Racing fans rejoice, because we are about to launch into serious Melbourne Autumn carnival action with the running of the $1million VRC Black Caviar Lightning Stakes at WFA, the first leg of the southern “Triple Crown” for the speedsters, and (since 2005) the first leg of the Global Sprint Challenge.
Saturday sees a massive ten race card at fabulous Flemington and a small but select field of eight contenders for the famous G1 feature.
It's a fascinating contest in prospect, and frankly a nice change up from spinning the roulette wheel that is the two year old form guide at this time of year!
Number one saddlecloth will adorn the beautiful and beloved “Giga” as he attempts to continue his renaissance at the top of the sprinting tree, following an awesome G1 Champions Sprint victory in the spring down the famous straight.
It was an utter mudfest by the time that race ran though, and this is my slight concern for Giga Kick.
He is resuming and carrying 58.5 on the firming Flemington ground - when, since he won the Doomben 10,000 back in 2023, the champ's best runs have been on rain affected tracks.
Barring his G2 Schillaci Stakes win in the spring - and that was a ripper, but this time he meets some super classy three year olds with a big weight advantage.
And a good track at Caulfield in Spring isn't quite the road that a firm Flemington is in the Autumn
On the plus side, the small field suits the son of Scissor Kick and allows him to steam home in his customary fashion without traffic woes you would expect.
Still ... .hard to believe I'm saying it about a three time G1 winner and Everest hero, but I'm leaving Giga out of my top two in this. He will be storming late and if he storms right on by them to win, it will just prove once again that champions do champion things - and only the silliest people underestimate them.
His Lightning rivals are the late- blooming G1 Moir hero Baraqiel, the ever-dangerous mare Benedetta and the three year olds - Godolphin's boom colt Tentyris, the runaway Golden Rose winner Beiwacht, Golden Slipper heroine Marhoona, the super classy flying grey My Gladiola and the promising Military Tycoon who is the rank outsider here but not without her chance.
There have been plenty of champions, plenty of drama and plenty of memorable moments in the history of this great sprint, which was inaugurated by the VRC in 1955 and won by Gay Vista.
Many of the greats won it twice - what about the names Sky High, Wenona Girl, Maybe Mahal, River Rough, Schillaci and Mahogany to give you goosebumps!
Only one has ever been great enough to win the race three times, and since 2013 it has proudly borne her name.
Black Caviar wowed the racing world with a Lightning Stakes three-peat from 2011-2013, and naturally the legendary mare holds the race record time - a scorching 55.42 seconds.
She ran that time on the occasion of her third Lightning triumph.
Great sires have won the Lightning - Todman, Century, General Nediym, Zeditave, Testa Rossa, Choisir, Fastnet Rock.
Great mares aplenty too, aside from those mentioned above - the likes of Ritmar, Citius, Storm Queen, Dual Choice, Special, Spinning Hill, Regimental Gal, Miss Andretti, In Her Time, Coolangatta and Imperatriz.
The roll call also boasts Placid Ark, Redelva, Shaftesbury Avenue, Scenic Blast, Takeover Target, Apache Cat, Redkirk Warrior, Chautauqua, Nature Strip and Lankan Rupee.
Whether they became International flag bearers for the Aussie thoroughbred or stayed to rule the turf at home, these are the magnificent athletes that live in our memory.
Since Home Affairs (I Am Invincible) zoomed to victory in 2022 the girls have held sway, with Coolangatta (Written Tycoon), Imperatriz (Vinnie) and Skybird (Exosphere) rocketing to glory.
Home Affairs and Coolangatta were the latest 3YOs to win the $1 million Black Caviar Lightning.
What spectacle awaits us in 2026 - can the Old Guard hold out some of the best of the next generation?
Top Tip: BARAQIEL
Everyone who has owned, bred or worked with racehorses for any length of time has received a solid education in “the art of patience”.
Well if patience is an art, the connections of Baraqiel have attained Da Vinci - like levels of expertise and execution!
