\n\t\t\t\t\tBy Trevor Marshallsea\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Listen<\/p>\n
Too Darn Hot\u2019s (Dubawi) ballistic stud career looks set to continue unabated, with the Darley shuttler claiming yet another Australian black type success when Shiki took the season\u2019s first two-year-old fillies\u2019 race in Saturday\u2019s Gimcrack Stakes (Gr 3, 1000m) at Randwick.<\/p>\n
A $420,000 Magic Millions Gold Coast purchase for Kurrinda Bloodstock and the Waterhouse-Bott team, Shiki was the fastest winner among the nine at Sydney\u2019s first official two-year-old trials on September 22.<\/p>\n
And the powerfully built filly lived up to that rating with a fighting, if narrow, victory in the Gimcrack, giving Tulloch Lodge their second win in the race in four runnings, after Gai Waterhouse broke a surprising duck in the event in 2022 through Platinum Jubilee (Zoustar).<\/p>\n
Ridden by Tim Clark \u2013 who also was aboard for her 0.6 lengths trial win \u2013 Shiki began well from gate six of 11 and took up the lead after 300 metres.<\/p>\n
She led by a length and a half under a hold at the 400 metres, and while Clark had her at full throttle at the 300 metres, the $3.50 favourite had close attention from a few rivals, particularly the John Thompson-trained $51 shot Screen Icon (Nicconi).<\/p>\n
Thompson won the race a year ago with favourite Bel Merci (Extreme Choice), but while Screen Icon would come close to giving him back-to-back successes, Shiki dug deep in the run home to defy Screen Icon, winning on the bob of the head by a slender 0.1 lengths.<\/p>\n
Bjorn Baker\u2019s trial winner Masvingo (Zoustar) grabbed third in a tight finish at $5, beaten a further 0.3 lengths.<\/p>\n
Bred by South Australia\u2019s Cornerstone Stud and Millar Racing and sold at the Gold Coast by Riverstone Lodge, Shiki became the 11th Australian stakes winner from 114 runners for Too Darn Hot, this country\u2019s champion first and second season sire of the past two terms.<\/p>\n
The ten-year-old has returned after a year off the shuttle to stand at Darley Kelvinside this spring for $275,000 (inc GST), up from $44,000 in 2023. He now has 20 winners \u2013 three at stakes level \u2013 from 60 runners in the new season.<\/p>\n
Shiki\u2019s success gave Too Darn Hot 28 black type victors from 375 runners worldwide, at 7.5 per cent.<\/p>\n
Co-trainer Adrian Bott said Shiki would be spelled immediately with an eye to major two-year-old targets later in the season, and hinted she could win by larger margins in future with better racecraft.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe deserved that win,\u201d he said. \u201cShe\u2019s a very sharp filly. Just got to teach her to relax a little bit, which no doubt she will going forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been so pleased with the way she\u2019s been doing everything for us at home. She\u2019ll go away for a nice break now, and next preparation she\u2019ll come back a lot more mature mentally and physically.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s been a little bit rough in that regard all preparation. She\u2019s been making good improvements, but there\u2019s still a lot to come. I think that\u2019s an indication of where she\u2019s at and the improvement to come. I was just delighted that she was able to do it today. She\u2019s obviously got some natural speed and natural brilliance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bott said Shiki had been \u201cdrawing comparisons\u201d around the stable to their 2024 Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m) heroine Lady Of Camelot (Written Tycoon).\u2028\u2028<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s done a great job today,\u201d he said. \u201cShe\u2019ll go for a break now and be set for a similar campaign, hopefully, she can be just as effective.\u201d<\/p>\n
Clark concurred Shiki would benefit from \u201charnessing\u201d her abundant speed.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust today, she\u2019s come out just a bit gassy and I just had to go with her and work her through a little bit. To her credit, she was really brave that last bit,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Shiki (2 f Too Darn Hot \u2013 Jest Excel by Exceed And Excel) is the fourth and best foal out of Jest Excel (Exceed And Excel), a three-time Queensland provincial winner from 900 metres to 1000 metres and a half-sister to 2004 VRC Maribyrnong Plate (Gr 2, 1000m) victor Jiang (Testa Rossa).<\/p>\n
Jest Excel now has a yearling filly by Ole Kirk (Written Tycoon), and was covered last December by Artorius (Flying Artie).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Trevor Marshallsea Listen Too Darn Hot\u2019s (Dubawi) ballistic stud career looks set to continue unabated, with the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":179343,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[3004,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-179342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-racing","tag-racing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179342\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}