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Source: Breednet, by Tara Madgwick
Yulong paid 2.7million guineas for top class Group I winning mare Via Sistina (IRE) at the Tattersalls Mares Sale last year and she was worth every penny with the glamour daughter of Fastnet Rock leading home a thrilling trifecta for the stable in the Group I ATC Winx Stakes (1400m) at Randwick when she outpointed established stable stars Zougotcha and Fangirl.
All three mares were first up from a spell in the $1million WFA contest and just half a length separated them at the finish with Kerrin McEvoy on Via Sistina enjoying a charmed ground saving run on the inside while Fangirl got a long way back and had to make her charge to the line as the widest runner.
Zougotcha raced forward to put pressure on the leader Tropical Squall and was brave to the finish in second place with all three mares set for a stellar spring.
Via Sistina had two starts for the stable in the autumn winning the Group I ATC Ranvet Stakes (2000m) and finishing second to Pride of Jenni in the Group I ATC Queen Elizabeth Stakes (2000m) so will be even better as she steps up in trip this spring.
“Obviously, she’s a very smart horse, and yeah, privileged to be training horses like her. She’s a pickup addition to the stable. The others are stalwarts and she’s beaten them today, but it’ll be a match race I’m sure in a few weeks time,” Chris Waller said.
“It was a beautiful ride from Kerrin [McEvoy] he didn’t go around a horse, saved ground and had plenty of horse topping the famous Randwick rise, yeah, she was strong all the way to the line.”
It was the first ride on Via Sistina for Kerrin McEvoy and he was impressed.
“Chris [Waller] just said look, she’s in really good form. The unknown was 1400m in this grade, and first up,” McEvoy said.
“I just wanted to let her tell me where she wanted to be. She jumped in the air a little bit and got sort of back and ended up on the rail, inside Fangirl and I just thought, I’ll cut the corner. I thought I’d just make it a little bit easier, rather than James [McDonald] who got shuffled back a little and had to come wide.”
“When I got to the corner, I sort of saved a bit of ground and then went to the inside, but I was happy to do that because I think it’s drying out all day.
“She really motored the last furlong, so fantastic training effort to see her do that first up at that level, and the world is her oyster this prep now.”
Now well fancied for the Cox Plate, Via Sistina is a fascinating horse as she is the original ugly duckling that grew into a swan.
Her original owners Stephen and Becky Hillen purchased her as a yearling for 5,000 guineas at the Tattersalls December Sale and they were over the moon when she sold at the Tattersalls December Mares Sale last year fetching 2.7million guineas to be the second highest priced mare at the sale.
Via Sistina has the overall record of seven wins and six placings from 16 starts and is the best of four winners from Nigh, an unraced half-sister by Galileo to dual Group I winning sprinter Kingsgate Native.
Her sire Fastnet Rock is now enjoying a well earned retirement at Coolmore Australia and for the first time in a very long time will be absent from the roster being paraded at the farm this Sunday with his place taken by his promising young son Acrobat.