The Scott Singleton-trained filly Shazee Lee provided her sire Ready’s Image with his sixth stakes winner and first in the southern hemisphere with her shock win in the G3 Hawkesbury Guineas on Saturday.
The Hawkesbury-trained filly defeated the well fancied favourite Prompt Response (Beneteau) by a neck with another short head back to Salsonic (Hinchinbrook) third.
Ready’s Image, a son of More Than Ready, stands at Calumet Farm in Kentucky.Singleton said winning the Hawkesbury Guineas was not only his biggest career win but a special result for the filly’s owner and breeder Max Kowalczuk."I started training when I was 20 and I'm 33 now and Max has been with me all along," Singleton said. "He was the first owner to give me a horse.
"My grandfather trained here and I can remember being around the bull ring over the back from the time I was about five."Winning a race like the Guineas on my home track makes it even more special.”
Shazee Lee (Ready’s Image x Shazee by Danewin) has now won three races and placed in two of her 11 career starts, amassing prize money of $228,165.She is out of the placed Danewin mare Shazee, who died in 2013. Shazee was a sister to the stakes-placed Mr Aristos and a three-quarters sister to the G3 winner Queen’s Command (Commands).
Shazee Lee is a half-sister to two winners while her second dam Princess Yeats (Yeats) is a sister to the multiple stakes winner Mingling Glances and a three-quarters sister to the dam of G2 winner Rubicall and the Listed winner Dial Tones.• Saturday’s $200,000 Hawkesbury Gold Cup was won by Fabrizio, a son of the late High Chaparral trained by Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott.
Fabrizio returned to his front running ways to beat Godolphin’s Moher (Lonhro) by a length with Testashadow (Testa Rossa) a nose behind in third place.It was the second stakes win for the five-year-old following his victory in the Listed Premium Stakes at Flemington last spring.
Waterhouse said the result was a boost for Fabrizio’s breeder and part-owner George Altomonte of Corumbene Stud.“George Altomonte has been such a superb supporter of the stable. We’ve had such wonderful success, but he’s just been a bit down in the dumps,” she said.
“He’s had a few of his horses, not just with me but with other trainers, that he’s been down in the dumps about but he’s over the moon today.”Fabrizio (High Chaparral x Desina by Desert King) has now won eight of his 14 career starts for prize money of $393,800.
The five-year-old is out of the winning Desert King mare Desina, a half-sister to the stakesplaced dam of the Listed winning trio Atmospherical (Northern Meteor), Gai’s Choice (General Nediym) and Peron (Husson).Desina died in 2011 and Fabrizio was her final foal.
Fabrizio is a half-brother to three winners, including the G1 Oakleigh Plate winner Eagle Falls (Hussonet) and G3 winner Mahara (Hussonet).His second dam Presina (Prego) is a stakes winning half-sister to the G3 winner Seto Flowerian (Bellotto), herself the dam of two stakes winners.
• CHAMPION New Zealand stallion Savabeel (Zabeel) sired his 63rd stakes winner when the Chris Waller-trained Shillelagh sept home to win the G3 Godolphin Crown at Hawkesbury.
The five-year-old mare beat Daysee Doom (Domesday) by three quarters of a length with another length and a quarter back to Kinshachi (Commands) in third.Waller attributed Shillelagh’s victory to the drier conditions at Hawkesbury after her preparation since she joined his stable thwarted by the wet weather.
"She's been a pretty talented mare and she came across from New Zealand in good order but she lost her way a bit because of the wet." Waller said.Waller said the 5YO Shillelagh (Savabeel x Trocair by Flying Spur) will now be aimed at the G1 Tattersalls Tiara at Eagle Farm on June 24.