Their immensely talented sprinter has had anything but a smooth path to the top and to G1 success, which he achieved last spring with a barnstorming win in the Moir Stakes aged seven - at just his 13th race start!
He followed it up with a second to the runaway Charm Stone in the G1 Manikato Stakes.
The big son of Snitzel took time to fill his frame and was gelded as a part of the process. He has shown that special G1 ability to his trainers, Leon and Troy Corstens and Will Larkin, and to his big group of owners headed by Bennett Racing,, from the very first.
Just before his long awaited racetrack debut, Baraqiel badly injured himself when rolling under his yard - and consequently spent the best part of a year in rehab.
The big boy recovered from that, only to injure his knee - more vets, more rest, more rehab.
By October 2023 the son of Snitzel was trialling well. Then he injured the other knee! More paddock time and rehab, owners hanging in there, knowing they had a proper racehorse if they could just get him to the track.
January 2024 and the debut appearance was on - until it wasn’t, because Baraqiel had cast himself in his box.
Finally, in May 2024, the stars aligned. Baraqiel made it to a raceday without incident!
The race itself was a humble Sale maiden, but when the gelding blew the field away by four lengths his long suffering connections no doubt celebrated as if he had just won a G1. And the real thing would come in due course! They never lost faith in their boy.
Baraquiel is now the winner of a tick under $1.5 million, but you could have bought the Arrowfield Group Pty Ltd / Jungle Pocket Pty Ltd - bred son of Snitzel as a yearling for a mere $150,000 at the 2020 Magic Millions Sale.
In fact, only one of the seven Snitzels offered in the Arrowfield draft at the Gold Coast that year sold for less.
The astute purchasers were Bennett Racing, Anthony Freedman Racing and Blue Sky Bloodstock.
I like Baraqiel here because a horse like him is always better fresh, and this is something of a specialist distance at which he appears more suited than do a couple of his main Lightning rivals.
He's already ticked the box of G1 WFA winner at the trip.
My formguide says “ better round a bend” I don't know about that - even though Baraqiel obviously loved to ride the camber at the old Valley circuit.
He's had three starts here on his home track - two were placings on Soft 7 ground in late winter / early spring, carrying weight. As soon as Baraqiel got onto a good surface at the Valley he beat War Machine, who would go on to G1 glory in Brisbane, and then he thrashed the 2023 G1 Coolmore runner up I Am Unstoppable in the G2 McEwan Stakes.
They both went to Flemington for the G1 Champions Sprint won by Sunshine In Paris, where I Am Unstoppable flopped bigtime but Baraqiel was super I thought.
He had been in work for a long time at that point, he was right in the thick of things but just peaked late and ended up a little over two lengths off the winner, fighting hard all the way to the line ( beating home Giga Kick and Overpass who were both at short odds). That remains his only unplaced run to date; this is such a genuine racehorse.
So nope, not buying that he doesn't like the straight, probably more that he prefers 1000m to 1200 - and he trials very well here at home too.
Baraqiel joined the army of G1 winners for the late, great Snitzel when he won the Moir Stakes and in the same moment he achieved a rare honour for his dam, the well travelled Hussonet daughter Angel Of Mercy who won four stakes races in NSW, QLD and WA.
Trained by Gerald Ryan who had purchased her as a $180,000 MM yearling from the famous SA nursery Mill Park, the daughter of Hussonet was narrowly denied a G1 victory at her final race start when pipped by Cosmic Endeavour in the Tatts Tiara in Brisbane.
The mare was then purchased for $575,000 by Katsumi Yoshida from Arrowfield at the 2014 MM National Broodmare Select, and her foals have been bred in partnership.
Angel Of Mercy’s very first foal was a full brother to Baraqiel named Jimmu who tragically died young, after making a promising debut.
Her next two were winning fillies by Redoute's Choice, Mother's Mercy (passed in,retained by Arrowfield) and Selfless ( a $320,000 MM buy for Sheamus Mills Bloodstock / FBAA) before Baraqiel arrived in 2018.
