Ananz bounced back from her first defeat on Friday night to win Sunday's NSW Sires Stakes final at Menangle
They might have been the New South Wales Sires Stakes finals, but it was the Victorians who were to the forefront in the two-year-old Group 1 events at Sunday's gala grand opening at Menangle Park.
Boom filly Ananz and untapped colt Hurricane Jett upstaged the locals to win their respective $100,000 events.
The Peter Manning-trained, Kerryn Manning-driven Ananz bounced back from her career-first defeat at Moonee Valley on Friday night to prove too good for her rivals in the fillies final.
She overcame a tricky wide barrier draw to make it 13 wins from 14 starts. The daughter of Aces N Sevens looked like she was going to miss the start when she played up in the score up, but she was alongside her rivals by the time the mobile barrier arms swung back and that was as close as they got to her.
The $1.50 favourite clocked a 1:55.5 mile rate on the way to a comfortable seven-and-a-quarter-metre win over Jennaleigh ($45) and Beijing Nbeyond ($9).
After scooting through the first quarter in 27.3 seconds, she covered the middle sections in 31.1 and 29.2 before zooming home in 27.9 seconds.
The winning driver said it was a fine display by Ananz in light of her narrow defeat on Friday night combined with her bad manners at the start.
“She was a bit naughty at the start there, she was just in a cranky mood, but once we got rolling she was fine,” she said.
“It would have been nice to have won the other night, too, but you can’t win them all and she’s done a terrific job this preparation.”
Ananz’s time was four-tenths of a second quicker than what the Nathan Buckley-owned Hurricane Jett went winning the colts and geldings final.
But that’s not to suggest the son of River Khan was any less impressive. After starting from the outside barrier, driver Chris Alford snagged the Jayne Davies-trained colt back to last but he was still able to come with a barnstorming run in 57.3-second last half of the last mile to score comfortably.
On the line the $3.30 favourite had almost three metres to spare over the Neil Brady-trained-and-driven Watch The Aces ($9), with Pole Position ($25) back in third spot.
Today’s gala meeting also saw the three-year-old Sires Stakes finals decided. In the fillies event it was the Mark Hewitt-trained-and-driven Burning Stature that got the money, while in the colts and geldings event Jimmy Brown’s Standelle prevailed.
