Unbeaten 2YO Rivellino (Too Darn Hot) – a colt that had “so much swagger to him and thought he was the king of Riverside’’ – scored a thrilling victory in Saturday’s A$2m Inglis Millennium at Randwick.
Having won impressively on debut at Randwick five weeks ago, trainer Kris Lees devised a plan to target the Millennium and today that plan paid incredible dividends for Rivellino’s large ownership group.
Rivellino wins the Inglis Millennium at Randwick (Pic – Inglis)
The colt is now two wins from two starts and will target the Gr1 Golden Slipper at Rosehill on March 22.
Lees teamed up with Justin Bahen to purchase Rivellino – bred by Scott Murray with Brian and Pat Ireland – for A$180,000 at last year’s Classic Yearling Sale, where he was offered in the Lime Country Thoroughbreds draft.
Rivellino was bred and raised at Segenhoe Stud, whose General Manager Peter O’Brien is among the owners of the exciting colt.
Lime Country’s Jo Griffin – the vendor of three of the 16 runners in Saturday’s Millennium, all from last year’s Classic Sale – was ecstatic post-race.
“He’s such a great colt. As I said in the lead-up, he’s such a beautiful mix of So You Think and Too Darn Hot. He was a very sharp, stylish colt from the get-go and he was just so impressive today,’’ Griffin said.
“At Classic last year he just had so much swagger to him, he just thought he was the king of Riverside, he rocked along all the time, he was a very bully colt but he’s obviously enjoyed the routine of being in training and Kris Lees and his team have done an amazing job with him.’’
When asked how she thought the Lime Country draft of 15 yearlings would fare at Riverside over the next three days, Griffin said: “We’re gonna smash it!’’
The Classic Yearling Sale begins on Sunday and runs until Tuesday.
Bahen remembered Rivellino at last year’s Classic Sale and was far from surprised to see him winning a big race like the Millennium so early in his career.
“It’s great to get a good horse like this for one of my best mates in racing in Kris Lees and hopefully he goes on to win plenty more big races like this,’’ Bahen said.
“When I saw him at the sale he was one of those horses that was pretty easy to like. We had a bit of intel on the family in that Kris trained the mother (Intrinsic) and I had a fair bit of knowledge with my European background on Too Darn Hot so we were probably a year ahead of the game as far as Too Darn Hot being a well found stallion in this Hemisphere goes. Every now and again you get it right!
“The Inglis Race Series is fantastic for all participants, the prizemoney is off the charts, it’s unheard of, it’s just one of the great race days now this.’’
Rivellino’s part owner Edward Throsby agreed, adding: “It’s a great thrill. This is the biggest race personally I’ve ever won and probably the biggest race I’ll ever win.
“The Inglis Race Series is a fantastic concept. It’s wonderful that a horse who wasn’t one of the high priced horses at the sale can come out and win a A$2m race.’’
Winning trainer Kris Lees described the win as “incredible’’.
“I trained the mother, which is always a nice start when you go to a horse sale to buy horses, and he’s by a very, very good stallion and from each trial to races he’s just kept showing us that he’s got plenty of ability and that he wanted more and more,’’ Lees said of Rivellino.
“He’s an incredible 2YO, he’s got a lot of upside and this is a huge thrill to win a race like this today.’’
Lees also won a pair of Swarovski Optik binoculars today for being the winning trainer of an Inglis Race Series event, as well as surging into second place on the Inglis Race Series Theault Trainers’ Challenge, behind only Bjorn Baker.
Rivellino defeated Within The Law and Artistic Venture on Saturday.
Another big winner out of the Millennium were the connections of the Anthony and Sam Freedman-trained galloper Bubion, who won the A$400,000 Inglis Pink Bonus for being the first eligible runner home.
Bubion is owned by the Salter family, with Liz Salter today saying: “It’s absolutely unbelievable, this is just so exciting. I mean A$400,000 is just absolutely massive for us. We’re renovating our house at the moment so it’s sure going to come in handy! This is huge, we’re absolutely over the moon.’’
The Inglis Pink Bonus is the most lucrative women’s incentive in world racing.
It is active in four races in the Inglis Race Series – the Inglis Banner (A$200,000), Inglis Nursery (A$200,000), Inglis Millennium (A$400,000) and Inglis Sprint (A$200,000).
You do not need to win the race to win the Pink Bonus – the first eligible Pink Bonus runner to cross the finish line will win the bonus.
To be eligible, a horse must have minimum 75% female ownership and must be fully paid up to the lucrative Inglis Race Series. Off the track today there were more winners thanks to the Inglis Best Turned Out Award. Prior to each race in the Inglis Race Series, the strapper of the horse deemed to be the Best Turned Out wins a cash prize.
- www.inglis.com.au
