The father-daughter training partnership of Brett and Georgie Cavanough celebrated a career-defining moment as Chidiac powered to victory in the Country Championships Final (1400m) at Royal Randwick on Saturday.
For Brett Cavanough, who has trained more than 1100 winners, the emotional significance of the win was clear.
“I’ve got to try and hold it together a bit, very special today to do it with Georgie,” Cavanough said.
“She tipped Chidiac all week, she had faith in her.”
Georgie Cavanough, who only joined forces with her father earlier this season, said the mare had always been her top pick.
“She’s been my pick all along, she didn’t let us down, she’s a very classy mare,” she said.
“This is great – I couldn’t do it without Mum and Dad, it’s all just very exciting.”
Hong Kong star jockey Zac Purton, who grew up in Coffs Harbour, relished the win on home soil.
“I was a country boy my whole childhood, so it’s just great to team up with someone from there and win a race as important as this,” Purton said.
“She travelled really well, at no stage of the race did she give me any concerns.
“She was straight into the bridle, really happy and comfortable where she was in the going.
“Coming up the rise she was travelling so well but I thought she’s been here for a while, is she going to empty out, but she kept going all the way.”
Chidiac ($5.50) burst clear halfway down the straight and held on strongly to defeat Graceful Ellen ($61) by a length, with Micro Mikki ($91) a further one-and-a-half lengths away in third.
The victory adds to Cavanough’s record in country features, having also won The Kosciuszko in 2020 with It’s Me.
Cavanough revealed he had instructed Purton to be patient on the mare.
“Zac just took bad luck out of the equation, he made it his race,” he said.
“I just said whatever you do, cuddle her for as long as you can and when you go for her, she is just sharp as.”
Chidiac, a five-year-old daughter of Better Than Ready who began her career in modest company at Quirindi, has now won six of her 11 starts and could be set for bigger targets.
“We might look at the Stradbroke Handicap in Brisbane,” Cavanough said.
The mare is raced by Gerry Harvey, who enjoyed a memorable day after John Singleton’s Blue Door earlier claimed the Kindergarten Stakes.
Favourite Considered ($3.60) ran fifth, with trainer Matthew Dunn suggesting the filly may have reached the end of her campaign.
“I think she has come to the end of it,” Dunn said.
“She won her heat six weeks ago and it’s a long time to keep them going. But she won six straight so she has done a wonderful job.”
Punters can follow form from the Country Championships Final into upcoming features via leading Australian betting sites.