TJ Smith Stakes: Chautauqua records back-to-back win at Randwick

A last-to-first triumph provided Chautauqua with back-to-back wins in the $2.5 million TJ Smith Stakes at Randwick.

Chautauqua ridden by Tommy Berry at Royal Randwick.

A barnstorming last-to-first triumph provided Chautauqua with back-to-back wins in the $2.5 million TJ Smith Stakes (1200m) at Randwick.

Jockey Tommy Berry capped off a winning treble – having earlier won the Australian Derby on Kiwi longshot Tavago and the Country Championship on Clearly Innocent – as the $3.60 chance sprinted from a seemingly impossible position over the last 200m.

“He just does stupid things this horse,” co-trainer Michael Hawkes said.

“It’s ridiculous to reel off the sort of sectionals that he does.”

Hawkes said on returning to weight-for-age conditions from defeat in the Newmarket Handicap last start, Chautauqua’s performance was phenomenal.

“The older this horse has got the better he has got and that just doesn’t happen, it’s crazy really.”

Managing owner Rupert Legh said “there is only one Chautauqua”.

“It stirs the emotions in your body to think can he do it again but he does it every time doesn’t he?” Legh said.

The win sets up a mouth-watering clash with Buffering in the Group One Chairman’s Prize Sprint at Sha Tin on May 1, with the possibility of a trip to Royal Ascot not ruled out.

Chautauqua reeled in Fell Swoop ($15) and English ($9) and, so fast did he finish that the grey gelding won by 1.25 lengths.

“He’s just a machine,” Berry said.

“It’s not that initial part when he takes off.

“Sort of halfway down the straight he lets go and you’re like ‘am I going to get them?’ And then that last 100m Jesus he goes.”

The $3.10 favourite Exosphere finished 11th and pulled up lame, sparking fears that the colt’s racing career may be over.

Natalie Young has become the first woman to train an ATC Australian Derby winner as the trophy heads to New Zealand for the third time in four years.

Tavago ($31) gave Young and her partner Trent Busuttin an upset win in Saturday’s 2400m Classic at Randwick with the odds-on favourite Tarzino ($1.65) never improving from fourth.

Although Young and Busuttin have been credited as training partners for many years at home, only Busuttin’s name was beside that of Sangster when he won the 2011 Victoria Derby.

“She is twice the horsewoman than I am a trainer,” Busuttin said.

“It does make it more special that Natalie’s name is there on the record.”

A $10,000 filly, a group of first-time owners from all walks of life and a trainer who turned his life around from the brink.

Now add a Group One triumph to the Yankee Rose story.

The remarkable filly added to the fairytale script by winning the Group One Sires’ Produce Stakes at Randwick on Saturday.

It took her career prize money to more than $1.5 million from four starts, with her CV also boasting second in the Golden Slipper behind Capitalist.

James Porter, one of 18 people in the filly’s ownership, said it was the first time he had seen Yankee Rose live.

“My heart is still beating a million miles an hour,” Porter said.

“I’m speechless mate.”

Porter has just left his job in the insurance industry to train and rear greyhounds, but concedes he will never experience anything like the win in any form of racing.

Other owners include construction workers, retirees and receptionists.

Victory in the Sires’ completed a remarkable comeback for trainer David Vandyke, who has survived heroin addiction and a suicide attempt to train his first Group One winner.

“It’s through a power greater than myself that I’ve gotten here today,” Vandyke said.

“I feel that power all the time and I turn to it often.”

Vandyke said Yankee Rose had showed her champion qualities in the Golden Rose “I’m still numb,” Vandyke said.

“I can’t believe I’ve actually won a Group One.

“To win one at Randwick - I started working here when I was a teenager and this track means so much to me.”

Godolphin colt Telperion was no match for Yankee Rose on Saturday in finishing with another filly, Faraway Town, taking the minor placing.

Yankee Rose will now tackle the Champagne Stakes in two weeks.

Additional reporting AAP