While Baraqiel was growing out (all the while, it would seem, choosing which of the infinite options horses have available for injuring themselves he might go with), his mum had produced a 2020 filly to the great son of Redoute's Choice, The Autumn Sun.
She was purchased for $230,000 from Arrowfield at Inglis Easter by Dalziel Bloodstock and Moody Racing.
Named Autumn Angel, under the care of Moody the filly would become a G1 winner of the ATC Oaks and also collect the G2 Kewney and G3 Ethereal Stakes in a brief but brilliant 11 start career which netted her almost $1.2 million in prize money, before injury struck.
Walnut Farm / Yulong shelled out more than $1.2 million through Inglis Digital to secure the four year old for breeding and she was put in foal to Yulong's Japanese shuttler Panthalassa - but sadly the story doesn't have a happy ending. Autumn Angel died last year from foaling complications and her little one did not survive.
When Baraqiel became her second winner at the highest level, the daughter of Hussonet achieved Blue Hen status.
Baraqiel's second dam Pieta was a winning daughter of the blistering speedster Clay Hero.
That black beauty, a grandson of mighty Vain, won the G1 Moir / Oakleigh Plate double of 1989 and was third in the Lightning behind two champions Zeditave and Special.
Interestingly, Clay Hero is also the second damsire of Invader by Snitzel - the Australian Co-Champion 2YO colt of 2016/17 and sire of 2 x G1 Sprint winning mare Sunshine In Paris (Champions Sprint at Flemo) - and his half brother Not Listenentome, an $18 million plus stakes class warhorse with multiple placings at G1 level in both Oz and HK.
This great family is that of Mill Park's matriarch My Madonna, a three time winning daughter of the imported and influential Be My Guest son Prego (IRE) who stood at Arrowfield and was a half brother to the flying filly Pure Of Heart.
She became the dam of the ill fated speedsire Lion Hunter, who still wields great influence through his daughters - as does Prego! Among many fast stock thrown by Prego was his Newmarket Hcp winner Primacy, while his sire Be My Guest appears in many great sprinting pedigrees.
Bred by Kevin Quinn Bloodstock, My Madonna was bought by Mill Park through a mixed sale in Melbourne and took up stud duties for the Watson family on their magnificent limestone - rich acres in 1996.
She produced 12 foals for them before her death in 2012. The jewel in the crown of this Blue Hen was her daughter Divine Madonna - the second dam of Baraqiel's Lightning rival Tentyris! Read about the yearlings entered in upcming sales from the is family here.
Baraqiel is bred
Northern Dancer 5m,5m,6m x 6m
Bletchingly 5m x 5f sex balanced
His Hussonet blood brings in speed of course but also the bloodline’s love for firm ground, as exemplified by his G1 HK winning sons Contentment and Glorious Days, his Aussie champion Weekend Hussler (twice a G1 winner down the Flemington straight) and Eagle Falls (G1 Oakleigh Plate, Newmarket runner up)
A number of Hussonet daughters won stakes races at Flemington. As a broodmare sire the champion son of Mr Prospector has excelled, and in that capacity appears in not only the freak Extreme Choice but in fellow G1 winners Rothfire, Manuel, Shoals, Tyzone, King's Legacy and Lucky Bubbles ( HK )
Hussonet received a double dose of speed through his damsire Raja Baba by Bold Ruler, who like Mr Prospector's sire Native Dancer was out of a Discovery daughter.
He was also bred x 2 to Mr Prospector's damsire Nashua (like Bold Ruler, a son of Nasrullah) and through My Babu carried Nasrullah's close relative Badruddin.
These are all great nicks for Danehill (x 2 Native Dancer's daughter Natalma out of Almahmoud by Nasrullah’s relative Mahmoud), Canny Lad ( x 2 to family member Fair Trial including via Palestine, a,close relation to Raja Baba's damsire Umidwar, and bred x2 to another family member, the fine mare Dodoma) and for Blue Hen Dancing Show ( sex balanced Mahmoud).
