Sunline - Champion Australian race horse

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 mud lark 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.

 

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