Widden Sold Filly Wins Spring Champion

Darby Racing paid just $10,000 to secure Yankee Rose from the Widden Stud draft at the 2015 Inglis Classic Yearling Sale and she made history at Randwick on Saturday when becoming the first filly to win the Group I ATC Spring Champion Stakes.

Winner last season of the Group I ATC Sires’ Produce Stakes and a luckless second in the Group I Golden Slipper, the David Vandyke trained Yankee Rose charged home to win the 2000 metre staying test by half a length as favourite.

Vandyke admitted the Spring Champion Stakes was not part of the original program for Yankee Rose but came under consideration after how well she had recovered from her fast-finishing second to Global Glamour in last week’s Group I ATC Flight Stakes

“If I thought about it last week it would have been a shock to me but I said to the owners this filly has never done as well as this going into a race,” Vandyke said.

“She put on 5kg and had been eating up and I couldn’t fault her. I thought this filly would struggle three weeks between runs going into a Cox Plate because she was doing that well.

“If she ran the 2000 (metres) today I was confident she’d win.

“And what a brilliant ride by Dean Yendall, he just timed his run to perfection. You would have thought he does that every day of the week the way he won that race.”

She advanced her record to four wins and two seconds from seven starts with earnings of $1,922,700.

By All American from Condesaar, Yankee Rose has followed in the footsteps of other Inglis Classic / Widden Stud sold Group I stars such as Triple Honour, Whobegotyou and Typhoon Zed.

She also made it back to back win sin the Group I ATC Spring Champion Stakes for Widden Stud sold horses with last year’s event won by Encosta de Lago colt Vanbrugh, a $100,000 Inglis Easter purchase.