Snippets is sex balanced to Nasrullah including via stallion Misty Day who was bred on the cross of three quarter sister and brother Mumtaz Begum and Mahmoud, while Snitzel's third dam Snow Finch is, like Hussonet, bred x 2 to Discovery.
Both Clay Hero and Prego bring plenty more of Nasrullah and his tribe including dual lines to the great sprinter Tudor Minstrel - who does not appear anywhere else in the pedigree.
Notably Clay Hero carries My Babu's half brother Marco Polo, and Baraqiel's fifth damsire Chamozzle was by Native Dancer's son Hul A Hul - a stallion highly inbred to his own family ( A15) which is a strong presence in both Late Date, ancestress of Redoute's Choice, and in the stallion Sun Again carried by Storm Bird in Snitzel - he hails from the same damline as Hussonet.
There's a whole lot more going on in this fabulous pedigree but I'm out of space!
Baraqiel and Ben Allen will be bold and on speed from barrier 5.
Next best: TENTYRIS
I’m going for a historic family quinella here for Mill Park - and for the ghost of Our Madonna, who will no doubt do a couple of spectral laps of her old paddock if this result gets up.
Tentyris has simply commanded attention from the day he set foot on a racecourse. He is a magnificent powerhouse and the most naturally gifted of athletes.
When he appeared in the parade ring before his first start at Sandown in February last year for the G3 Chairman's Stakes, it was a “wow” moment.
Though he was fifth that day (his sole unplaced run as it turns out!) the imposing son of Street Boss was the one you wanted to follow out of the race - very possibly all the way to the Golden Slipper.
Unfortunately, injury ruled out a Slipper run for the Anthony and Sam Freedman trained Tentyris - not that it mattered by the time he went to the paddock as a G1 winner of the coveted Coolmore Stud Stakes.
At his second race start the colt dead heated in the Listed Talindert Stakes 1100m down the Flemington straight, where he matched motors with the extremely fast and talented Shining Smile - they dropped the rest by three lengths that day.
It was Tentyris who went on to tackle G1 company in the Blue Diamond Stakes, pulling out a huge performance and going down oh so narrowly to Devil Night.
Then it was off to Sydney, where he came with another scintillating late burst to beat boom colt Wodeton and subsequent G1 Champagne winner Nepotism in the G2 Todman Stakes.
Tentyris resumed at Flemington with a solid third in the G2 Danehill Stakes then won the Gothic Stakes at Caulfield.
He absolutely blew the opposition away in the Coolmore, displaying again that startling burst of acceleration which few horses possess - and was then sensationally scratched at the barriers for the G1 Champions Sprint, as the track descended into a quagmire.
Even if he had raced against the winner Giga Kick that day it still wouldn’t have given a reliable guide as to how he’ll go against him here.
Punters have to make a leap of faith in the colt to back him to beat the champ and plenty are willing, as he is the firm favourite at time of writing
Tentyris is a homebred for Godolphin and is the second foal and second winner for Deity, a fast metro winning daughter of Exceed And Excel out of the champion Divine Madonna - this fabulous family is discussed above.
It's true that Tentyris hasn't actually won outright first up yet, nor has he won at less than 1100m. I don't think it's a worry. He's even bigger and stronger now than he was in the spring, he's jumped out well, and that dynamic turn of foot he owns will be primed to ignite!
Tentyris is bred
Northern Dancer x5m,5m
He is bred on the outstanding Street Boss / Exceed And Excel nick which has produced numerous stakes winners including the freakish filly Tempted - a great juvenile, an even better 3yo - not many could have run second in The Everest to the fastest horse in the world, Ka Ying Rising.
Deity is a half sister to stakes winning Maternal (Street Cry) who died in 2025 leaving just one daughter, a winner by Lonhro still racing - and stakes placed La Pieta (Redoute's Choice) exported to GB in 2015.
She produced a filly to Blue Point in 2022 named Parcae who is unraced and in the Freedman stable.
