Turf Heroes – Sunline
As part of our excitement about the Sydney and especially Melbourne Spring Racing Carnivals and all that they entail, Making The Nut is pleased to bring you a ten-part ‘Turf Heroes’ series, where Cliff Bingham will look back fondly upon the great memories these champions thoroughbreds embedded in his mind. Part seven of the series recaps the career of the New Zealand wonder mare, dual Cox Plate and dual Doncaster Handicap winner Sunline.
Previous “Turf Heroes” Instalments
Part 1: Super Impose
Part 2: Better Loosen Up
Part 3: Let’s Elope
Part 4: Octagonal
Part 5: Saintly
Part 6: Might and Power
The career
Unlike many of her Turf Heroes brethren, Sunline began her career with a flurry of victories in 1998. She won all three of her starts as a two-year old in New Zealand and after a win on resumption as a three-year old, trainers Trevor and Stephen McKee eyed off the Sydney riches.
She certainly made the trip worthwhile, winning the Group 3 Furious Stakes at Randwick on a wet track by almost six lengths. Victories in the Group 2 Tea Rose Stakes and the Group 1 Flight Stakes were to follow, by margins that were not quite as big but emphatic nonetheless. With a record of seven starts for seven wins the Melbourne spring carnival awaited, but instead the McKee’s sent her out for a spell. A chance to take on Might And Power in the Cox Plate had been missed, but the patience of connections would be well rewarded over the ensuing years.
After a win in New Zealand to kick off her autumn campaign, she headed to Melbourne for the first time. Unable to dictate the speed in her usual manner, she was narrowly defeated in the Group 2 Angus Armanasco Stakes by Rose O’War. However, Sunline would turn the tables in the Group 2 Kewney Stakes before a dominant four and a half-length victory in the Group 3 Moonee Valley Stakes (her first trip to the Valley and her first attempt at the 2040 metres).
From here it was north to Sydney and the Group 1 Doncaster Handicap. Despite taking on the older horses for the first time, she was sent out a hot favourite at 10/9 (or around $2.10 these days), went straight to the front and was untroubled in winning by over a length and a half.
With her record now standing at 11 wins and a narrow second for 12 starts, she was sent out a hot favourite again in the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth Stakes. However after leading the field over the famous Randwick ‘rise’, she faded badly to finish fifth of six runners. Debate raged over whether she could see out a strong 2000 metres or whether she had simply come to the end of her campaign, and unsurprisingly she was sent out for a spell.
She resumed in the spring of 1999 as a four year-old with a win in the Group 2 Warwick Stakes before running second to both Adam in the Group 2 Theo Marks Stakes and Shogun Lodge in the Group 1 George Main Stakes. The task set of her in the Group 1 Epsom Handicap was immense: 56.5 kilos (1.5 kilos above what she had carried at WFA level in her previous start) and barrier 16. In the end it proved a bridge too far, as she ran fourth to Allez Suez.
From here it was south once again to Moonee Valley at the Cox Plate. I remember this race well – after agonising for an extended period, I plonked my cash down each way on the Kiwi mare. The generous-in-hindsight $5.60 for the win and $2.20 for the place were all but in my pocket with 200 metres to go, as she burnt off the competitors approaching the turn and won comfortably.
After a brief let-up and a win in the Group 2 Auckland Breeders’ Stakes, she head to Hong Kong for the Group 1 International Cup over 2000 metres. As in the Queen Elizabeth Stakes though, she led and travelled well into the home straight but then wilted to finish seventh behind French galloper Jim And Tonic, before returning to New Zealand for a well-earned spell.
Resuming in the Sydney autumn of 2000, she won the Group 2 Apollo Stakes first-up and the carried 60 kilos against the other mares to win the Group 1 Coolmore Classic, before attempting to win consecutive Doncaster Handicaps. Once again the handicapper didn’t miss her, with 57.5 kilos (or two kilos above WFA level) on board. In the home straight it boiled down to a slugfest between her and the lightly-weighted three year-old Over, with Over narrowly the victor. Sunline would avenge this loss though in the Group 1 All-Aged Stakes (raced over 1600 metres at the time), where she beat Georgie Boy and Over emphatically.
Her five year-old spring campaign kicked off at Moonee Valley with a win in the Group 1 Manikato Stakes, followed by wins in the Group 2 Memsie Stakes and Group 2 Feehan (now Dato Tan Chin Nam) Stakes. She seemingly had the spring carnival at her mercy. However in the Group 2 Turnbull Stakes, promising stayer Fairway (winner of both the Canterbury Guineas and AJC Derby as a three year-old) refused to hand up the lead to her and made her chase, before holding her off in a very tight finish.
