3 minute read

A second successive Group 1 victory for superstar jockey Jamie Kah in front of a massive home crowd on Goodwood Day was the fitting finale to a massive Adelaide Racing Carnival.

Benedetta's breakthrough Group 1 win capped a superb three weeks of a new look Sportsbet Adelaide Racing Carnival that had it all.

The decision by Benedetta's trainer Jason Warren to target the carnival reaping the ultimate reward when she held off the Phillip Stokes-trained pair of Stretan Angel and Climbing Star in a driving Goodwood finish.

"The Goodwood was never the target, the Sangster was always the race we came here for,'' Warren said post-race.

"But it was an easy decision to keep her here and have a crack, especially after she ran so well in the Sangster and when Jamie was chasing the ride.

"It's a huge result for everyone,'' he said.

It was the second leg of a Goodwood Day feature race double for Warren after claiming the Group 3 David Coles AM Stakes with Flyer and Craig Williams in the saddle.

"I haven't missed her,'' Warren said of Flyer's busy first season of racing.

"She's had a big two-year-old campaign and really deserved that,'' he said.

Kah claimed riding honours on the day after she combined with the highly promising Boognish to win the Group 3 Proud Miss Stakes in combination with Will Clarken and Niki O'Shea.

Danny O'Brien's See What I See stamped her class and cemented her place at the top of Caulfield Cup markets with a dominant win in the Listed Centaurea Stakes with Blake Shinn in the saddle, the first leg of a riding double, while Damian Lane made amends for a luckless carnival to claim the Group 3 SA Fillies Classic with New Zealand galloper Positivity.

The win of En Francais was another huge result for South Australian racing on such a big day.

The Jake Stephens-trained mare producing a stunning finishing burst to run down Jimmy The Bear and Chicago Storm to win the newly named Cummings Stakes (formerly J A Lee Stakes) and give Lachlan Neindorf a second feature for the carnival following his Group 1 Sangster Stakes success with Climbing Star.

The win also leaving trainer Jake Stephens in a tricky spot, now looking to send the horse interstate with limited racing options available locally.

"I've always known what talent she has, she'd shown us a lot here, but has never really performed interstate and that's because she just doesn't travel,'' Stephens said.

"We might look at sending her interstate now, we'll just have to let the dust settle and see,'' he said.