First Seal
China Horse Club’s flagship filly First Seal is on track to confirm her current rating as Australia’s champion filly in this Saturday’s $400,000 G1 Vinery Stud Stakes at Rosehill Gardens in Sydney.
The star three-year-old produced a career defining performance when touched out in a photo in the G1 Coolmore Classic at her last start, and in the ensuring days has impressed trainer John Thompson and left an indelible impression on her new rider James Macdonald.
Macdonald has only ridden First Seal three times in trackwork and never under race conditions yet he was glowing in his assessment of her pre-race. “[First Seal] is “the best filly I’ve sat on,” the jockey said during the week.
“I’ve ridden some very good fillies before but this feels like she’ll be better than all of them.”
First Seal’s Classic performance was one of the greatest seen in the races 42-year history. Her second placed performance yielded a rating of 123 on Timeform Ratings, the third highest rating in a Coolmore Classic, overshadowed only by internationally recognised champion mare Sunline who recorded 124 and 128 when winning the Coolmore Classic in 2000 and 2002 respectively. Sunline later retired as an inductee of both the Australian and New Zealand Hall of Fame and a 13 time G1 winner of more than $11 million in prize money.
First Seal’s Timeform Rating from the Coolmore Classic is the highest rating ever achieved by a 3-year-old filly in the race.
“We are always immensely proud of First Seal and her last effort in the Coolmore Classic was phenomenal, ” said Eden Harrington, General Manager of China Horse Club.
“Hopefully with a little more luck this weekend she can return to the winners list and secure a second G1 in the Vinery Stud Stakes for all of the owners.”