Doomben double for o’reilly

5 December 2015

Whakatoi produced the first winning strike of her career at Doomben yesterday to set up a winning double for the late O’Reilly. The five-year-old followed up a previous placing with success at her middle distance debut.

Trained by John Meagher with his sons Chris and Dan, the WS-bred mare was a $130,000 yearling purchase. She is out of the unraced Encosta de Lago mare De Lago Lady, who is a half-sister to the former champion two-year-old and multiple Group One winner Maroofity.

O’Reilly’s daughter O’Reilly Cyrus, another WS home-bred, later made the perfect start when she won the juvenile sprint on debut. Trained by Liam Birchley, she was a $100,000 purchase at Karaka last year for the Eagle Farm horseman.

O’Reilly Cyrus is out of the Masterclass mare Dancing Mistress, who is the dam of the stakes winner Savour The Moment (Savabeel). It is also the family of the Gr 1 Manawatu Sires’ Produce Stakes winner O’Marilyn.

The Corner with Garry Chittick

I keep on proposing my retirement from the burden of a weekly Corner. I make the excuse it is hard to be credible, hard to let the two of you know about anything in our sport that hasn’t been covered before.

27 October 2025

WS-bred On The Lash scores at Sha Tin

Twenty-four hours following the final WS Cox Plate meeting run on the Moonee Valley track of old before it shuts for two years to make way for a new precinct, the race’s 2004 winner, Savabeel, continued his roll of runners, and this time it was via five-year-old On The Lash (ex Candelabra) at Sha Tin.