Santiago wins for old firm

Bruce Stewart Journalist

Owners Syd and Shona Brown and Branxholme trainer Kirk Larsen go a long way back and today at the Riverton TC meeting at Winton, Santiago (Art Major) impressively won his maiden race for the combination.

Larsen wasn’t on course today so the horse was handled by Brad Williamson.

“He warmed up nice in his first warmup lap and on his second lap in he was pretty keen to get on with things,” Williamson said.

From the second line, Williamson managed to push Santiago through and ended up four back on the outside. The pair then progressed three wide at the 600.

“I decided to get going early and everyone came out underneath us, which was probably always going to happen. I was keen to produce him and get him rolling because Kirky thought he was a handy enough horse. He finished it off really well.”

At the line Santiago was a length and three quarters in front of favourite Woody, with Shergar a head back in third.

The winning time was 1-55.6.

“He won that pretty easy and with a bit in hand. So that’s a good sign going forward.”

Santiago is out of the unraced Washington VC mare Chieko, a breed the Brown family have been breeding from for sixty years.

Syd’s father Jim owned Omylight (Light Brigade) and her first foal Sydney James won eight races. She also left Ruling Light, the winner of eleven. Ruling Light is the fourth dam of millionaire pacer My Field Marshal which was Syd and Shona’s best horse.

His winning time of 1-49.9 in the 2018 Miracle Mile is still an Australasian mile record.