Trainer Chris Waller continued his outstanding run of success in the $1m G1 ATC Coolmore Classic (1500m), winning the Rosehill feature for the fourth consecutive year, as B2B Thoroughbreds' 4yo Snitzel mare Lazzura recorded her first elite level victory.
With a pair of 3yo fillies making it an interesting contest, Brad Widdup’s Savvy Hallie crossed the field from a wide gate, going to the front to take up the lead as the race favourite with Ciaron Maher’s interstate visitor Jenni The Fox settling in second while last start G2 ATC Millie Fox Stakes winner Cinsault got a cosy run in third.
Jockey James McDonald had last start G2 Millie Fox Stakes runner-up Lazzura parked in a mid-filed position on the outside, tracking another of the 3yo fillies in G1 One Thousand Guineas winner Ole Dancer (Ole Kirk).
Approaching the home turn, Savvy Hallie was full of running as Cinsault started to chase her down while McDonald had clear running down the outside, hitting the lead at the 100m mark.
Holding off the late charge of the Gerald Ryan and Sterling Alexiou trained Arctic Glamour (Frosted) to win by short neck, it was the same margin back to the third placed Vivy Air with the Hellbent mare taking her earnings past the $3m mark with an excellent first up run.
We need to go back to the 2002 win of Champion Sunline (NZ) to see a mare carry more weight than the 58kgs carried to victory by Lazzura on Saturday, with the win taking her overall record to six wins and four placed efforts from 16 starts with earnings of $1,591,070.
A stakes winner at 2 and 3, it’s as a 4yo that the Arrowfield Group and Jungle Pocket Pty Ltd bred mare has really come into her own, winning three stakes races and never finishing further back than fifth.
Like most, trainer Chris Waller was happy for the connections of Lazzura who had finally managed to secure an elusive G1 victory.
“Well deserved, that's for sure,” enthused Waller. “She's been running around some very good horses without a lot of luck going her way.”
“I think we just had her a bit underdone first-up and we rode her perhaps a pair too close. Today we didn't panic from the draw, we just went back and got cover three-wide.
“She carried a big weight today, and she hasn't had a lot go her way in Group Ones bouncing against some pretty handy horses throughout her career.
“She got there so easily, I thought the last two hundred metres was going to be a long two hundred, to her determination she stuck it out really well.
“James (McDonald) said pre-race, and we all agreed, just ride her conservative today. She seems to let go a lot better when you hold her up and let her go."
“She will probably go to the Queen Of The Turf or the Doncaster. I'll speak to (owners) the Surace’s and see what they say.
“I've got a philosophy that horses don't just win one Group One. If they're good enough to win one, they normally win two or three.”
One of four winners on the card for McDonald, the leading jockey highlighted the tenacity of the mare.
“She tries,” said McDonald. “It wasn't me, it was her just really biting down on the mouthguard and having a really decent crack.”
“I thought she was all out with 100m to go, but just that will to find the line it's something you just can't teach them, you can't train in them. They've either just got it and we're lucky we've got a few mares like that.
“Just that tenacity to find the line, you can't teach that.
“She had to break a weight carrying record, obviously Sunline. She's no Sunline but she tries.
“Super proud of her, super proud for the connections. They put a lot into the game and they deserve the success they get.”
Purchased by B2B Thoroughbreds Pty Ltd for $500,000 from the Magic Millions yearling sale draft of Arrowfield Stud, Lazzura is the best of three winners from three to the races out of the Heart's Cry (Jpn) mare Laguna Azzurra (Jpn).
A three-quarter sister to stakes-placed Portorosa, Lazzura is from the extended family of Japanese Champion 3YO Colt in Kizuna, the sire of 48 stakes winner, four at G1 level.
Laguna Azzurra has an unraced 3yo colt by The Autumn Sun, followed a yearling filly by Snitzel who sells as Lot 383 at the upcoming Inglis Easter yearling sale as part of Arrowfield Stud’s draft.
The mare foaled a colt by Kia Ora Stud’s Farnan in the spring before being one of 198 mares covered by G1 Coolmore Stud Stakes winner Switzerland in his first season at stud.
Lazzura became the 26th individual G1 winner for the former Arrowfield Stud-based, multiple Champion Sire Snitzel, who will be represented by 43 lots at this year’s Inglis Easter yearling sale.
