THE unlikeliest Group 1 winner for some time must be Trix Of The Trade.

Don’t get me wrong. He is a talented four-year-old in Australia, and has now won nine of his 14 starts and been placed four times, earning £682,457 (A$1,267,865). Last weekend he won the premier race on Perth’s racing calendar, the Group 1 Railway Stakes at Ascot, and prior to this his three blacktype wins were all at listed level.

Though he conditioned Rogan Josh before that gelding transferred to Bart Cummings and won the Melbourne Cup, winning trainer Colin Webster was saddling his first Group 1 winner. The significance of this achievement is that Webster is 84 – and the story gets better!

The delighted trainer said: “Unbelievable. A Group 1. My first Group 1. It is unbelievable. He’s a magnificent horse and Troy [Turner] rides him just to perfection. I am very proud of him. Very proud.

Nineties

”It’s very special. Even old Bill and Pat Robinson [the owners and breeders] came down to see him. They can’t come to the races much because of their age, and they’re here today to watch him win. They’re over the moon.” The Robinsons are both in their nineties.

Trix Of The Trade is the second winner of the Group 1 Railway Stakes in his family. His fourth dam is the grandam of Old Fashion (Metal Storm), and he won the same race 20 years ago. Perhaps this win was written in the stars!

After all, Trix Of The Trade is out of an unraced mare, My Name’s Trixie (Passenger), who sold eight years ago for A$500. Yes, that number is not missing a zero. She has had three foals, two have run and won, and the other has won five times. It gets better.

Never recommend

My Name’s Trixie is one of six foals out of the once-raced Crown Around (Speed Week) who was twice sold for just A$400. Four of her half dozen foals raced and none managed to do anything. This looked like a branch of a family not so much in decline as dead in the water. You would never recommend that someone would continue to breed.

What of Trade Fair (Zafonic), the sire of Trix Of The Trade? The Juddmonte-bred and raced colt was trained by Roger Charlton who saddled him to win a Group 3 race at Newmarket and the Group 3 Minstrel Stakes at the Curragh. All of his five wins were over seven furlongs, and he started favourite for the Group 1 Dewhurst Stakes and finished third to Tout Seul and Tomahawk.

Retired to Tweenhills Stud where he stood for five seasons, Trade Fair’s second crop included the Canadian Grade 1 winner Trade Storm. Trix Of The Trade is his only other top-level winner, and comes from the stallion’s final crop in Australia.