Sunline

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Sunline
Winning the 1999 Doncaster Handicap.
Sire:	Desert Sun
Dam:	Songline
Damsire:	Western Symphony
Sex:	Mare
Foaled:	1995
Country:	New Zealand
Colour:	Bay
Breeder:	Susan Archer & Michael Martin
Owner:	Trevor McKee, T Green & H Lusty
Trainer:	Trevor McKee
Record:	48:32-9-3
Earnings:	AU$11,351,607
Major Racing Wins & Honours & Awards
Major Racing Wins
Flight Stakes (1998) Cox Plate (1999 & 2000) Doncaster Handicap (1999 & 2002) All Aged Stakes (2000 & 2002) Coolmore Classic (2000 & 2002) Waikato Draught Sprint (2000 & 2002) Hong Kong Mile (2000) Manikato Stakes (2000)
Honours
Australian Horse of the Year (2000, 2001, 2002)
Infobox last updated on: November 20, 2006.

Sunline (b. 1995) is a New Zealand mare Thoroughbred racehorse widely regarded as one of the great racing mares in Australasian racing history. She raced on 48 occasions for 32 wins, 9 seconds and 3 thirds, amassing an amazing $11,351,607, making her the world's second highest earning female racehorse behind Makybe Diva. She won races in three different countries: Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong. She won back-to-back W.S. Cox Plates (2040m), the richest weight for age race in Australia. She also won the toughest mile race in Australia, the Doncaster Handicap, twice: once as a 3yo and then again as a 6yo. She was nominated Australian Horse of the Year an unprecedented three times in a row, and New Zealand Horse Of The Year four times in a row. Sunline led in most of her races, and sometimes settled just behind the leader. She was renowned for her tremendous constitution, and for being difficult to get past.

Sunline was born at Pleasanton Stud near Cambridge, New Zealand on 29 September 1995. Her sire was the handy Group 2 winning English sire Desert Sun, a son of leading U.S. sire Danzig, and her dam was the former capable mare Songline by Western Symphony. A big strong plain bay with no white markings, Sunline was leased by her breeders Susan Archer & Michael Martin to Takanini trainer Trevor McKee. In partnership with Thayne Green and Helen Lusty, McKee raced the filly only three times as a two-year-old which yielded three good wins.

After her first up win as a three-year-old, McKee knew he had a good horse on his hands and sent Sunline across the Tasman to Australia for the rich spring races. Sunline did not disappoint. She won her Sydney debut race, the Group Three Furious Stakes, over 1400m, and followed that up with a soft win and a race record in the Group Two Tea Rose Stakes. She then won as she liked with her first Group One win on Australian turf with another soft win in the time honoured Flight Stakes. She was a superstar in the making.

Sunline resumed in the autumn in Melbourne. Her unbeaten sequence did not end until she was beaten a head by Melbourne filly Rose'O War in the Group Three Angus Armanasco Stakes. The race was not run to suit, with a longshot taking off before the home turn, which may have exposed Sunline's lack of fitness on the day, as she was jumping from 1200 to 1600m second-up. Sunline exacted her revenge by soundly defeating that same filly in the Group Two A.V. Kewney Stakes and the million dollar Moonee Valley Oaks over 2040m. In the latter race, she easily beat that year's VRC and AJC Oaks winner Grand Archway by four and a half lengths over the Cox Plate course.

The champion filly then ventured North to Sydney to tackle the time honoured and toughest mile race in Australia, the Doncaster Handicap (1600m). So popular was the filly that she was sent out favourite at odds of 10-9. She demolished her rivals, picking up her second Group One event as a three year old.

A fortnight later, Sunline was sent out a long odds-on favourite in the Queen Elizabeth Stakes over 2000m at Randwick. She led the field over the rise near the top of the straight, but faded badly to finished second-last of the six runners. The reason for Sunline's failure remains a matter of debate amongst race fans. Some took the defeat as a sign that Sunline could not stay 2000m in top class company. Her record over the distance was excellent at Moonee Valley (three wins from five starts) but less so at other, larger tracks (one from five). Some put the failure down to Sunline being tired after five previous runs this campaign. In any case, the run provided an inglorious end to an otherwise outstanding 3 year old season and the filly was sent home to New Zealand for a spell.

