The Group I ATC Surround Stakes (1400m) at Randwick on Saturday was billed as a match race between the boom Chris Waller trained fillies Espiona and Fangirl, but at the winning post it was their stablemate Hinged that won the day to become the first Group I winner for her sire Worthy Cause.
Ridden a beautiful race by Brenton Avdulla from barrier one, Hinged got all the favours while her stablemates toiled back in the field from their wide barriers in the heavy 10 conditions.
Beaten a short neck when second in the Group I ATC Flight Stakes in the spring, Hinged showed her class when holding a half head margin over Startantes with Espiona a late closing third.
Chris Waller was quick to praise Brenton Avdulla who is on the comeback trail from serious injury.
"It was a good effort the way he rode the horse, saved a bit of energy. The horses out the back were really struggling turning for home and he shot through and she was brave late,” Waller said.
“Terrific effort by a nice horse. I thought her run first-up was amazing. Kathy O'Hara rode her on that day and said, 'she has come back well, she will win some good races'.”
Brenton Avdulla was delighted to be back in the Group I groove.
"Pretty emotional week. It's been well documented through the week about my comeback, but six months ago you are thinking 'is that all it?'” Avdulla revealed.
"That bit of self doubt that you might not come back and if you do come back how are you going to come back? Are you coming back at your best? It wasn't until the last couple of weeks I really started to feel good.
"Just blessed to get some great opportunities. I haven't had many rides but I've been going to the races all this week just with a couple of rides, but they're chances for good trainers. Today was the same, I ended up with four rides but I knew two or three of them were going to be right in the money.
"Very thankful to Chris, I think that's my third Group 1 winner for him now. James can't ride them all. Very special moment."
Bred by Dr Kim McCasker, Hinged started her racing career in Queensland where she was originally trained by Michael Nolan winning five of her first seven starts as a two year-old and finishing second on the other two occasions.
Her talent did not go unnoticed with a new ownership group headed by Brae Sokolski’s Yes Bloodstock securing a majority share in the filly who was then sent to Chris Waller with Dr McCasker retaining an interest.
“Compared to last year, she has put on about 30 kilos so of the fillies, she's been the big improver in terms of weight, and she ran second in the Flight Stakes so she has backed that up today,” Chris Waller said.
“Fangirl and Espiona were both brave. They were giving away a big start and they (leaders) got away with some pretty soft sections from what I was looking at. They will have a rematch hopefully in a couple of weeks time."
Hinged now has six wins and three seconds from 12 starts with prizemoney topping $724,000 with the promise of much more to come.
Hinged is the first foal of Tints, a very handy racemare by Tycoon Ruler that won 12 races and over $246,000 in prizemoney with her wins coming up to 2150m.
The grand-dam of Tints won over 2000m at Chantilly and is a sibling to three European stakes-winners that all won over 2000m or further, so it will not surprise to see Hinged excel over further.
Tints has a two year-old filly by Worthy Cause called Hue and was covered again by the young Clear Mountain Fairview based sire.
A Group III winning son of Choisir, Worthy Cause has done a great job with his first runners from limited numbers producing nine winners from 14 starters with Hinged his best performer.
Worthy Cause stands at a fee of $5,500.
