An Obutuary for a Champion
Tragedy struck the racing world last Friday.
The mighty mare, Sunline, one of the greatest gallopers to ever grace the Australian turf was put down at the tender age of thirteen. Suffering from a debilitating hoof disease that left her in constant pain, the McKee’s did the humane thing. The champion mare had run her last race and like all of us, it is one we will never win.
When news of Sunline’s demise was sent through, this writer could not help but shed a tear. There has never been a horse who drilled their way as deep into my affections as Sunny. She was strong and powerful with a gigantic heart and a will to win only seen in the champions. When Sunny raced, she made you dizzy, like you had been drinking Jack and Coke all morning. She would hypnotize you with her stride and endear you with her fight.
The coming Spring Carnival marks the ten year anniversary of Sunline’s ascension to greatness. After three victorious runs in New Zealand as a two-year-old and then a win at Hastings to open up her three-year-old season, Sunline was unleashed on Australia. In doing so, she softened the coldest of hearts, frozen by a lifetime in a hard-edged and brutal game.
It is not uncommon for superior fillies to dominate their age group but the manner in which Sunline conquered Sydney told many that she was destined to be a true champion of the Australian turf. She won the fillies Triple Crown by a cumulative margin of 12 ¾ lengths. It was a sight to behold. In winning the Flight Stakes, she claimed the first group one of her career. There were twelve more to come.
In her three-year-old autumn season she suffered the first defeat of her career in the Angus Armanasco but that defeat was quickly put into the shadows after victories in the Kewney, Moonee Valley Oaks and the Doncaster Handicap. Her Doncaster win against the older gallopers was outstanding and one of her greatest. In a field that included ten group one winners including Juggler, Adam, Referral, Catalan Opening and Al Mansour, Sunline ran them off their legs to score by 1 ¾ lengths. On that day, a champion was crowned.
On a sun drenched Melbourne afternoon some six months later, a legend was born.
The sensational Sunline won the first of her two Cox Plates, a race that would come to be her race. Sunline outran gallopers of the quality of Tie The Knot, Sky Heights, Testa Rossa and Redoute’s Choice. Sunline jumped straight to the front and set a cracking tempo. Those outstanding gallopers were all gone at the 600 metres, under pressure and the stick while Sunline, having done all the work, increased her lead. She was never challenged. I still have the form guide from that day with the name Sunline circled. They bet 6-1 about her that day. That figure seems astonishing with the benefit of hindsight.
That win elevated her into the pantheon of greats.
Her win in the same race a year later saw her join the likes of Phar Lap, Kingston Town, Tulloch and Carbine as one of racing’s elite few, the champions of champions, the kings of kings and queens of queens. It was the most dominant victory ever seen in Australia’s greatest race. Sunline, jumping from the outside alley in a race that included last start Caulfield Cup winner Diatribe, the ill-fated Shogun Lodge, Testa Rossa, Sky Heights and Show A Heart, was five wide and out on a limb going around the first turn, Childs burning plenty of fuel to get her forward. It didn’t matter. Her class would overcome all obstacles. It wasn’t until 1000 metres from home that she got to within one of the fence. Again, it wouldn’t matter. She strode up to The Message at the 800 metre mark and that was as close as they got to her. By the 600 she was three lengths clear and Childs was looking over his shoulder. What he saw was a quality field under hard riding. “She’s going to take some beating, this great mare” Greg Miles said at the 600. He wasn’t wrong. By the straight she was five clear. By the post she had a gap of seven lengths. She had beaten Testa Rossa by 11 ½ lengths. Tie The Knot by 17 ¾ lengths. Shogun Lodge by 20 ½ and Sky Heights by 26 ½. Sunline had broken the hearts of Australia’s best. The Moonee Valley crowd gave one of their almightiest cheers.
Such was the sheer brilliance of the win that most who saw it remember exactly where they were. It was a seminal moment in Australian racing. I was in The Judge’s lounge, huddled around an old television set, with the regular Saturday crew of gambling addicts, alcoholics and rapscallions. My throat was hoarse from cheering and I still rate it as my favourite racing moment. Not even Phar Lap at his best could have gotten close to Sunline that day.
That was certainly the high point of her career, the high watermark where the wave finally broke, though there would be plenty of other moments of greatness. She went to Hong Kong and beat the best miler of the day, Fairy King Prawn. She placed in Dubai. She won back-to-back Waikato Sprints and claimed another All-Aged and more impressively, another Doncaster. The super filly who had burst onto the scene with a brilliant Doncaster victory as a three-year-old had won Australia’s biggest mile as a seasoned six-year-old mare with 58 kilograms on her back. Rather than her brilliance being put on display, as it was in her first Doncaster victory, her grit and will to win were the dominant characteristics on exhibition when she held off the flying Shogun Lodge.
She also had two more Cox Plates runs. In 2001 she just missed out to her nemesis Northerly though there were plenty of protests being fired in against the winner with more than one person holding the belief that Northerly smashed Viscount and should have been relegated to third. And in 2002, her farewell race she gave her all but her aging legs were no match for Northerly at his peak after her epic battle with Lonhro in the Yalumba the previous start. Northerly was cheered but not quite as loud as Sunny was. Those in attendance respected Northerly but an odd aura overcame Moonee Valley that day, like everyone had just been hit by the realisation that it was all over. There would be no more Sunline. There was more than one tear at the Valley that day.
Her achievements in racing were plentiful. 48 race starts for 32 wins and 12 placings. $11.35 million in prizemoney, second on Australia’s all-time list. Three time Australian Horse of the Year. Four time New Zealand Horse of the Year. An inductee into both Australia’s and New Zealand’s Horse Racing Hall of Fame, the first active horse to be included in the former. It is a list of deeds almost unparalleled in Australian racing
It was the manner in which she raced, however, that endeared her to the Australian public. She was a front-running winner who never gave up. Whether she was first-up after a spell or racing in the weight-for-age championship of Australia, she would always be in it to win it. The punting public loved her for her honesty while the horse lover admired her for her ability to make very good horses look average by comparison. She is certainly in the top three horses of the last thirty years and an argument can be made that is was greater than both Kingston Town and Makybe Diva.
So it is with a heavy heart that we bid farewell to the almightiest of mares, the champion of the people, an iconic winner whose greatest victory was winning over the affections of a hardened and cynical racing public. Sunline will forever be the queen of the turf and the champion of the people in my eyes and the eyes of many others.
You only ever get one Sunline in your life. I loved her like I loved my first kiss. She was unique and special and amazing. And it is a tragedy that she was taken from us before her time after she bought so much joy to so many.