Sydney’s richest race for fillies and mares, the $600,000 Coolmore Classic has been claimed by the Guy Walter-trained Appearance on Cellarbrations Ladies Day at Rosehill Gardens.
The four-year-old mare starred in the centre of a three-horse finish with the judges needing to consult the photo to determine all three first place getters. After the 1500m journey, there was only a nose splitting the winner from second-placed Red Tracer (Chris Waller) and third-placed Norzita (Bart Cummings).
Appearance, which started the race priced at $11, was Walter’s second feature race win of the day with Toydini victorious in the fifth race on the program, the Spotless Phar Lap Stakes.
After the race, the Warwick Farm trainer outlined his plans for Appearance, citing the Inglis Queen of the Turf Stakes at Rosehill Gardens in a fortnight followed by the rich BMW Doncaster at Royal Randwick on 20 April.
Winning jockey Blake Shinn was particularly happy to score the win; his first Group 1 winning ride for Walter.
“It’s just fantastic to ride my first Group 1 for Guy Walter, I do most of his riding and he and his wife Wendy are just great people,” Shinn said upon returning to scale.
“The past 12 months have been a big leaning curve for me. The last Autumn Carnival was pretty grim for me and it’s just been a lot of hard work, a lot of support from Guy Walter and it means a lot.”
Elsewhere on course, more than 11,400 racegoers flocked to the racecourse affectionately known as “The Gardens” for an autumn race day which was much more like a summer day.
Source : Racing NSW
