Lean Mean Machine has notched up his second stakes winner after talented four year old gelding Title Fighter powered through the gloom to win the iconic Listed Straight Six 1200m at Flemington yesterday.
On a soft track with heavy rain falling, Title Fighter started at odds of 60 -1 and came from off the pace to score a determined victory from 20-1 Deekay (Hellbent) with former Singapore champ Lim's Kosciuszko (Kermadec) the first home of the more fancied runners in a big field of 15.
Favourite King Zephyr (Hallowed Crown) didn't enjoy the conditions and failed to fire.
It was the first stakes win for both Title Fighter and his young jockey Tom Prebble, son of champion hoop Brett Prebble and Maree Payne. So, more or less born in the saddle then.
The gifted apprentice now has 110 career wins and it's hardly surprising - given his pedigree - that this was only his third ride at stakes level. No doubt there are bigger wins to come, but Tom and his proud parents who were on course to watch him ride, were savouring the moment.
"This means a lot," Prebble said.
"It was my first time on the horse. I thought the win was mine, but I didn't want to go too soon and be smiling and cheering when I didn't get the winner, so it's pretty awesome now that I do realise I've won.
"I just see every race as the next and I want to win all of them.”
Title Fighter's win also provided a little soul balm for his trainer Clayton Douglas after the disappointment of high profile stablemate Giga Kick’s defeat in The Goodwood.
The trainer shared with the gathered media that Title Fighter is “a quirky horse,” one that hasn't always been straightforward to train.
The horse had taken time to mature both physically and mentally, he said.
"It's been a long, hard process to get him to switch off and now he's got a few strings to his bow.
"You have to get the first furlong right and then you're right.
He's done a terrific job this campaign.”
Title Fighter races in the ownership of his breeder Paul Kelly and wife Sue and brother Jamie.
The son of Lean Mean Machine now has 6 wins and 2 placings from his 18 starts, for earnings of $550,275.
Born and raised at Kelly's Ponderosa Park, Title Fighter was offered for sale twice as a young horse as a weanling and again at the Inglis Ready 2 Race Sale, but somehow was determined to stay with his breeder!
He is the second and final foal of the winning Artie Schiller daughter If Not Now When, who died young. The mare was an $18,000 Inglis online purchase by Kelly in 2018 after she retired with earnings upwards of $300,000 and was an absolute bargain given she is closely related to last year's Group I Royal Ascot winner Asfoora..
Her great producing family is one branch of the colonial family 4 descending from the taproot mare Gypsy, as is Lean Mean Machine.
Lean Mean Machine and If Not Now When share the same ancestress - the mare Romantic Crown - and their respective NZ bred tail female lines share many more genetic similarities and nicks.
Title Fighter is a great example of success with linebreeding through the best descendants of one quality mare, even if she's not an Urban Sea or a Shantha's Choice!
Title Fighter's third dam Hard Rider certainly did her bit to uphold the clan's reputation.
Retired in 2022, the Maroof daughter is the sort of mare every breeder dreams of owning.
Hard Rider bore 14 foals, all of whom raced and of which 12 were winners
Three were very fast stakes winners and two further were stakes placed, and each of these horses were by a different sire. That's some producer!
Hard Rider's very first foal was her filly Predestined by the regally bred miler King's Best.
She was a good sprinter too and like her mother a valuable producer, her daughter Golden Child the dam of champion and Royal Ascot heroine Asfoora by Flying Artie, making her an extremely close relation to Title Fighter's dam.
Exciting news all round for this family at the moment because Golden Child foaled another filly to Flying Artie in 2024 and is back in foal to him.
Meanwhile her dam Predestined who had not bred successfully for some years also foaled a 2024 filly, by exciting young sire Tassort.
Lean Mean Machine stands at Aquis Farm at a fee of $8,800
