Given the Flemington carnival was dominated by Yulong, Chris Waller and James McDonald, it was hardly surprising that the final Group 1 race of the week, the Champions Stakes, was won by the Yulong-owned, Waller-trained and McDonald-ridden Via Sistina.
The champion mare joined a rare group of horses to have won four Group 1 races in the one spring - Anamoe, Winx and So You Think since 1990 - with her runaway victory on Saturday, in what was a great week already for the green Yulong colours.
They had already saluted three times in the previous 35 races, twice with Treasurethe Moment, in the Wakeful and VRC Oaks, and once with Tycoon Star in the Maribyrnong Plate. Zhang Yuesheng’s outfit also bred Inglis Banner winner Within The Law as well as Cup day winner Manolo Bling, who they also still have ownership in, although not in their colours.
It was also a massive week for Yulong stallions, with Alabama Express getting his first Group 1 winner (Treasurethe Moment) and Lucky Vega his first stakes winner (Within The Law).
Yulong’s Written Tycoon was also the leading sire over the four days with three individual winners, Tycoon Star, Bel Air and Catoggio.
Overall, there was a great diversity of stallions represented across the 36 individual winners, with Haunui Farm’s Ribchester the only other with multiple representatives, Pisanella and Garachico. Overall, there were 33 individual stallions to get a winner across the week.
There was a similarly broad representation of broodmare sires, with 34 represented across the 36 winners of the 37 races. The two whose daughters had multiple winners were More Than Ready (Knight’s Choice and Maharba) and Medaglia D’Oro (Glam Guru and Pisanello). Street Cry, the damsire of Treasurethe Moment, also had a big week.
In terms of breeders, as mentioned it was a huge carnival for Yulong, with four wins across three horses. Arrowfield had a Derby Day double, having bred both Coolmore Stud Stakes winner Switzerland, and Isthmus, while Gerry Harvey bred two Melbourne Cup day winners with Cloudland and Catoggio, as did Sherrif Iskander with Bel Air and Tycoon Star.
In contrast, Godolphin’s two homebred winners came at either end of the carnival, Zeitung in the second race on Derby Day and Pisanello in the last on Stakes Day.
With the exception of the Yulong green and Godolphin blue, no other set of colours triumphed more than once across the week.
Waller ended the carnival with six winners from 35 runners, with three of his wins in Group 1s. Ciaron Maher had five wins from 45 runners, although he was luckless in the Group 1 races.
Anthony and Sam Freedman had a successful week with victories from Isthmus, Bel Air and Manolo Bling among their 16 runners. Matt Laurie’s strike rate was even more impressive with two wins, including a Group 1, from five starters.
The Hayes brothers also had two wins (from 28 starters), including a trifecta in the Maribyrnong Plate as well as Mr Brightside’s eighth Group 1 win, while Godolphin’s James Cummings was the other trainer with multiple winners, with two from 16 starters.
All in all, there were 23 different trainers with a Flemington winner for the week, eight of them in a training partnership.
Now, we reach the jockeys. McDonald’s week was simply sensational, surpassing the 10 winners he had over the four days in 2024. He had 11 winners from 33 rides and also had six second and three thirds. Six of his 11 winners were for Waller.
Switzerland wins the Coolmore Stud Stakes. (Vision: YouTube)
He had 15 rides across the final two days for six wins, three seconds, two thirds, two fourths and two fifths.
Ben Melham was the next best jockey with four winners, while Luke Nolen, Jye McNeil, Mick Dee, Damian Lane and Jamie Kah all rode two winners each. All in all, there were 19 winning jockeys, just three of which usually base themselves outside of Victoria, McDonald, Nash Rawiller and Robbie Dolan.
The most successful saddlecloth numbers were two and five with five wins each, while there were no victories for numbers three and eight.
Five was also the most successful barrier, also with five winners, Of the 37 races, 24 of the winners drew seven or inside.
Flemington carnival leaders:
