Sebring Group Three Winner on Slipper Day

Sebring was in hot form on Golden Slipper Day with a new stakes-winner and a huge performance from one of his prime flagbearers in Criterion.

Black Caviar’s breeder Rick Jamieson was in the winner’s circle when his talented Sebring mare Scratchy Bottom posted her first Black Type win in the Group III ATC Epona Stakes.

Prepared by Mick Kent, Scratchy Bottom showed real class at three with placings in the Group I SAJC South Australian Derby and Schweppes Oaks so was well overdue for a stakes success of her own.

Sent out at odds of $31 following a lacklustre last in her first run back from a spell at Flemington, Scratchy Bottom settled back in the field for Craig Williams before finding the line strongly to snatch a head win in the 1900 metre contest.

“She’s really quite a good horse,” Kent said. “Her form beyond a mile is really good, she’s Group I placed twice but she hadn’t had a stakes win.

“We picked this race out a while ago, she had one run at home, but I was hoping for some soft ground. All’s well that ends well.

“He (Craig Williams) rode her terribly well and he got the bob on the line.”

A $120,000 Inglis Easter purchase for Dermot Farrington Bloodstock from the draft of Reavill Farm, Scratchy Bottom runs in the all black colours of Rick Jamieson, who is of course famous as the breeder of Black Caviar and All Too Hard.

She is the best of four winners from Group II placed Silk Veil, a sister to stakes-winner Danasia, the dam of Group I STC Rosehill Guineas winner Zabrasive.

With three wins and two placings from 12 starts and prizemoney topping $310,000, Scratchy Bottom becomes the 12th stakes-winner for Sebring, who won the Golden Slipper in 2008.

Sebring also featured later in the day when his high class four year-old son Criterion missed narrowly in the Group I ATC George Ryder Stakes behind Japanese raider Real Impact.

Already a Group I winner of the ATC Australian Derby and Rosehill Guineas, Criterion has won $3.2 million in prizemoney and will be hard to beat in whatever he contests at The Championships in two weeks time.