A Glittering Group 1 Season

With only a couple of stakes' races remaining before season end on 31 July, Te Akau trainer Jamie Richards (31) tops the New Zealand Group One charts with 13 for 2020/21.

Add two Group Ones and Group Threes in Australia, and he tallies 15 Group One wins among 40 stakes' victories. Figures that rival that of Chris Waller, whose 15 Group One wins this season provided him the winning-most Group One trainer for the ninth consecutive time in Australia.

In the 2019/20 season, Richards numbered 11 Group Ones among 20 stakes' wins, and seven of 18 in 2018/19 to provide him with three consecutive Group One records since he commenced training solo in 2018.

In January this year, Richards completed the fastest training century in New Zealand, bettering the previous record by nearly three months. February saw the young trainer break the domestic Group/Listed win record of 25 in a season, and in April he broke the national record of wins (143) in a season.

Last Sunday at Te Aroha, hurdler Richard of Yorke (Oasis Dream) became his 158^thwinner for the season. Midweek runaway winner Duby on the Cambridge synthetic took that tally to 159 - and with the judicial promotion confirmed on Friday of Shebringsmerubies - the magic figure of 160 wins for the domestic season was ticked off.   He leads the training premiership by almost double that of the closest rival and as banked nearly $6 million in domestic prize money for Te Akau owners.

Among season highlights, former Champion Two-Year-Old and reigning dual Horse of the Year Melody Belle (Commands) surpassed the record of 13-time Group One winner Sunline (Desert Sun) with a blistering performance in the Bonecrusher NZ Stakes (Gr. 1, 2000m) to notch her 14^thGroup One victory.

Another former Champion Two-Year-Old, Avantage (Fastnet Rock) recorded her ninth Group One when winning the NZ Thoroughbred Breeders' Stakes (Gr. 1, 1600m), advancing her record as the highest Group One winner for her Champion Sire, and providing Richards with his 46^thGroup One success.

This season's $1m Karaka Million 2YO (Restricted Listed, 1200m) winner On the Bubbles (Brazen Beau) was the fifth consecutive in the race for Te Akau, before ending his campaign with a powerful winning performance in the Sires' Produce Stakes (Gr. 1, 1400m).

It was the 21^sttwo-year-old win this season for Richards. Incredibly, he lined up 13 juveniles in 43 races for 21 wins (strike rate 2.04) and 15 placed.

Another top juvenile colt, Sword of State (Snitzel) won four of his five starts including the Sistema Stakes (Gr. 1, 1200m), while Kahma Lass (Darci Brahma) won the 1000 Guineas (Gr. 1, 1600m), and Amarelinha (Savabeel) the New Zealand Oaks (Gr. 1, 2400m).

In Australia, Probabeel has flown the Te Akau flag, scoring emphatically in the Bill Ritchie Handicap (Gr. 3, 1400m), recording a tremendous victory in the iconic Epsom Handicap (Gr. 1, 1600m), at Randwick, before a brilliant victory in the Geoffrey Bellmaine Stakes (Gr. 3, 1200m) and gigantic effort to win the Futurity Stakes (Gr. 1, 1400m) at Caulfield.

Worth noting, Te Akau principal David Ellis CNZM, the leading buyer of yearlings for the 16^thconsecutive year at Karaka, purchased all seven Group One winners Jamie Richards trained this season, and 11 of the 16 individual stakes' winners.