This season saw the arrival of another daughter and an exciting three quarter sister to Tentyris - by Darley's great son of Street Boss, Anamoe. Deity was then covered by their champion sire Too Darn Hot.
The prepotent Street Boss / Exceed And Excel nick - anchored by the wildly successful pattern of linebreeding to the Almahmoud family through Machiavellian and Danehill - seems to produce a blend of stamina, acceleration and mental and physical toughness that creates a fearsome equine competitor.
The damsire of Tentyris, Hurricane Sky brings that Dancing Show damline that contributes so much to any pedigree and his sire Star Watch is an important cross for Street Boss, as he carries a line to Blushing Groom's relative Pipe Of Peace in combination with that sire's greatest pedigree nick Nijinsky.
Be My Guest carried by the dam of Tentyris also taps into this affinity, and a ripper of a nick is created by the relatively obscure sire Chamozzle and the far more famous Pakistan, the fifth and sixth damsires of Tentyris - between the two of them they have much in common genetically with Street Cry's Blue Hen dam Helen Of Troy
Tentyris has already assured his future - he's got the looks, the talent, the attitude, the blossoming tail male dynasty, the blue chip female line and the big “sire-making” G1.
Mare owners will be queuing up to use him, but before he leaves the track he can achieve a lot more - does it start right here?
Tentyris and his Blue Diamond jockey Damian Lane are reunited. They'll likely have the last crack at them and will fly from barrier 7.
Roughie: MY GLADIOLA
John McArdle’s flying grey is beautifully bred and comes from a long line of speed machines. You'd think the daughter of champion sire I Am Invincible will be quite wound up here, as this probably represents her best chance to get an open G1.
It was impossible to ignore her sparkling trial leading up to this assignment, when she sat wide and comfortably beat Giga Kick!
My Gladiola was a stakes winner on debut in the G3 Blue Diamond Preview over the $600,000 Zoustar filly Price Tag, then ran second in the Preview to Rosemont Stud's homebred Palm Angel (Starspangledbanner).
The grey next appeared in the Blue Diamond where she raced without a lot of luck. She was unlucky not to win when resuming at Caulfield, then scored a tough win on her first Flemington appearance.
She was just outbobbed by McGaw in the Danehill Stakes but beat home Tentyris, and again she ran home strongly in the Coolmore - though the Street Boss colt absolutely had her measure there.
I think she's a possible chance to beat him home at 1000m, probably not beyond. But you never know!
My Gladiola was bred and sold by Kia Ora Stud and was a $550,000 Inglis Easter buy for Redgum Racing.
Kia Ora retained an interest in the filly who races for a big team of owners.
My Gladiola is the seventh foal and only stakes winner to date among five winners from the very fast, G2 winning / G1 Galaxy placed Not A Single Doubt daughter Villa Verde.
Bought as a broodmare prospect for $1.1million at the Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale in 2015, Villa Verde is a three quarter sister-in-blood to the blisteringly fast G2 winning colt Doubtland, and to stakes winner Pretty Fast, out of Young And Free, a daughter of the legendary broodmare sire Kenmare.
She has visited I Am Invincible on several occasions and her colt by him named Blue Special was a $ 1 million dollar MM yearling. (He last won a race in Bordertown and that's the way the breeding cookie crumbles!)
Villa Verde's filly by Pierro was a $180,000 Inglis Classic buy for Riverstone Lodge and she has produced a colt to Ole Kirk.
This is the immediate family of the recent Canonbury Stakes runner up on debut, the exciting colt Confederation ((Wootton Bassett) who is well in the 2026 Golden Slipper conversation!
It descends from Rory's Rocket, the dam of breed shaper Rory's Jester, through his stakes winning half sister Sushi Rocket.
It's also the family of the memorable Golden Slipper winning filly Ha Ha.
My Gladiola is bred
Northern Dancer 5m x 5m
Danzig 4m x 5m
Canny Lad 3f x 5f
Blue Hen Rory's Rocket x 5m,4f sex balanced
Rory's Rocket carried the half brothers Mahmoud and Pherozshah and further duplication of both their sires.
