The 1000m maiden at Cranbourne on Friday evening was supposed to be a walk in the park for $1.7million Wootton Bassett (GB) colt Strike Package, who started a short priced favourite, but he came up short when unable to run down a talented first starter by Home Affairs.
Trained at Flemington by Scott Cameron, three year-old gelding Splendacious had shown nice talent in his trials and jump outs, so was expected to run well on debut, but exceeded expectation when downing the favourite.
Ridden by Damian Lane, Splendacious led for home and gave a great kick off the turn with Strike Package unable to bridge the gap going down by a length with a big margin of four and a half lengths back to the third place-getter.
Cranbourne Race 1 | Splendacious A debut to remember ?? Damian Lane powers home the Scott Cameron galloper to a dominant win, opening the card in style under the lights at Cranbourne ??? @ladbrokescomau Friday Night under the lights ?? Ch. 78/68, Foxtel 529, Kayo or via our app REPLAYS: https://t.co/L94lwWcxti
— Racing.com (@Racing) October 16, 2026
Splendacious was a modest $100,000 Inglis Premier purchase for Steve Richards Racing from the draft of Morning Rise Stud.
“He's been a work in progress, but firstly, I'd just like to dedicate this win to the late Steve Richards. This was his horse. He did everything with it and I've just had him this prep,” said Scott Cameron.
“He’s won in Steve’s in his colours, so it makes it even more special and I'm just rapt his daughter and all his owners are here tonight, so they couldn't be any more happier.
“He's shown us a lot at home. We’ve just been trying to teach him to relax a bit. He's just been overdoing it, but each trial has improved. He's not the fully furnished product yet.
“He's going to improve a lot off that. He hasn't come on in his coat yet, so whatever he does now, he's just going to improve on.”
Bred by Morning Rise Stud, Splendacious and is the first foal from stakes-placed So You Think mare Splendoronthegrass.
A half-sister to Group III winner Mumbai Muse and stakes-winner Jazz Etude, Splendoronthegrass is a grand-daughter of imported US Group I winner Mani Bhavan (USA).
Splendoronthegrass has a two year-old filly and yearling colt to follow, both by Home Affairs, and she had a change of pace last spring going to Schwarz.
Splendacious is the 11th Australian winner this season for Home Affairs, who is covering a full book at Coolmore at a fee of $176,000.
