Shenzhou Steeds sensational in Sunshine Coast Guineas

Feature race success for Ballymore on Saturday, exciting up-and-comer Shenzhou Steeds putting in an impressive performance to claim the Listed Sunshine Coast Guineas.

Always travelling well behind the leaders, the lightly raced three-year-old made his run from the 200m and was always going to win – the margin on the line a soft 1.3 lengths.

“At the end of the day he was too good for them,” said jockey Chad Ormsby on whose advice the stable secured the son of Ishiguru.

“He's been an immature horse all the way along and I think he can develop into a Cups horse. He’s got untapped potential and is a really good galloper.”

“He’s a lovely horse,” added Michael Moroney, relaying the story of how the bay came to join the stable – “chat rang me up after he’d won on the horse and said he must be a very good horse because he’d ridden him badly!”

“I watched the replay and it was a bit of an ordinary ride but I was undecided and then Chad rang me again and told me the horse was starting again on a wet track and the horse wouldn’t handle it. He ran fourth that day so we put in a lower offer and got him.”

Unbeaten in three Australian runs, Shenzhou Steeds will be spelled in Queensland with a spring carnival preparation a possibility.

“He is a leggy horse, he still has a bit of growing up to do,” Moroney said, “the frame is there but he still is a bit leggy and new about the whole thing but he has obviously got real talent.”

Raced by Giuseppe Del Mastro, Paul Woods, Neville Byrne, Grant Devonport, Brian Kinnane, Joseph Versace, Dino Strano, the Till Tuesday Syndicate (manager Michael Caporale) and McGrath Racing (manager Michael McGrath), Shenzhou Steeds is out of the five times winning mare Sun City, also dam of the smart Hong Kong galloper Hot Shot. She is a half sister to the Gr.1 AJC Sires' Produce Stakes winner Reganza, dam of the VRC Oaks heroine Kensington Palace.