| Chris Waller continued his affinity with the $1 million TAB Magic Millions Fillies & Mares when Brookspire took out the 1300-metre event at the Gold Coast on Thursday. |
| The daughter of Hinchinbrook, who was a $300,000 purchase at the 2019 Gold Coast Yearling Sale, gave Waller his fourth win in the past six years when James McDonald engineered a form reversal aboard the five-year-old. Waller had a stranglehold on the race from 2018-20 when he won it each year with Invincibella and the Hall of Fame trainer also had the runner-up in this year’s event in Kiku, who carried the same Star Thoroughbreds colours as Invincibella. “It has been a good race to us, Invincabella won this race three times,” Waller said. “It is just a great raceday and it gives a lot of horses the chance to win massive prizemoney. “We’ve seen over the last few days how big Magic Millions is and every owner wants a piece of it. “She’s always had a good win in her, she’s been a bit frustrating of late but a big payday today is so well-deserved.” Brookspire, who is out of the Zabeel mare Be Inspired, was part of the Bhima Thoroughbreds draft and was bought in partnership by Waller and Brae Sokolski, whose colours James McDonald sported in what was his second win for the day. The $5 chance defeated Kiku, the $4.60 favourite, by three-quarters-of-a-length with the Toby and Trent Edmonds-trained Me Me Legarde ($9) a half-neck back third. Brookspire finished fourth in last year’s Magic Millions Fillies & Mares, but didn’t come up in two starts last preparation and finished seventh of nine in a BM88 at Randwick at her only lead-up run this campaign. Connections have cause to be optimistic the future might be bright, however, with the past two Magic Millions Fillies & Mares winners going on to score at Group 1 level. Last year’s winner Snapdancer won the Sangster Stakes (1200m) and Memsie Stakes (1400m) at the highest level in 2022, while 2021 winner Krone won that year’s Coolmore Classic (1500m). |
