The triumphant Golden Slipper team of glamour colt Pierro, trainer Gai Waterhouse and jockey Nash Rawiller teamed up again to steal the limelight on Australian Derby Day at Randwick.
Pierro downed Black Caviar’s previously unbeaten half-brother All Too Hard to win Saturday’s Group One Sires’ Produce Stakes in a race record time and upstage Derby winner Ethiopia.
Pierro, unbeaten in five starts, picked up the second leg of the two-year-old triple crown, and a possible rematch with All Too Hard looms in the third leg, the Champagne Stakes, in a fortnight.
Their clash was the talk of Randwick after All Too Hard missed the Golden Slipper yet was still sent out the $1.65 favourite.
“Pierro is the best two-year-old of his generation,” declared Waterhouse, who is on a hot streak after a Rosehill treble followed by a double, including the Slipper, last week.
“They keep doubting him but he keeps winning,” said Waterhouse.
“What else has he got to do?
“He beat the best quality Slipper field in a long time fair and square, and came out and won again today.”
All Too Hard came out of the gates last, and connections may well relish another crack at Pierro in the Champagne Stakes.
A storming finish by Ethiopia in just his fourth start secured the feature race of the day, the $1.5 million Australian Derby.
The son of 2002 Victoria Derby winner Helenus, patiently ridden by Rhys McLeod, came from last in the field of 12 to beat Polish Knight and Waterhouse’s Laser Hawk.
Master of Design, a $31 outsider ridden by Craig Williams, got up in the last stride to win the other Group One race, The TJ Smith Stakes.
