Winning jockey Mark Sweeney on Prize Lady salutes the crowd as he returns to scale after winning the Stella Artois Auckland Cup. Photo / Kenny Rodger
Winning jockey Mark Sweeney on Prize Lady salutes the crowd as he returns to scale after winning the Stella Artois Auckland Cup. Photo / Kenny Rodger
KEY POINTS:
Prize Lady repeated her win of last year when she was first across the line in the $700,000 Auckland Cup (3200m) at Ellerslie today.
Prize Lady, paying $10 to win, pipped Gallions Reach with Resolution finishing third after getting into cramped quarters between the first and second horsesover the concluding stages.
Placings were not changed after a protest on behalf of third-placed Resolution was dismissed.
Resolution got into cramped quarters between the first and second horses over the concluding stages but a Judicial Control Authority panel rejected the protest against both first and second.
Prize Lady's win repeated her win in the same race last year but she had not won in five starts in the interim.
The six-year-old mare, by Prized, is trained in Waikato at Te Awamutu by the father and son partnership of Graeme and Mark Sanders and was ridden by Graeme Sanders' son-in-law Mark Sweeney.
Sanders' decision to let his son-in-law ride Prize Lady resulted in what Sanders described as his biggest thrill in racing.
Prize Lady had to fight hard in the home straight to get the better of Gallions Reach to win the 3200m race at Ellerslie, and then had to survive the protest.
Sanders has won plenty of group one races in a training career of more than 35 years but said having Sweeney, who is married to his daughter Debbie, aboard Prize Lady made the mare's second consecutive Auckland Cup win hugely important.
"I only decided last Tuesday to give him the ride," Sanders said.
"He's ridden most of her work and I thought he was riding well.
"Now I think I've made the greatest decision of my life. It's my racing dream that I've had now."
