Expensive Snitzel colt Cash made the best possible start to his career in the Hygain Tracktorque Maiden Plate (1200m) at Moonee Valley on Friday night.
Ridden by Tod Pannell for Michael Hickmott, Cash was ridden aggressively in the early stages to land in the one-out-one back spot.
Eased out three wide on the turn, Cash extended impressively to defeat the Overshare gelding Looselipssinkships by three-quarters of a length with the 4-year-old So You Think mare Belnera back in third.
Cash was a $1,100,000 purchase for Michael Hickmott Bloodstock/Douglas Whyte Racing from the Arrowfield Stud draft at the 2023 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale.
“It was a big decision to buy a horse for this amount of money and take him back to my little farm in Wellington, South Australia,” Hickmott said.
“I have the most wonderful group of owners in the horse headlined by someone I consider family, John O’Neil, Arrowfield Stud, Seymour Bloodstock, and one of our great mates, Col McKenna, who came into the horse, and I wish he was here today to see that. It makes me a little emotional, to be honest.
“I think he is going to be a real good horse, the best of I have trained by a significant margin. “
Hickmott said he might target the three and four-year-old race at the Magic Millions in January or wait for the autumn.
Bred by Arrowfield Pastoral and Seymour Bloodstock, Cash is the second foal and first runner for the top-class Written Tycoon mare Super Cash.
A 4-time stakes winner of $1,187,250, Super Cash won the Group II Rubiton Stakes twice and the Group II Schillaci Stakes.
Trained by Andrew Noblet, Super Cash finished second to Santa Ana Lane in the Group 1 Stradbroke handicap and was third behind Prompt Response and Shillelagh in the Group 1 Tatts Tiara.
Super Cash has a yearling sister to Cash and foaled a Dundeel colt on September 5.