Punting 101 teaches that you should never overreact to one run. Unfortunately as a 19 year-old I had not yet undertaken this course, ditching Sunline’s outstanding record at the Valley and backing a last start Group 1 winner in Sky Heights in the 2000 Cox Plate. What followed was nothing short of thoroughbred clinic.
Sunline and The Message set the pace through the first 1200 metres before the great mare burnt her compatriot off and shot away from the field, winning by seven lengths in the end. Along with Might And Power’s 1998 Cox Plate win and some of Black Caviar’s recent work, it was the most contempt I’ve ever seen a Group 1 field treated with.
Once again she had a brief let-up and recorded a win in the Group 2 Auckland Breeders’ Stakes before heading to Hong Kong, this time to tackle the Group 1 Hong Kong Mile and the local hero in that race, Fairy King Prawn. As was her custom, she rolled to the front early in running and in an epic finish was able to hold off the Hong Kong galloper, with Australian galloper Adam five lengths away in third place. She had taken on international company and won, and her Cox Plate victory saw an invitation forthcoming to compete in the world's richest race day the following autumn, the Dubai World Cup meeting in the United Arab Emirates.
She was prepared for her Dubai mission with wins in both the Group 1 Waikato Sprint and Apollo Stakes before crossing the globe to take on the world’s finest in the Dubai Duty Free over 1777 metres. She bravely tried to break the will of the elite field but a home straight around 600 metres in length was not conducive to her cause, and in the end her Hong Kong rivals of the previous two years (Jim And Tonic and Fairy King Prawn) were able to mow her down in the final stages. Along with the 2000 Doncaster Handicap, it was her finest and bravest moment in defeat.
The trip to Dubai and the gut-busting run may have taken its toll on Sunline, as she returned to Australia to run in the All-Aged Stakes but ran third to El Mirada on a wet track as a raging odds-on favourite. Given the rigours of her Dubai campaign it was perhaps a less shocking defeat than it appeared at first glance, and she was immediately sent for a spell.
The surprise was better founded when she ran second to Piavonic in the Group 1 Manikato Stakes when resuming, but all seemed to have resumed its natural order when she won the Memsie Stakes second-up. She then returned to Moonee Valley for the Feehan Stakes and her first clash with a Western Australian raider, Australian Cup winner Northerly.
Approaching the home turn she looked well in command as Northerly was wobbling around the tight turn, but he knuckled right down in the final 200 metres and nabbed her just before the post. She then won the Turnbull Stakes before returning to the Valley in an attempt to emulate Kingston Town and win three consecutive Cox Plates.
However, the script would play out in a similar manner to the Feehan Stakes, albeit with a twist – there were three controversial protests: Sunline (second) against Northerly (first), and Viscount (third) against first and second. All three protests appeared to be made in hope more so than expectation, and all three were eventually dismissed. Sunline’s spring campaign had come to an end with her now being six years old, questions begun to be asked about whether we had seen the best of her.
Punting 101 also teaches that you write off champions at your own peril. Sunline resumed in the autumn of 2002 with a four-length win in the Waikato Sprint before defeating the mares with 60 kilos once again in the Coolmore Classic, in the process becoming the first horse in Australasia to win A$9 million in prize money.
She returned to Randwick for a third tilt at the Doncaster Handicap, this time lugging 58 kilos, or 2.5 kilos above WFA level. This was the famous race where she led them over the Randwick ‘rise’ and looked to have the race well in her keeping before Shogun Lodge (also carrying 58 kilos) surged from the pack and made a late dive. In a carbon copy of the scenes in the 1997 Melbourne Cup, Glen Boss on the fast-finishing Shogun Lodge thought he had won and punched the air in delight, but the photo finish showed that Greg Childs and Sunline had held on the barest of margins.
She closed her campaign with a six-length victory in the All-Aged Stakes, passing the $11 million mark in career earnings in the process. Her 13th Group 1 wins also brought her within one of Kingston Town's record of 14 Group 1 victories. Her win in the Doncaster also helped her defeat Northerly in the voting for Australian Horse of the Year, her third such title – the only horse to win the award on three occasions.
Her final campaign in the spring of 2002 as a seven-year old saw her win the Group 2 Mudgway Stakes in New Zealand before running third behind Defier in the George Main Stakes. She then headed to Melbourne, bypassing her traditional Cox Plate lead-up run in the Turnbull Stakes and instead running in the Group 1 Yalumba Stakes, where Lonhro had to break the race record in order to defeat her.
