News

Shamus Award Triumphs In Australian Championship

26th Oct 2013

Inglis graduate Shamus Award triumphed in Australia’s weight-for-age championship at Moonee Valley on Saturday, the $3 million Group 1 MVRC W.S. Cox Plate over 2040m.

Shamus Award ($230,000 2012 Easter, 3c Snitzel-Sunset Express) and his apprentice jockey Chad Schofield broke all types of records in their all the way victory ahead of last start Group 1 winner Happy Trails and Melbourne Cup favourite Fiorente.

Replay of Shamus Award’s Cox Plate victory can be viewed HERE

The Danny O’Brien trained three-year-old was coming off placings in Group 2 MVRC Stutt Stakes at the track and Group 1 MRC Caulfield Guineas, but today’s victory was Shamus Award’s first win. He became the first maiden to win the prestigious race in its 90 year history.

“We would have loved to have been winning the Stutt and the Guineas and coming here as favourite. A couple of things went against him in those races, but today we got out there to make our own luck and just show what a good colt he is,” said O’Brien.

“He could easily have been a Guineas winner and a Cox Plate, but we are pretty happy to take the Cox Plate. It’s a great feeling, these majors are not that easy to win and these opportunities don't come along very often,” added O’Brien.

Shamus Award joins an illustrious list of three-year-olds to claim the Cox Plate, but only the fourth to do so in the last 20 years along with Octagonal, Savabeel and So You Think.

Bred by Bob Hannon of Ascot Park at Pitt Town NSW, Shamus Award was sold to owners Sean Buckley and Viv Oldfield for $230,000 from the draft of Vinery Stud at the 2012 Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale.

To view Shamus Award as a yearling go to www.facebook.com/InglisBloodstock

The valuable son of Snitzel also joins the long list of Inglis yearling sale graduates to claim the time honoured WS Cox Plate, such as Might And Power, Fields Of Omagh, Maldivian and Pinker Pinker.

Winning 19-year-old apprentice jockey Chad Schofield also enters the record books as the youngest winner of Australia’s weight-for-age championship since Brent Thomson in 1975.

“It’s a fantastic feeling. I wanted to get a Group 1 really badly, and what a way to do it in a Cox Plate,” said a jubilant Schofield.

Shamus Award’s maiden win took his prizemoney earnings past the $2 million mark today. The colt has also been placed seven times in just 10 career starts.

Shamus Award
*Race Record:*10:1-3-4
Prizemoney: A$2,112,500
Breeding: Snitzel x Sunset Express (by Success Express)
Breeder: Bob Hannon NSW
Vendor: Vinery Stud, Scone
Sale: $230,000 at 2012 Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale