Former Kiwi galloper Daqiansweet Junior (NZ) (Sweet Orange) took out Monday’s Gr.2 Adelaide Cup (3200m) in emphatic fashion at Morphetville for trainer Phillip Stokes and homecoming queen Jamie Kah, who rode five winners on the card.
From an inside draw, the son of Sweet Orange tracked Tigertiger (NZ) (Zed) throughout and despite sitting midfield for much of the contest, the genuine tempo injected by a looping Aurora’s Symphony and on-pacer Good Idea, made for ideal targets to chase for Daqiansweet Junior.
The OTI Racing-owned four-year-old charged home to score by a length and a half from Tigertiger, with Future Score third.
It was the gelding’s fifth win for trainer Phillip Stokes, who has been amazed with how far the progressive stayer has come since joining his barn last year.
“This horse was going around in a Class 1 at Moe in October. (To do this) in one prep is amazing,” Stokes said.
“It (Adelaide Cup) has always been in the back of our mind. Last start at Moonee Valley I said to Terry (Henderson, OTI Racing) ‘let’s see if he can run the trip and then we will know what we are doing with him next prep’.
“He is a Kiwi-bred horse and getting him trained out of the paddock was a big start. He has got such a good attitude, he relaxes beautifully and Jamie gave him a peach of a ride.
“Junior was a horse on the way up and we had to ride him to run the trip and we did.
“It is fantastic, it is your hometown Cup,” added the Adelaide native.
Stokes said a trip to Sydney is now in the offing for Daqiansweet Junior.
“Sydney is definitely on the radar,” he said. “He is nominated for the Sydney Cup (Gr.1, 3200m). We will see how the horse pulls up. He will go straight back to Victoria in the morning and we will reassess.”
Jockey Jamie Kah was equally as pleased to return home to win her first Adelaide Cup aboard the Kiwi.
“This is definitely up there. It is a race I have always wanted to win,” Kah said. “I have got close before, but to do it at home in front of friends and family was very special.”
Kah said she has always felt the Adelaide Cup would be ideal for Daqiansweet Junior.
“The first time I sat on him I thought ‘this horse is going to be an ideal Adelaide Cup horse’,” she said.
“Out there anyone can ride him, he is just a dream – he comes back, he stops, he starts.
“They never run at a genuine tempo here, – they go and then they stop.
“He was just beautiful, I could put him anywhere today. I almost messed up. I got off the back of Tigertiger and I should probably have waited, but we got back on his heels on the turn and got out.
“I was really rapt with how strong this horse was late. I thought this horse might not be that genuine before, but today he was 100 percent on.”
Daqiansweet Junior did his early racing in New Zealand for the Murray Baker and Andrew Forsman stable, where he won two of his eight starts and was placed in the Gr.3 Manawatu Classic (2000m).
Purchased privately by OTI Racing on the recommendation of bloodstock agent Phill Cataldo, Daqiansweet Junior is a son of the former Highview Stud stallion Sweet Orange and has now won seven of his 17 starts and over A$421,886 in stakes. He was bred by Gillovic Bloodstock.
Runner-up Tigertiger is also a Kiwi import, with the slow-maturing son of Zed an 11-start maiden when arriving with Mornington trainer Rob Blacker care of an association with the gelding’s former trainer, and current owner, Ian Shaw through his friendship with Shaw’s son Adam.
Tigertiger has banked in excess of A$300,000 in his 13 starts for Blacker and like Daqiansweet Junior, shapes as a progressive stayer with plenty to come.
