SUNLINE
Sunline
(1995-2009) was a New Zealand Thoroughbred racehorse who
was the world's highest earning female racehorse of her
time, competing on 48 occasions for 32 wins, 9 seconds and
3 thirds to earn $11,351,607. She won races in three different
countries, Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong. She won
back-to-back W.S. Cox Plates (2040m), the richest weight
for age race in Australia. She also twice won the toughest
mile race in Australia, the Doncaster Handicap, once as
a three-year-old and then again as a six-year-old. She was
named New Zealand Horse of the Year four times and is also
the only horse ever to win the Australian Horse of the Year
championship three times.
She
recorded a remarkable 13 Group One wins, six more than the
great Australian horse Makybe Diva with whom she is often
compared. Greg Childs, the jockey who rode Sunline in 33
of her races, said she "deserved to bracketed with
the Diva as the best race mares of the modern era. Makybe
Diva was an outstanding stayer and Sunline was a champion
middle distance horse."
Sunline led in most of her races, and sometimes settled
just behind the leader. She was renowned for her tremendous
constitution, and for being difficult to get past. Sunline
was an inaugural inductee into the New Zealand Racing Hall
of Fame, along with the other turf immortals Carbine, Gloaming,
Kindergarten and Phar Lap.
Sunline
was born at Pleasanton Stud near Cambridge, New Zealand
on 29 September 1995. Her sire was the handy Group Two winning
English sire Desert Sun, a grandson of leading sire Danzig,
and her dam was the former capable mare Songline by Western
Symphony. Intriguingly, Sunline was one of a very small
number of horses to hail from the same matrilineal family
as Phar Lap, tracing all the way back to his dam, Entreaty.
A big strong plain bay with no white markings, Sunline was
leased by her breeders Susan Archer and Michael Martin to
Takanini trainer Trevor McKee.
In partnership
with Thayne Green and Helen Lusty, McKee raced the filly
only three times as a two-year-old which yielded three good
wins.
After her first up win as a three-year-old in August 1998,
McKee knew he had a good horse on his hands and took Sunline
across the Tasman to Australia for the rich spring races.
Sunline did not disappoint. She won her Sydney debut race,
the Group Three Furious Stakes, over 1400 m, and followed
that up with a soft win and a race record in the Group Two
Tea Rose Stakes. She then won as she liked with her first
Group One win on Australian turf with another soft win in
the time-honoured Flight Stakes. She was a superstar in
the making.
Sunline resumed in the autumn of 1999 in Melbourne. Her
unbeaten sequence did not end until losing by a head to
Melbourne filly Rose'O War in the Group Three Angus Armanasco
Stakes. The race was not run to suit, with a long shot taking
off before the home turn, which may have exposed Sunline's
lack of fitness on the day, as she was jumping from 1200
to 1600 m second-up. Sunline exacted her revenge by soundly
defeating that same filly in the Group Two A.V. Kewney Stakes
and the million dollar Moonee Valley Oaks over 2040 m. In
the latter race, she easily beat that year's VRC and AJC
Oaks winner Grand Archway by four and a half lengths over
the Cox Plate course.
The champion filly then ventured North to Sydney to tackle
the time-honoured and toughest mile race in Australia, the
Doncaster Handicap (1600m). So popular was the filly that
she was sent out favourite at odds of 10-9. She demolished
her rivals, picking up her second Group One event as a three
year old.
A fortnight later, Sunline was sent out a long odds-on favourite
in the Queen Elizabeth Stakes over 2000 m at Randwick. She
led the field over the rise near the top of the straight,
but faded badly to finished second-last of the six runners.
The reason remains a matter of debate among race fans. Some
took the defeat as a sign that Sunline could not stay 2000
m in top class company.
Her record over the distance was excellent at Moonee Valley
(three wins from five starts) but less so at other, larger
tracks (one from five). Some put the failure down to Sunline
being tired after five previous runs this campaign. In any
case, the run provided an inglorious end to an otherwise
outstanding three-year-old season and the filly was sent
home to New Zealand for a spell.
Unlike
so many three-year-old champions before her, Sunline came
back stronger than ever as a four-year-old in the spring
of 1999. Following her brilliant three-year-old season,
she was immediately installed as early favourite for the
$3,000,000 weight-for-age championship in the WS Cox Plate
at Moonee Valley. A first up win in the AJC (Australian
Jockey Club) Warwick Stakes over 1400 m, proved to race
goers that she had lost none of her brilliance. Trevor McKee
then tried to get his champion to settle in her races, and
he believes this is what cost her wins in the STC Theo Marks
Stakes and the AJC George Main Stakes, in which she ran
second. Her next run was a close but slightly disappointing
fourth under 56.5 kilos in the Epsom Handicap on a very
hard track.
