Keen Commander announced trainer Denise McGrath's arrival in the big time with an authoritative win in the Listed Starlight Stakes at Rosehill yesterday.
McGrath has been training for just 12 months and could barely contain her excitement when the 4-year-old maintained the pressure from the outset to takeout the 1100m feature. It was the first stakes win for McGrath who has nine horses in work at Warwick Farm with Keen Commander leading the charge.
"I'm very proud of the horse and very excited. This was our first chance at this grade and I feel like I've been running alongside him all the way," McGrath said.
"He's our rite of passage into this company and has enabled us to feel comfortable at this level. The whole team is here and I think this horse still has further to go."
Premiership leader Blake Shinn was aboard Keen Commander who started favourite ahead of Posadas who finished 1 1/2 lengths second.
"He jumped well and had a good breather mid-race," Shinn said.
"He quickened up strongly at the end and he is a quality horse."
McGrath's background is in equestrian events but after injury got the better of her, she decided to take up training thoroughbreds. She bought Keen Commander for $70,000 at the Magic Millions yearling sale and he has now won more than $200,000 with five wins and seven placings from 14 starts.
She was uncertain where he would go next but the Group Two Expressway Stakes in two weeks was a possibility, especially with a wet track such as he got yesterday.
The John Hawkes-trained Yasumori was heavily supported but was never in the hunt, beating just Strong Choice to the line and finishing more than seven lengths from the winner.
Trainer Danny Williams, who prepared third-placed Fox Lake, said the injury-plagued 6-year-old was on the right track. Williams was confident Fox Lake would be back in the winner's circle once he got over further ground.
