In a 40 minutes window at Sydney’s showpiece Royal Randwick Racecourse, Artorius and Communist delivered a milestone moment for China Horse Club in its tenth year of operation. The exceptional duo was explosive when securing the AUD600,000 G1 Canterbury Stakes and AUD1,000,000 G1 Randwick Guineas respectively in successive races, in doing so they recorded:
- CHC’s 46th and 47th G1 wins worldwide
- 1st G1 homebred for CHC Australia (Communist)
- 1st G1 winner by Russian Revolution (Communist)
“Communist’s Randwick Guineas win is a milestone moment for our breeding programme in Australia and came in a proper race,” said Mike Smith, China Horse Club’s Australian Representative.
“We have bred some wonderful horses in a few short years, the likes of Revolutionary Miss, Dame Giselle, Global Exchange, Perfect Proposal as well as Marine One in partnership. To see the emergence of Communist on the same day as Artorius saluted in his second G1 was very rewarding.
Communist becomes the first G1 winner for boom young sire Russian Revolution
“The future for our breeding programme, which is managed and run through The Chase, is very exciting indeed.”
The winning return of the enigmatic Artorius was a crowd pleaser as Hong Kong based jockey Zac Purton hit overdrive inside the final furlong. But it was the elevation of Communist, and in turn the Club’s former talismanic racehorse and now stallion Russian Revolution, that was especially meaningful.
Russian Revolution was the first yearling to graduate through the racing programme China Horse Club, Newgate Farm, Go Bloodstock and partners collaborate on, making his mark as a multiple G1 winner and now as a commercial sire.
In 2022, as his first crop hit the racetrack, the China Horse Club bred – Triple Crown syndicate raced Revolutionary Miss was narrowly touched in both the G1 Blue Diamond Stakes and G1 Thousand Guineas. Communist addressed that slight in dominant fashion when Purton cuddled him up Randwick’s rise before letting him stride away to score by almost a length and a half.
“We just got into a lovely spot,” Purton said of Communist. “The race was always run to suit my horse’s rhythm and he traveled into it with a lot of confidence. When I asked him, he thought about it. He put his head up and didn’t quite want to go on with it, but once I gave him a tickle he went [on with it].
“That was the instruction, just to ride him a bit more conservatively and we were able to do it from that gate with the way the race was run. It was good to get the result.”
Communist’s trainer, Michael Freedman, is excited about the options for his charge over the Sydney Autumn Carnival.
“There’s probably a lot of options to have a look at, he could be a lightweight Doncaster horse,” the trainer said.
“[Communist’s] record at the mile (1600m) here at Randwick is second to none. He ran a narrow placing in the Dulcify and a narrow placing behind Golden Mile in the [AUD1,000,000 G2 Callander-Presnell] in the spring. I think he’s got a pretty good future.”
Artorius’ abilities have been on display since 2021 when he scored at his second career start and snared the G1 Blue Diamond Stakes at his third. However, his last bursting finishing style has seen him deliver a succession of near misses in high profile races until last weekend.
“It felt good. I just had to wait a little bit for the right opportunity on Artorius. Nash [Rawiller on Golden Mile] was held up behind James [McDonald on Imperatriz] and I was hoping to get going a little bit earlier,” Purton said of his ride on Artorius.
“But when Nash come out it allowed me to go inside him and get on the back of the favourite. The last 150m he launched, he just jumped out of the ground.”
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