Unlike so many 3 year old champions before her, Sunline came back stronger than ever as a 4 year old. Following her brilliant 3yo season, she was immedately installed as early favourite for the three million dollar weight-for-age championship in the WS Cox Plate at Moonee Valley. A first up win in the AJC (Australian Jockey Club) Warwick Stakes over 1400m, proved to race goers that she had lost none of her brilliance. Trevor McKee then tried to get his champion to settle in her races, and he believes this is what cost her wins in the STC Theo Marks Stakes and the AJC George Main Stakes, in which she ran second. Her next run was a close but slightly disappointing fourth under 56.5 kilos in the Epsom Handicap.

Undaunted, the McKees pressed on to the Cox Plate. Some were saying she had lost her spark, but any doubts were put to sleep when she brilliantly won her first Cox Plate, beating Tie The Knot and Sky Heights. She was only the fifth mare to win the race since its conception in 1922.

Sunline then defeated other mares in the Breeders Stakes, in New Zealand, and was sent to Hong Kong to face a crack field in the International Cup, over 2000m. She led, and jockey Greg Childs said she travelled well to the home turn, but, in an echo of the autumn's Queen Elizabeth Stakes, she tired badly, and finished seventh. She was then returned home to New Zealand for a spell.

Back in Sydney for the autumn, Sunline powered through the rain-affected going to win the Apollo Stakes (1400m) first up. Remarkably, in her entire career, she was never beaten over the distance. Then she lugged 60 kilograms to win the first of her two Coolmore Classics - at the time, this was Australia's only Group One race for fillies and mares (3yo+). At her next start she carried 57.5 kilograms in the Doncaster Handicap and was then beaten by a head by three-year-old Over, who had a 6 kilogram advantage. In defeat, some judges regard this performance as the best of her career (she defeated the rest of the field by four lengths). At her next start, her 24th, she relished the return to weight for age conditions in the All Aged Stakes to record win number 17 by almost 5 lengths, with her Doncaster Handicap conqueror, Over, in third place. By now, the great mare had won over $4.7 million dollars.

Sunline started her 5yo campaign in Melbourne against the sprinters, easily winning the Group One Manikato Stakes (1200m) at Moonee Valley. She then took wins in the Memsie Stakes and won as she liked in the Feehan Stakes. She was beaten by a head in a duelling battle with Sydney's champion three-year-old from the previous season, Fairway, in the 2000m Turnbull Stakes. Fairway led and Sunline was unable to peg him back in the home straight. It was Sunline's third defeat over the distance from as many starts away from Moonee Valley. Sunline fans regard her next run as one of her greatest. On the last Saturday of October 2000, with 84,000 cheering fans, Sunline ploughed through the muddy conditions in devastating fashion to win the Cox Plate by seven lengths from Caulfield Cup winner Diatribe, and the Sydney galloper Referral, who showed his first glimpse of form for some time. Perhaps unsuited in the conditions, fancied runners Tie The Knot (2nd in 1999), Sky Heights (3rd in 1999), and Shogun Lodge (conqueror of Sunline in the George Main Stakes) were beaten a combined margin of more than 100 lengths.

Returning home, the mare's owners revealed that Sunline had been part of a bidding war from five different countries, including the powerful Godolphin stables in the United Arab Emirates. All bids were rejected. The mare was being prepared for another tilt at the international level and she raced away with the Group Two Breeders Stakes at Pukekohe in November. Connections and fans believed that she could atone for her previous overseas defeat. In her final race for 2000, Sunline lined up in the Group One Hong Kong International Mile (1600m), whereas 12 months earlier she had contested the Group One Hong Kong International Cup (2000m). The Cup, over the extra distance, is generally regarded as the tougher of the two races. In the Mile, Sunline led all the way to narrowly defeat Fairy King Prawn, who came wide on the home turn and loomed up strongly, while Adam, from Australia, ran third. Some fans have claimed that Sunline was world's best mare, on the basis of this victory, but the claim is somewhat contentious in that other judges would regard the standard of racing in Europe and America to be somewhat stronger than in Hong Kong.

Sunline's Cox Plate victory in 2000 saw the Australian and New Zealand Horse of the Year receive an invitation to compete in the world's richest raceday, the magnificent Dubai World Cup meeting in the United Arab Emirates.

