Craig Kerry
Siena Grima, as well as her boss and mentor, shed tears of joy after she scored on $26 chance God’s Window with her first group 1 ride, becoming the first apprentice in 45 years to claim the Epsom Handicap, at Randwick on Saturday.
Grima, riding the six-year-old Dubawi gelding at 50 kilograms, took the Chris Waller-trained import back from a draw in gate 12 before they came from last at the top of the straight to sweep down the outside and beat topweight Ceolwulf by one and three-quarters lengths in the $1.5 million mile.
It was a first stakes race win for God’s Window and Grima, who joined Waller’s premier Sydney stable from Tamworth in December last year before surging to the apprentices’ premiership under the guidance of riding great Darren Beadman.
She became the first apprentice to win the Epsom since Wayne Harris on Gold Circle in 1981.
“I honestly was filled with confidence just with the horse and the confidence Darren and Chris had coming into it,” Grima said.
“They just told me to have a great time and have fun, and I can’t thank everyone that has been involved at getting me here [enough], but just to have my first group 1 win in a first ride is unreal.”
Waller was overcome with the “fairytale” win.
“I’m getting emotional for her,” Waller said.
“When she came to us, she wanted to learn. Tough is not the right word, she’s just solid. She’s an amazing horse person.
“We are very proud of her and so happy for her. We have a big team in Melbourne today and Darren Beadman is down there. He was the first person on the phone, he was in tears as he has put so much work into Siena. It is a fairytale win.”
Meanwhile, the Ciaron Maher team was eyeing the best path to the Melbourne Cup with Juja Kibo after the six-year-old gelding claimed the group 2 Metropolitan (2400m), beating favourite Aethelwulf by one-and-three-quarter lengths, for jockey Sam Clipperton. The Euphrates was third in the time-honoured race, which was demoted to group 2 status this year.
Maher’s NSW assistant trainer Johann Gerard-Dubord said the focus now was getting to the $10 million Melbourne Cup (3200m) on November 3 at Flemington.
“He can stay further, he’s only third up, he will improve again and he was strong late,” Gerard-Dubord said.
“He settles really well now. We’ll see where he fits in. We’ll see if he was guaranteed running in the Melbourne Cup, whether you have to go through the Caulfield Cup or not, but you definitely have to look at them.”
In the opening two-year-old features of the season, RedFox Racing and Tulloch Lodge were looking to the $2 million Inglis Millennium with another debut winner and $60,000 buy after Flying Houdini took out the group 3 Breeders’ Plate (1000m).
The Trapeze Artist colt ($7) led all the way in the colts and geldings feature under Regan Bayliss to beat Michael Freedman-trained Capitano by one-and-a-quarter lengths.
Co-trainer Adrian Bott, who said this week Flying Houdini was the most race ready of he and Gai Waterhouse’s two-year-olds on Saturday, would be spelled and likely return for the Millennium in February to target the Blue Diamond and Golden Slipper. Fully Lit, also bought by RedFox, won on debut then claimed the Millennium in 2024.
Freedman went one better in the fillies feature, the Gimcrack Stakes, with Shraddha, a $250,000 daughter of Ole Kirk.
The $5 equal favourite raced behind the leader under Tommy Berry before taking over at the 200m mark and powering to a two-and-a-half-length win over I’m Admired.
Freedman said Capitano could be a Magic Millions prospect in January after a brief let-up, but he indicated Shraddha was more likely to be kept for the autumn.
“She has been up a little while, we’ve had to do a lot of work with her to get her mind right because she wasn’t straightforward, so we’ll just see,” said Freedman, who won the Gimcrack with Manaal in 2023.
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