Undaunted, the McKees pressed on to the Cox Plate. Some
were saying she had lost her spark, but any doubts were
put to sleep when she brilliantly won her first Cox Plate,
beating Tie The Knot and Sky Heights. She was only the fifth
mare to win the race since its inception in 1922.
After a brief let-up, Sunline then dropped in distance to
1400 metres and easily defeated other mares in the Breeders
Stakes, in New Zealand. This was her final prep race before
facing a crack field in the International Cup, over 2000
m, in Hong Kong. She led, and jockey Greg Childs said she
travelled well to the home turn, but, in an echo of the
autumn's Queen Elizabeth Stakes, she tired badly, and finished
seventh. She was then returned home to New Zealand for a
spell.
Back in Sydney for the autumn of 2000, Sunline powered through
the rain-affected going to win the Apollo Stakes (1400m)
first up. Remarkably, in her entire career, she was never
beaten over the distance. Then she lugged 60 kilograms to
win the first of her two Coolmore Classics - at the time,
this was Australia's only Group One race for fillies and
mares (3yo+). At her next start she carried 57.5 kilograms
in the Doncaster Handicap and was then beaten by a head
by three-year-old Over, who had a 6 kilogram advantage.
At her next start, her 24th, she relished the return to
weight for age conditions in the All Aged Stakes to record
win number 17 by almost five lengths, with her Doncaster
Handicap conqueror, Over, in third place, confirming her
superiority. By now, the great mare had won over $4.7 million
dollars.
Sunline started her five-year-old campaign in Melbourne
against the sprinters, easily winning the Group One Manikato
Stakes (1200m) at Moonee Valley. She then took wins in the
weight-for-age Memsie Stakes (1400m) and won as she liked
in the Feehan Stakes (1600m). She was beaten by a head in
a duelling battle with Sydney's champion three-year-old
from the previous season, Fairway, in the 2000m Turnbull
Stakes. Atypically, Fairway wrested the lead from Sunline
forcing her to chase. She was unable to peg him back in
the home straight. It was Sunline's third defeat over the
distance from as many starts away from Moonee Valley, although
it should also be noted that Fairway was an exceptionally
good and under-rated horse whose career was cut short by
injury soon after this race.
Sunline fans regard her next run as one of her greatest.
On the last Saturday of October 2000, Sunline ploughed through
the muddy conditions in devastating fashion to win the Cox
Plate by seven lengths from last-start Caulfield Cup winner
Diatribe, with the Sydney galloper Referral third. Perhaps
unsuited in the conditions, fancied runners Tie The Knot
(2nd in 1999), Sky Heights (3rd in 1999), and Shogun Lodge
(conqueror of Sunline in the George Main Stakes) were beaten
a combined margin of more than 100 lengths. It was a truly
amazing performance. In winning she became the first Australasian
horse to pass $6 million in career earnings.
Underlining her dominance in 2000, Sunline started 11 times
for 9 wins and 2 narrow seconds. This was undoubtedly the
peak of her career.
Returning home after the 2000 Cox Plate, the mare's owners
revealed that Sunline had been part of a bidding war from
five different countries, including the powerful Godolphin
stables in the United Arab Emirates. All bids were rejected.
The mare was being prepared for another tilt at the international
level and she raced away with the Group Two Breeders Stakes
at Pukekohe in November.
Connections and fans believed that she could atone for her
previous overseas defeat. In her final race for 2000, Sunline
lined up in the Group One Hong Kong International Mile (1600m),
whereas 12 months earlier she had contested the Group One
Hong Kong International Cup (2000m). The Cup, over the extra
distance, is generally regarded as the tougher of the two
races. In the Mile, Sunline led all the way to narrowly
defeat Fairy King Prawn, who came wide on the home turn
and loomed up strongly, while Adam, from Australia, ran
third. Some fans have claimed that Sunline was world's best
mare, on the basis of this victory, but the claim is somewhat
contentious in that other judges would regard the standard
of racing in Europe and America to be somewhat stronger
than in Hong Kong.
Sunline's Cox Plate victory in 2000 saw the Australian and
New Zealand Horse of the Year receive an invitation to compete
in the world's richest race day, the magnificent Dubai World
Cup meeting in the United Arab Emirates.
In early February, Trevor McKee decided it was time Sunline
raced again and chose the Group One Waikato Sprint, a 1400
m weight-for-age event on February 3 as her 2001 pipe-opener.
