A look back at VRC Crown Oaks racing moments

Treasure’s Media Puzzle Moment

Treasurethe Moment channelled one of her distant relatives at Flemington on Tuesday when she won Thursday’s Group 1 VRC Crown Oaks (2500m).

Media Puzzle, the 2002 Melbourne Cup winner, appears on the Matt Laurie-trained filly’s pedigree page.

Treasurethe Moment’s dam Draconic Treasure is out of the Invincible Spirit mare Hazy Glow, who is out of Genuine Charm.

That daughter of Sadler’s Wells is a half-sister to Media Puzzle, who famously won the Melbourne Cup with Damien Oliver in the saddle.

Treasurethe Moment called on that staying blood to become the 39^th filly to complete the Wakeful Stakes/Crown Oaks double.

The $3.10 favourite defeated the filly she also denied in the Wakeful Stakes, Powers Of Opal ($3.70), with Hurry Curry ($21) 1-1/2 lengths back third.

Treasurethe Moment carries the colours of Yulong Investments, which stands her sire Alabama Express, a C F Orr Stakes-winning son of Redoute’s Choice who celebrated his maiden Group 1 success in the Oaks.

“It is 20 years of work really trying to achieve something like this,” Laurie said of his third Group 1 win and first during Melbourne Cup Week.

“I’m just so grateful to my team at home and to Team Yulong.  They have supported me, this is a home–bred, and to watch her progress to win a Group 1 is incredible.”

Electric Impulse collects big Country prize 

Electric Impulse had to win a $500,000 race twice, once out on the racetrack at Flemington and the second time in the stewards’ room. 

The Henry Dwyer-trained mare had to overcome the second widest barrier in the capacity field to contest the Melbourne Cup Carnival Country Final (1600m) on Tuesday. 

Charging at the leaders in the final stages under Ben Allen, Electric Impulse ($18) scored a short-half-head victory over the $3 favourite Oh Too Good with Torranzino ($6) a head away third. 

Damian Lane, the rider of the runner-up, headed to the stewards’ room to view the film of the race before lodging an objection over the 50m. 

After a short deliberation, stewards dismissed the protest. 

Dwyer, who scored with Asfoora at Royal Ascot in a Group 1 sprint in the middle of the year, said the stable was light on for numbers at the Melbourne Cup Carnival this year. 

“We were a little bit light this year and only had two bullets to fire,” Dwyer said. 

“The horse on Tuesday ran well, but didn't win, and it was all up to her, and I would have been really, really confident coming here if she had drawn a gate. 

“As it turned out, 18 came out at acceptance time, and we were just gutted, but the way the track's been playing as well, you sort of can’t be wide and circling them, so Ben did a lovely job.” 

Waller celebrates special win with Amelita

Chris Waller was back in the winner’s stall on a big day with colours he will forever be associated with after Amelita continued her progression with a maiden Stakes win in the Red Roses Stakes at Flemington on VRC Crown Oaks Day.

The three-year-old claimed the $300,000 Group 3 at just her fifth start, and two starts after breaking her maiden at Canterbury on a Wednesday, when the beneficiary of magical James McDonald ride in the 1100-metre event.

Amelita, a daughter of Zousain, whom Waller also trained, is raced by a group headed up by Peter Tighe, meaning she carries the blue and white Magic Bloodstock colours that Winx also raced under, and Waller always gets a kick of seeing them in the winner’s stall.

“It’s very special to me, Peter Tighe and ourselves got a group together and there’s some really nice owners in it,” Waller said.

Winx is most famous for her four Cox Plate wins at Moonee Valley, but she was also a dual winner of the Group 1 Turnbull Stakes at Flemington.

McDonald weaved a path through the field from the inside barrier aboard the $11 chance to reel in his rivals in the final furlong of the Red Roses Stakes and race away for a three-quarters-of-a-length win over Vestas ($6.50), who nosed out Bridal Waltz ($13) for second placing.

Smith finds a way

Top jockey Nash Rawiller heaped praise on Matthew Smith’s placement with Way To The Stars after the six-year-old scored a maiden Stakes win in the $175,000 Listed Century Stakes (1000m).

Way To The Stars ($16) made the running down the outside of the famous Flemington straight and looked set to be reeled in by his rivals before finding again late to score a three-quarters-of-a-length win over Spacewalk ($8.50).

The son of Reward For Effort raced in restricted grade until this preparation and Rawiller said, although six, the gelding still has scope for improvement given he has only had 22 starts.

“It was a masterstroke bringing him down here for this race,” Rawiller said of the sprinter who has now won seven races and a tick over $500,000 in stakes.

“He has always promised a lot, not that he’s delivered, but today he was right back to his old self.

