Brookspire would have been on good terms with themselves when she eased around the leader Expat coming around the turn in Wednesday’s Group III Gosford RSL Belle Of The Turf Stakes (1600m), but there was plenty of fight left in the leader.
Try as she might, Brookspire could get no closer than a neck to Expat on the line.
Tom Sherry made all the running on Expat. The Mark Newnham-trained daughter of Makfi (GB) has exemplary form on the wet with just one of her seven wins coming on a good track.
The 4yo mare advances her record to seven wins and one third from 12 starts with earnings of $362,720.
“That was a great race to watch. Two mares fighting it out for the length of the straight,” Newnham said.
“Tommy rated her really well and came out on top.
“He (Sherry) has come as far as the horse from when he started here.
‘I would like to thank owner Tony McGrath who will be watching at Port Douglas. He bred her and she now has a Group III win.
“She is building a good record and we may not be finished yet.”
A half-sister to stakes-placed Mental Telepathy (Shocking), Expat is the best of four winners from five to race out of the Galileo mare (Utmost) Caution.
Unplaced in her only two starts, Caution spent the first seven years at stud in New Zealand before her repatriation in 2019. She has a 2yo colt by Redwood (GB), yearling filly by Akeed Mofeed (GB), and a colt foal by the unheralded Ocean Park stallion Ocean's Fourteen.
Expat becomes the 45th black-type winner for triple Group 1 winner Makfi (Dubawi), who now stands at JBBA Shizunai Stallion Station, Japan.