Despite the Waikato Sprint carding a field that included
seven other Group One winners, Sunline enjoyed what had
to be the easiest of her (then) nine Group One wins, turning
the race into a procession. The Waikato victory kept alive
Sunline's wonderful New Zealand record, which at career
end would be 10 wins from as many starts. Sunline's next
step on the road to Dubai came with a hit-and-run trip to
Sydney to compete in the 1400 m Apollo Stakes at Warwick
Farm on the first Saturday in March. For the second year
in a row, the Group Two was run on a rain-affected track,
and Sunline was too good for the veteran mudlark Celestial
Choir, with Tie The Knot unplaced.
In Dubai,
Sunline showed her customary pace to lead the field, but
the long straight gave her rivals every chance to run her
down, and the French globetrotter Jim And Tonic and the
Hong Kong star Fairy King Prawn did so over the last 200
m. Sunline returned to Australia to contest the All-Aged
Stakes, but was inexplicably beaten by inferior opposition
in El Mirada and Final Fantasy. This was a rare off-day
for the champion mare, and perhaps showed the effects of
too much travel.
Now
six, Sunline returned in the new season with a second-placing
to Piavonic in the Manikato Stakes prior to winning the
Memsie Stakes for the second year in a row, and the Turnbull
Stakes two starts later.
However, unfortunately for Sunline, a new star had come
onto the scene- the West Australian phenomenon Northerly.
He narrowly defeated Sunline at his first attempt in the
Feehan Stakes, setting the stage for an enduring and fascinating
rivalry. He again beat her in the 2001 Cox Plate, where
Sunline tried to equal Kingston Town as a triple winner
of the great WFA race. The 2001 plate was a rough-house
affair fought out between Sunline, Northerly and the three
year old Viscount. The margin between Sunline and Northerly
was again extremely narrow.
Although
many were now starting to question whether the great mare
was, as a rising 7YO, passed her best, Sunline raced four
times in the Autumn of 2002 for four wins in Group 1 races.
She opened her campaign with a blistering win by four lengths
in Waikato Sprint at Te Rapa. She then won the Coolmore
Classic carrying 60 kg for the second time, becoming the
first horse in Australasia to win AUD$9 million in prize
money, by holding off the good quality mare Gentle Genius,
who carried only 52 kg.
At her next start she carried the number one saddle cloth
to again with the Doncaster Handicap lumping 58 kg to beat
top gallopers Shogun Lodge and Defier and then finished
her campaign with a 6 length victory in the weight-for age
All-Aged Stakes. By winning these races she became the first
horse in Australasia to pass the $11 million mark in career
earnings and with 13 Group 1 wins, drew to within 1 win
of Kingston Towns Group 1 record of 14.
So good did some judges consider this campaign that she
won a third Australian Horse of the Year award, the only
horse to do so, ahead of Northerly (who had dominated her
in the spring but then failed to follow through in the Autumn)
and Ethereal (who had won the Caulfield Cup, Melbourne Cup
and BMW but failed to perform at the same level in shorter
weight-for-age races).
In the
spring, Sunline notched her fifth consecutive win when taking
the Mudgway Stakes first-up in New Zealand, and returned
to Sydney for the George Main Stakes. Sunline led but was
run down by Defier and Excellerator, with Lonhro a luckless
fourth. Her next start produced a classic contest with Lonhro
in the Caulfield Stakes. Sunline led, and, to a huge roar
from the crowd, skipped away by more than three lengths
at the top of the straight, but Lonhro loomed up strongly
close to home to score in race record time, with an incredible
margin of six lengths back to the third horse.
Unfortunately, this clash may have flattened Sunline and
Lonhro, who appeared to race below their best when fourth
and sixth, respectively, behind Northerly in the Cox Plate.
As planned, Sunline was retired after this, her fourth and
final Cox Plate, and her record of two wins, a second, and
a fourth is one of the best in the history of the race.
She retired with 27 stakes wins, more than any other horse
in Australasian History.
Sunline
went into retirement at the McKee property near Auckland.
On 1 May 2009, she was put down after failing to recover
from laminitis, a debilitating hoof disease. A memorial
is to be established at Ellerslie Racecourse where she was
buried.
Sunline left four progeny. At the time of her death two
of her progeny had already won races, Sun Ruler (2005 colt
by Zabeel) and Sunstrike (2004 filly by Rock of Gibraltar).
She also left an unnamed two-year-old filly by Rock of Gibraltar
and a yearling filly by Hussonet.
