WINTER RACE SERIES
CRESWICK SPRINT SERIES (New series for 3YO sprinters) This series is aimed at three-year-old sprinters, with heats over distances between 1000m-1200m, conducted at venues including Flemington, Sandown and Caulfield. It is named in honour of Sir Alexander (Alec) Reid Creswick (1912–83), who was a member of the VRC Committee for 24 years, from 1959 until his death in 1983, serving as Chairman 1969–77. His great-great-grandfather Henry Creswick had been a foundation committee member of the Victoria Racing Club in 1864. Sir Alec was a fine horseman himself—Master of the Melbourne Hunt Club, a leading polo player, head of the Equestrian Federation of Australia and a practical supporter of successful Australian participation in successive Olympic Games. He bred and raced many fine racehorses, including champion filly True Course. The final, the $175,000 Listed A.R. Creswick Stakes, is run on Flemington Finals Race Day over 1200 metres, with an honour roll including Nature Strip, Gytrash and Passive Aggressive.
SANTA ANA LANE SPRINT SERIES Formerly the All Victorian Sprinters Series, the series was renamed in honour of five-time Group 1 winning sprinter, Santa Ana Lane, trained by Anthony Freedman. Santa Ana Lane amassed more than $8 million in prizemoney, winning Group 1 races in NSW, SA, QLD and the Group 1 VRC Sprint Classic here at Flemington. Santa Ana Lane was retired a happy and healthy eight-year-old and now
resides at Living Legends, located at Oaklands Junction. This seven-heat series attracts the fastest winter sprinters and features three heats up the famous Flemington straight with heats also conducted at Sandown and Swan Hill, before culminating in the $175,000 Listed Santa Ana Lane Sprint Series Final on
Flemington Finals Race Day. TAJ ROSSI SERIES
This series targets later-developing two-year-olds who are suited to the longer distance of 1600m of the Listed Taj Rossi Series Final and is named after Taj Rossi, the outstanding performer trained by the legendary Bart Cummings. When the son of Matrice was bought by Cummings in 1972 at the Adelaide Yearling Sales for $18,000 (top price) and then sold to prominent owner Victor Peters,
neither could envisage the heights to which Taj Rossi would rise in his short but spectacular career. Beginning his racing as a two-year-old in Adelaide, his first two wins came in moderate company in the winter of 1973 at Flemington. In the spring he ran second at Moonee Valley. Then followed a dazzling sequence in which he won six of his next seven starts including the Ascot Vale Stakes, Moonee Valley Stakes, W.S. Cox Plate, Victoria Derby, George Adams Hcp and Sandown Guineas. Said Bart Cummings: “All along I have said that he is one of the best, if not the best, three-year-old that Australia has known in the last 50 years”. This magnificent group of victories secured for Taj Rossi the award of Racehorse of the Year for the 1973-74 season. Cummings had great respect for Taj Rossi, who was retired to stud as a four-year-old, siring among others, Taj Eclipse, the winner of the 1983 VRC Oaks and yes, owned by Mr and Mrs Victor Peters.
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