Her sire Roan Rocket was tail male to War Relic and is a prime nick for both Canny Lad and his sire Bletchingly, while her ancestress was a daughter of Santorb by Santoi - this is the broodmare sire line of Kenmare's tail male ancestor Grey Sovereign.
My Gladiola is linebred to relatives Danzig, Bletchingly, Rockefella and Blue Hen Rafha - and notably to Round Table, My Babu (Milesian x 2) and Relic.
Her sire I Am Invincible is the sire of Lightning winners Imperatriz and Home Affairs while Loving Gaby was third in 2020.
Both Rory's Jester and Kenmare feature in the pedigrees of a number of Lightning Stakes winners and no doubt they will continue to do so far into the future - carried forward by great stallions like Written Tycoon,and Extreme Choice!
Can the lovely grey write her own chapter of that story?
My Gladiola and Jamie Mott will jump from barrier 8.
Blowout: MARHOONA
Marhoona seeks to break one of racing’s familiar hoodoos - the return of the Golden Slipper winner to G1 winning form.
In her favour, she is so lightly raced, winning the Slipper ( a high quality Slipper too) at just her third start and turning the tables on future superstar Tempted, who had narrowly beaten her in the Riesling Stakes.
Plus, in a brief campaign, the Michael Freedman trained filly immediately returned to winning form in the spring - something many Slipper winners fail to do.
Marhoona lacks for absolutely nothing on pedigree, being a homebred for Emirates Park by mighty Snitzel from one of the stud’s carefully nurtured families.
She is the best of three stakes winners from the Encosta De Lago daughter Salma - the others being her Listed winning half sister Salateen ( I Am Invincible) exported to GB, and G2 winning half brother Hilal (Fastnet Rock) exported to NZ.
Hilal’s placed full sister Salaasel is retained by Emirates Park and has foals on the ground by Justify and Tassort with one to come by Too Darn Hot, while Marhoona's unraced half sister by Tassort has been served by Farnan for her first foal.
After producing Marhoona, Salma failed to get in foal for several seasons but happily she is now carrying an Anamoe!
Her dam Salameh, by the Emirates Park stalwart Secret Savings, won the Fernhill at two and was dam of eight foals, several of which were exported. Only two were fillies, Salma the best.
Salameh was out of Show Dancing by the grand old broodmare sire Don't Say Halo, out of Blue Hen Dancing Show, and thus a half sister to G1 winner and top sire Al Maher - and a close relative of Umatilla, Hurricane Sky, Redoute's Choice and all the usual suspects in the ever-expanding Best In Show tribe.
Like many of the best of them, Marhoona is linebred to the family.
Marhoona is bred
Northern Dancer 5m,5m x 4m
Mr Prospector x 5f,5m sex balanced
Blue Hen Dancing Show 4f x 4f
She is one of 9 stakeswinners bred on the Snitzel x Encosta cross, which includes fellow G1 winning two year olds Invader, Summer Passage and Cambridge Stud's new superstar Sword Of State who was a G1 winning sprinter at three - and note his third damsire is Don't Say Halo.
One of the best aspects of Marhoona's pedigree is sex balanced linebreeding to another Blue Hen Grey Flight who is both the ancestress of Secret Savings through daughter Misty Morn and son Misty Day carried by Snippets.
Secret Savings was bred x 2 sex balanced to Blue Hen Broadway by Hasty Road out of Blue Hen Traffic Court - his half brother Traffic Judge was the sire of Best In Show.
Blue Hens galore
Underpinning it all are two of the greatest La Troienne and Almahmoud.
I think Marhoona is exceptional and though it's her first time at Flemington, I believe her capable of causing an upset here. She comes in off a trial win over Autumn Glow, not a bad lead in!
Hard to know if she'll lead, but she will be forward in what's probably going to be a packed field!
Marhoona and Mickey Dee have drawn ideally in gate 4.
