Quilista romps to Sapphire Stakes victory

Saturday 14 April 2018, 5:56pm

Damian Lane is looking forward to relaxing back home in Western Australia after wrapping up his Sydney autumn carnival in a rush at Randwick.

The 24-year-old Melbourne-based jockey wasted no time setting the tempo in the Group Two Sapphire Stakes (1200m) on Quilista and after building a six-length advantage midway through the trip resisted all challengers.

Quilista claimed the Group Three Birthday Stakes at Rosehill on March 24 with Tommy Berry and the four-year-old Darren Weir-trained mare used the same tactics to dominate on Saturday.

"She's got a very high cruising speed and to be honest I just on her and let her do her thing," Lane said.

Quilista ($5.50) gave Lane a double on day two of The Championships after California Turbo won the Listed South Pacific Classic.

He ended the carnival with four winners, highlighted by $81 outsider El Dorado Dreaming's shock triumph in the Group One Sires' Produce Stakes.

"It's unfortunate the carnival ends today, I'm rapt with my last three weeks," he said.

"I'll catch up with some old friends and family now. There's a lot of things I've missed out on since I moved to Melbourne as a 17-year-old."

Breeder Ellie Giles, who represented owners Justin and Carol Warwick, was not surprised Quilista held on.

"She was very brave. She likes to roll along, she's got good gate speed and she can keep up a sustained gallop," she said.

Ravi ($7.50) chased her home while White Moss ($13) was a long head third.

– AAP

Latest News

Prime Thoroughbreds - We have a Host of Leaders in our Team

Tuesday, 29 June 2021

Prime Thor­ough­bred’s cur­rent rac­ing team is putt­ing to­gether quite a re­cord. We have 22 hors­es that have raced in our team at pre­sent. Six­teen of th­ese are win­n­ers in­clud­ing the Stakes win­n­ing trio Ru­bisa­ki, Fituese and Xtreme­time with Miss Di­vine Em and Miss In Charge run­n­ing 4th in Stakes races. This sees a stakes win­n­er to win­n­er ra­tio of 18.75% with a stake’s per­formed to win­n­er ra­tio of 31.25%. Th­ese are ex­cep­tio­n­al fig­ures.   More »

Freedmans land maiden Group One win

Saturday, 27 February 2021

Un­der-rat­ed fil­ly For­bid­den Love has emerged as an au­tumn car­ni­val smokey with a bril­liant per­for­mance to win the Sur­round Stakes at Rand­wick.  More »

Capriccio completes Damian Lane treble

Saturday, 27 February 2021

In a big day for coun­try-trained hors­es, War­r­nam­bool fil­ly Capric­cio has tak­en out the In­glis Dash for Daniel Bow­man.  More »

More news headlines »