In early February, Trevor McKee decided it was time Sunline raced again and chose the Group One Waikato Sprint, a 1400m weight-for-age event on February 3 as her 2001 pipe-opener. Despite the Waikato Sprint carding a field that included 7 other Group One winners, Sunline enjoyed what had to be the easiest of her now nine Group One wins, turning the race into a procession. The Waikato victory kept alive Sunline's wonderful New Zealand record, which eventually stood at 10 wins from as many starts. Sunline's next step on the road to Dubai came with a hit-and-run trip to Sydney to compete in the 1400m Apollo Stakes at Warwick Farm on the first Saturday in March. For the second year in a row, the Group Two was run on a rain-affected track, and Sunline was too good for the veteran mudlark Celestial Choir, with Tie The Knot unplaced.

In Dubai, Sunline showed her customary pace to lead the field, but the long straight gave her rivals every chance to run her down, and the French globetrotter Jim And Tonic and the Hong Kong star Fairy King Prawn did so over the last 200m. Sunline returned to Australia to contest the All-Aged Stakes, but was surprisingly run down by El Mirada and Final Fantasy.

Now six, Sunline returned in the new season with a second-placing to Piavonic in the Manikato Stakes prior to winning the Memsie Stakes for the second year in a row, and the Turnbull Stakes two starts later. Unfortunately for Sunline, a new star had come onto the scene, the West Australian phenomenon Northerly, who defeated Sunline in both the Feehan Stakes and the Cox Plate. In the autumn of 2002, Northerly had three starts in Melbourne (with limited success), while Sunline raced in New Zealand (where she won a second Waikato Sprint) and Sydney (where she won the Coolmore Classic, the Doncaster Handicap, and the All-Aged Stakes, each for the second time). So good did some judges consider this campaign that she won a third Australian Horse of the Year award, despite Northerly's dominance of her in the spring, and Ethereal dominating the big staying races.

In the spring, Sunline notched her fifth consecutive win when taking the Mudgway Stakes first-up in New Zealand, and returned to Sydney for the George Main Stakes. Sunline led but was run down by Defier and Excellerator, with Lonhro a luckless fourth. Her next start produced a classic contest with Lonhro in the Caulfield Stakes. Sunline led, and, to a huge roar from the crowd, skipped away by more than three lengths at the top of the straight, but Lonhro loomed up strongly close to home to score in race record time, with an incredible margin of six lengths back to the third horse.

Unfotunately, this clash may have flattened Sunline and Lonhro, who appeared to race below their best when fourth and sixth, respectively, behind Northerly in the Cox Plate. As planned, Sunline was retired after this, her fourth and final Cox Plate, and her record of two wins, a second, and a fourth is one of the best in the history of the race.

[edit] Race Record

[edit] Group 1 Wins

Year	Race	Track	Distance (m)	Weight (kg)	Jockey
1998	AJC Flight Stakes	Randwick	1600	54	L.V.Cassidy
1999	AJC Doncaster Handicap	Randwick	1600	52	L.V.Cassidy
1999	MVRC W.S.Cox Plate	Moonee Valley	2040	54	G.J.Childs
2000	STC Coolmore Classic	Rosehill	1500	60	G.J.Childs
2000	AJC All Aged Stakes	Randwick	1600	55.5	G.J.Childs
2000	MVRC Manikato Stakes	Moonee Valley	1200	55	G.J.Childs
2000	MVRC W.S.Cox Plate	Moonee Valley	2040	55.5	G.J.Childs
2000	HKJC Hong Kong Mile	Sha Tin	1600	56	G.J.Childs
2001	WaRC Waikato Sprint	Te Rapa	1400	56	G.J.Childs
2002	WaRC Waikato Sprint	Te Rapa	1400	56	G.J.Childs
2002	STC Coolmore Classic	Rosehill	1500	60	G.J.Childs
2002	AJC Doncaster Handicap	Randwick	1600	58	G.J.Childs
2002	AJC All Aged Stakes	Randwick	1600	55.5	G.J.Childs

[edit] References

• Australian Racing Hall of Fame horses
• Sunline's pedigree and racing stats