Memories of champion mare Sunline came flooding back at Canberra on Sunday when one of her siblings scored a breakthrough win on Black Opal Stakes day.
The Guy Walter-trained Daline, a four-year-old Shamardal half-brother to Sunline, powered home to take out a 1200m maiden event by almost two lengths at his first start for almost a year.
“He surprised me a bit today but it was a nice surprise,” Walter said.
“It was 1200 metres and I thought he might find it a bit short. It was his first start as a gelding and that’s obviously made a difference.
“He’s a brother to Sunline so he’s well bred and it’s very pleasing to see him win like that.”
Walter saw plenty of the great mare Sunline during her illustrious racing career between 1998 and 2002.
His stable champion Tie The Knot, who like Sunline retired with 13 Group One wins, raced in the same era and finished behind the great mare six times including when second in the 1999 Cox Plate.
Prepared by Trevor and Stephen McKee in New Zealand, Sunline won 32 of her 48 starts while of her siblings, only Daline and Flaring Sun have won.
An inaugural inductee into the New Zealand Racing Hall of Fame and a member of the Australian Hall of Fame, Sunline died in 2009 after a long battle with laminitis.
A bronze statue of Sunline was unveiled at Auckland’s Ellerslie racecourse last week as a permanent memorial to the champion.
AAP TURF