“He’s a horse I’ve got a lot of time for and I’m sure I’ll win a good race on him one day.”

Progressive Mistress finds Keys to success

The first race on the VRC Crown Oaks Day card was nowhere near the most prestigious race on the program but Kasey Keys is confident Bon Mistress will one day progress to much better grade than the BM70 event for the three and four-year-old girls.

The daughter of Bon Hoffa, who started $4.40 favourite, clung on for a narrow but impressive short-half-head win over $61 outsider Lord Vostok in the $150,000 event over 1700m.

It was the third win from 12 starts for Bon Mistress, but second in a row this campaign after a first-up win in BM64 grade at Ballarat and Keys said the four-year-old was a different horse this time in.

“She was lacking in maturity in the autumn but she showed enough in the autumn to suggest that she might make it,” Keys, who trains in partnership with her dad Ken, said.

Bon Mistress was ridden to victory by Zac Spain who celebrated his first win of the 2024 Melbourne Cup Carnival.

Moody, Coleman mare continues her rise

Alma Rise confirmed Katherine Coleman’s opinion that she could be back chasing some high-level staying riches in 2025 with victory in the $150,000 Good Friday Appeal Trophy (2000m) for BM80 gallopers.

The four-year-old daughter of Almanzor demonstrated the class edge she enjoyed over her rivals with a dominant 1-3/4 lengths win under Luke Nolen.

It was the third career win for Alma Rise, who has not finished outside the quinella in six starts, and Coleman said she and co-trainer Peter Moody would look to raise the bar with the mare whose only prior Flemington start produced a second placing in the Listed VRC St Leger (2800m).

“She's a really classy mare, she's shown us a lot of ability at home and she's probably just been a little bit immature physically and mentally,” Coleman said.

“We've identified her as a staying prospect and taken our time with her. I think next preparation over the autumn, we're going to see a really classy staying horse.”

Bracelet fits Running By

The bulk of Running By’s racing this campaign has been done in Group company but Ciaron Maher shrewdly took the opportunity to race for more money in lesser grade at Flemington on Saturday.

The $350,000 Inglis Bracelet (1600m), which is restricted to Inglis graduates, was only the second non-Group race the five-year-old daughter of Impending has contested in six starts this time but carried the greatest overall purse.

The multiple Group 3 placegetter landed easily the biggest payday of her 14-start career when she claimed the $192,500 winner’s cheque with a 1-3/4-length win over the Grahame Begg-trained So Glamorous as $4 favourite.

Maher assistant trainer Jack Turnbull said many at Ciaron Maher Racing deserved credit for the win and the job would now be to get back into Stakes grade and land a Black Type win.

“She' s been drawing some horrid barriers and we've scratched her and scratched her again and finally we found the right race,” he said.

“The team have done a good job because it's been sort of six weeks between runs and it's hard to keep those mares on the edge.

“We're stakes placed, so we’re knocking on the door. I' m not sure where we' re going to get it, but she will.”

Kettle provides Oaks Day boilover

Ciaron Maher was back in the winer’s stall 40 minutes after Running By’s success when enigmatic import Kettle Hill scored an upset win in the $150,000 Off The Track Plate (1800m) for BM90 horses.

It snapped a seven-race run of outs for the son of Gleneagles, who started $21, and Maher said the lack of expectation agreed with the gelding.

“He’s got plenty of ability but he’s a tricky horse to get the best out of,” Maher said.

“When no punter on the racecourse has had a dollar on him, that is when he shows his best.”

Kettle Hill, who has now won six of 29 starts, was ridden to victory by Declan Bates, who was controversially replaced as the rider of Kettle Hill’s stablemate Pride Of Jenni in this Saturday’s $3m Group 1 Champions Mile and Maher was thrilled to see him bounce back with a win.

“He's an excellent, professional guy and he's riding with a lot of confidence. He’s a great asset as well,” Maher said of Bates.

Treble for Maher, another for McDonald

Ciaron Maher rounded out the day with a third win, in the process handing James McDonald a victory that gave him a sniff of matching his own record of 10 winers for the week when the Carnival concludes on Saturday.

The pair combined to get French six-year-old Light Infantry Man to his first win in Australia when he walloped his rivals in the first running of the $175,000 Listed Chester Manifold Stakes (1600m) on Oaks Day.

It was McDonald’s seventh win for the 2024 Melbourne Cup Carnival and needs three winners on Champions Day to match his feat of 10 winners from 2021, the year he won the Melbourne Cup on Verry Elleegant.

McDonald has eight rides on Saturday, including $1.70 favourite Via Sistina in the Group 1 Champions Stakes, favourites Hinged (Race 5) and Pisanello (Race 9), plus Fangirl (Champions Mile) and Sunshine In Paris (Champions Sprint).