The two star sprinters of this year’s UBET Festival of Racing are both set for starts in October’s $13 Million Everest after Inglis confirmed Group 1 Goodwood winner Santa Ana Lane as their runner for Australia’s richest race. Santa Ana Lane will join his stablemate Shoals who was already confirmed as The Star Casino’s runner in the highly anticipated race.
Santa Ana Lane catapulted himself into the top echelon of Australian sprinters after a couple huge months where he claimed the Group 1 Darley Goodwood at Morphettville before heading north to claim the Group 1 UBET Stradbroke Handicap at Doomben. A win in the Everest would be a dream come true for Inglis after Santa Ana Lane was sold at their 2013 Melbourne yearling sales for only $80,000. The five-year-old has now gone on to win close to $2.3 million.
It could be a very good day at the office at Randwick in October for trainer Anthony Freedman with two runners in the $13 million feature. Freedman and his owners elected to keep Shoals in Australia after her sensational win in the Group 1 UBET Classic at Morphettville. A date with the Queen was beckoning at Royal Ascot but the opportunity to run in an Everest was just too good to pass up. The three-year-old filly has a ridiculously good record with seven wins and two second placings from ten career starts. She’s already won three Group 1’s and over $2 million in prizemoney. Interestingly, she is also undefeated at Randwick in two starts, winning the 2017 Group 2 Percy Sykes Stakes and the 2018 Group 1 Surround Stakes. She’s already going to enjoy a successful life in the breeding barn when her career is done but a win in the Everest would make her one of the hottest breeding commodities worldwide.
The South Australian connection doesn’t end with the two Freedman runners though. Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott’s mare English who ran sixth in last year’s Group 1 UBET Classic behind Secret Agenda looks set for another tilt at the Everest after running sixth in the inaugural edition. A massive win in this year’s Group 1 Doomben 10,000 ensured her of a start in the feature, while Lloyd Kennewell hasn’t given up hope on a start for our superstar mare Viddora.
Kennewell is hoping that a good performance in the Group 1 Moir Stakes at Moonee Valley in September could be good enough for an entry in the $13 million race. The Lindsay Park trained Vega Magic is also a huge chance for a spot in the field. The 2017 Goodwood winner ran second in the Everest last year and would love a chance at redemption against Peter & Paul Snowden’s Redzel.
With the two winners of South Australia’s biggest races making their way to Australia’s richest sprint race, it shows that the UBET Classic and Darley Goodwood truly are attracting the best sprinters in Australia. The financial support from the South Australian government has been huge in boosting the prize money for these events and highlights the importance of these races in the careers of Australia’s elite sprinters.
