AQUIS T J SMITH STAKES

(GROUP 1)

SANTA Ana Lane put an exclamation mark to his claim as the country’s best sprinter with an authoritative performance in the A$2.5 million TJ Smith Stakes at Randwick over 1,200 metres.

Sitting on the fourth line of betting, the Lope De Vega gelding gave his rivals a start at the top of the straight before tearing away as the widest runner to win by three and a half lengths for jockey Mark Zahra. Second was the Street Cry gelding Osbourne Bulls, his third consecutive Group 1 runners-up cheque, with the three-time Group 1-winning filly Sunlight, by Zoustar, third.

EUROPE

“We will obviously give Hong Kong serious thought and if things are still good we will head on to Europe,” said trainer Anthony Freedman. “He’s clearly gone to a huge level now. I know how to train him and that is the key with horses, the trainer works out how to train them and you get the best out of them. Keep him fresh, big gaps between runs and he just keeps stepping up to the mark. That’s [Group 1] number five so we just keep finding good races for him now and hope that he can keep doing it.”

An $80,000 Melbourne Premier Sale yearling, six-year-old Santa Ana Lane improved his record to 10 wins from 33 starts and earnings just over $5 million.