The 2007 version of Super Saturday was always going to be a special day for jockey Craig Newitt.
The Victoria Racing Club showpiece, normally run at Flemington, was that year staged at Caulfield, which was Newitt’s adopted home track since moving from his native Tasmania, with Flemington undergoing track renovations.
Even more significantly, it was run on Newitt’s 22nd birthday.
You can therefore easy to imagine his delight at winning the two of Victoria’s premier Group 1 races; the Newmarket Handicap (1200m) on Miss Andretti and the Australian Cup (2000m) with Pompeii Ruler.
“Pompeii Ruler was one of the best weight-for-age horses around at the time and Miss Andretti was the best sprinter around,” Newitt said when asked to recall the meeting.
“So I remember I went to the races pretty confident that they’d both run well and for them both to get the cash was pretty special…especially on my birthday.”
Adding to the day, Newitt also won the Group 2 Kewney Stakes aboard the David Hayes-trained Anamato.
Newitt and Shane Dye – who won the Australian Cup on Octagonal and Newmarket on Ruffles in 1997 – are the only jockeys to win the Newmarket and the Australian Cup on the same day since the latter was first run at weight-for-age in 1979.
Mick Ditmann (1993) and Greg Childs (1999) won both races in the same year but when the Newmarket was on the Saturday and the Australian Cup on the Monday public holiday.
Miss Andretti provided Newitt with the first of his features on 10 March 2007, covering the Caulfield 1200 metres in 1:07.74, which remains the fastest time ever run over that distance at Caulfield.
The Lee Freedman-trained mare, who was an easy $4 favourite despite coming off Group 1 wins in the Black Caviar Lightning and William Reid Stakes would later snare the King’s Stand Stakes at Royal Ascot, carried 56kg to score by a head from glamour filly Gold Edition with Undue a neck back third.
“She was a great mare to me, I think I won four or five Group 1s on her,” Newitt said of Miss Andretti.
“She always seemed to have the measure of Gold Edition. We took up a (forward) spot that day but were stuck three-wide and she had to do it pretty tough.”
Pompeii Ruler ($5), who was prepared by Mick Price, was a dominant winner of the Australian Cup, scoring by 1-1/4 lengths from Marasco with reigning Caulfield Cup hero Tawqeet three-quarters-of-a-length away third.
“All the time I’ve been riding, I’ve probably rated Pompeii Ruler the best horse I’ve ridden,” Newitt said of the gelding who finished third in the 2006 Cox Plate and later won the 2009 Queen Elizabeth Stakes in Sydney.
“We never did really see the best of him, but his record proves that he was a genuine weight-for-age Group 1 horse.”
Pompeii Ruler’s win made it back-to-back Australian Cup wins for Newitt, following his shock win aboard $51 pop Roman Arch for Robbie Laing.
He has also subsequently won another Newmarket Handicap, partnering the Danny O’Brien-trained Shamexpress to victory in last year’s edition.
Newitt also won the Group 1 Australian Guineas (1600m) for three-year-olds twice when it was run on Super Saturday – aboard Light Fantastic and Heart of Dreams – and is hoping to continue his affinity with the day when the 2014 edition is run at Flemington this Saturday.
Newitt rides the Price-trained Samaready in the $1 million Lexus Newmarket Handicap and the Chris Waller-prepared Foreteller in the $1 million Darley Australian Cup.
“I’ve always had a lot of luck on this weekend in the past and hopefully it can continue this year,” he said.
“Samaready will go around one of the favourites in the Newmarket and whatever beats her will win the race and Foreteller’s going sensationally. I should have a good weekend again, hopefully.”
– Racing Victoria