From here she headed to Moonee Valley for her fourth Cox Plate run, attempting to win the race for her third time in her final race appearance. Reality and fairy tales do not always intersect though. Perhaps the Yalumba Stakes duel had flattened both horses, as Sunline (fourth) and Lonhro (sixth) both failed to make the placings behind Northerly in his second Cox Plate victory. Nonetheless, the Moonee Valley faithful stood as one to farewell Sunline, such was her standing in the public eye. She retired with 27 stakes wins, more than any other horse in Australasian History.
The memories
The mere fact that she remains the only three-time winner of Australia’s Horse of the Year award speaks volumes for where she sits in the upper echelon of modern era racehorses.
She was a big strong, bullocking mare, built purely and simply to be a strong athlete. Her running style exerted authority as well, more often than not taking the lead in running and like Might And Power before her, pouring on the pressure – almost daring other horses not wilt.
On many occasions the competition simply couldn’t match motors with her, such as in her utterly ruthless seven-length demolition job in her second Cox Plate victory. Other occasions saw her challenged but hold off her worthy adversaries, such as in her Hong Kong Mile and second Doncaster victories.
Even in defeat she was extremely brave, never more so than in the Dubai Duty Free where she was continually attacked in front and with a world class opponents chasing her down, was entitled to wither and fade back into the field. Instead she fought on doggedly and beat all bar two of the world’s best. Despite winning 13 Group 1 races and 31 in total, it would be hard to leave this run out of her top five career efforts.
As much as anything else, she had a special presence. If you were watching a basketball game where Michael Jordan was playing, you always knew it was an occasion. Tournaments where a pre-injury/ pre-scandal Tiger Woods played were always an occasion. Races in which Sunline competed were always an occasion. The prospects of a special moment, a special memory to take home with you afterwards, were always strong.
Trainer Steve McKee summed her up by simply saying "She was the horse you dream of getting". Kiwis are on a par with Australians as masters of the understatement.
The span of Sunline’s career also aligned quite neatly with some of our Making The Nut staff reaching legal age and thus being better placed to keep an eye on the careers of elite gallopers. I saw more of Sunline’s career than I did of any of the six ‘Turf Heroes’ to precede her in this series, as did Making The Nut founder and long time Sunline devotee Nick Tedeschi. I asked for his take on the career of an all-time favourite:
"When I was a kid, I loved Super Impose and I gushed over Doriemus but it was Sunline that was the first horse I remember falling in love with as a three-year-old and being smitten with her for her entire career.
I loved everything about her: her precociousness, her explosiveness, her will to win, her front running nature. There was something exhilarating about seeing her just bowl along in front at such a high cruising speed that she broke the hearts of her opponents. Her most memorable win was her second Cox Plate. She destroyed the field, taking off early and winning by seven lengths.
But strangely, my fondest memories of her come in defeat: her ding-dong battle with Lonhro in the Yalumba Stakes, her defeats at the hands of Northerly in the Cox Plate, her shock Doncaster defeat. She tried so gamely right to the very end. But those stand out because defeat was so rare.
She was the ultimate winner, a champion who transcended racing popularity into general sport love, the best horse of her generation and a galloper so talented from a mile to 2000 metres that I'm not sure I'll ever see her type again."
So there you have it – the Kiwi wonder mare will always have a special place in the heart of those involved with Making The Nut. She was truly a turf hero.
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The stats
Overall record: 48 starts, 32 wins (13 x Group 1s, 12 x Group 2s, 1 x Group 3), nine seconds, three thirds, $11,351,607 prize money
2YO autumn/winter (1998): Three starts, three wins
3YO spring/ summer (1998-99): Four starts, four wins (1 x G1, 1 x G2, 1 x G3)
3YO autumn/ winter (1999): Six starts, four wins (1 x G1, 1 x G2), one second
4YO spring/ summer (1999-00): Seven starts, three wins (1 x G1, 2 x G2), two seconds
4YO autumn/ winter (2000): Four starts, three wins (2 x G1, 1 x G2), one second
5YO spring/ summer (2000-01): Seven starts, six wins (3 x G1, 3 x G2), one second
5YO autumn/ winter (2001): Four starts, two wins (1 x G1, 1 x G2), two thirds
6YO spring/ summer (2001-02): Five starts, two wins (2 x G2), three seconds
6YO autumn/ winter (2002): Four starts, four wins (4 x G1)
7YO spring/ summer (2002-03): Four starts, one wins (1 x G2), one second, one third
