Waikato winning double on Flemington’s finale, Stakes Day

The Victoria Racing Club (VRC) recorded 307,889 attendances across the four days of the 2026 Melbourne Cup Carnival, its largest aggregate attendance since 2017, after 70,414 attended Saturday’s TAB Champions Stakes Day at Flemington – the biggest since 2012.

And while the VRC will be celebrating this win, across the Tasman in Matamata, the Chittick family and everyone involved in their Waikato Stud breeding operation cheered home a winning double in the white, blue and green colours of Waikato Stud thanks to Superfabulistic (Super Seth ex Fabulist) took out Race 2: Ronald McDonald House VIC/TAS Mile (1600m) and Sun Gift (Savabeel ex Sunniva) in the Gr.2 TAB ONE POOL Matriarch Stakes (2000m).

Superfabulistic dominated the mile event, winning by 3.5 lengths. The half-sister to Icebath is trained by Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott. Gai Waterhouse was also delighted with the manner of the victory and confident enough to tell owner Mark Chittick (Waikato Stud) to follow that feeling.

“She’s very talented, this mare,” she said. “I rang Mark (Chittick), and I said, ‘ Put your money on it. They’ve been very supportive of us, and she made mincemeat of them, didn’t she?”

Superfabulistic has a way to go to emulate the success of her sibling Icebath , but has a bright future.With four wins and five placings from 10 starts and more than A$200,000 in prizemoney, Superfabulistic has the pedigree to suggest she will just keep improving.

Three races late, the six-year-old daughter of the Stud’s champion sire Savabeel, who sadly passed away in June this year, lined up a $51 longshot, with the market thinking the three-day backup might be asking the impossible of Sun Gift.

Ridden superbly by ex-pat kiwi Michael Dee, Sun Gift began well with Dee having to cross from a wide barrier. The duo kicked away at the 300m mark to score by three-quarters of a length for the race favourite. On the three-day backup from running sixth in the Kyneton Cup, it was a master move by trainer Danny O’Brien.

“A couple of weeks ago here, she was slow away and ran a good race and then she went to Kyneton the other day on the heavy ground and didn’t go a yard, but back here on the good track we were able to make a good getaway, she pinged the lids and put herself right there,” said Dee. “Credit to her and Danny O’Brien and his team as, to back her up after three days and win like that, it’s a super effort.”

“She’s a type of horse that’s been doing a few things wrong. She’s got sort of average barrier manners this prep, and we were lucky enough to jump pretty well today and put herself right up there. We didn’t anticipate being that close, but she travelled great and it was a super effort to keep running, she’s very tough.”

O’Brien confirmed it had always been the plan to back the mare up after running in the Kyneton Cup (2006m) on Wednesday.

“I always intended to back her up,” he said. “I thought she could win on Wednesday, and then it just rained for the two hours before the race, it became a real tough surface. She didn’t get through it at all, and effectively just had a 1400 metre gallop down the straight without getting knocked around.

“She’s been bright in the last 48 hours and at seven o’clock this morning, we were tossing it up and thought ‘no, no, we’re running. She’s got out there and got the right run today. On Cox Plate Day, she was slow away and got back. Today, she’s ended up outside the leader, and it’s all gone to plan.

“She’ll be off to the paddock now. She’s won her target race so it’s happy days.”

Sun Gift is by Savabeel out of the Pour Moi mare Sunniva, an unraced half-sister to Gr.1 Victoria Derby (2500m) and Melbourne Cup (3200m) winner Efficient. Sunniva is also a three-quarter-sister to the Group 2 winner and sire Guillotine, while half-sister Cold Shoulder is the dam of Group 1 winner On The Rocks.