Sebring Mare Wins G1 Doncaster

Top class Sebring mare Nettoyer soared to new heights on the first day of The Championships at Randwick, charging home from back in the field to score a surprise victory in the Group I ATC Doncaster Handicap (1600m).

It was a first success at the highest level for trainer Wendy Roche and rider James Innes Jr. as Nettoyer surged to the line to defeat Star Of The Seas by half a length.

Roche said the celebrations will be muted tonight and gave one of the most memorable post race interviews in a Group I race seen in a long time .

“I don’t know what I’m going to do because all the restaurants are shut. We normally stop at the Doncaster and get beers so I don’t think we can do that either,” Roche told AAP.

“She’s going to get pizza tonight. She eats supreme pizza with capsicum sauce.

“She is a handful. It takes two of us to get a saddle on her in the morning. She bites and fights us.

“On track she is easier to get the saddle but getting her to the stalls is a nightmare.
“All week I couldn’t ride her. I just freshened her. She bit the strapper in the head and he had to get stitches.

“I’ve told everyone she would win today and she’s won.”

Nettoyer was a modest $20,000 Inglis Easter Session II purchase from the Riversdale draft and was then passed in when offered at the two year-old Inglis Ready2Race Sale.

She has put together the impressive record with six wins and seven placings from 30 starts with prizemoney in excess of $1.6 million.

Bred by Invermien Pty Ltd, she is the best of four winners from Cleanup, a half-sister by Dehere (USA) to Group III winner She’s Clean from the family of Group I Oaks winners Absolutely and Abbey Marie.

Nettoyer is the sixth Group I winner for Sebring, who has a big draft of 21 for Inglis Easter and you can see them here.