Group One-winning filly Catchy has struck for the first time this autumn, powering home under champion jockey Joao Moreira to win the Arrowfield Sprint at Randwick.
Catchy was a force during her juvenile season, winning her first four starts including the Group One Blue Diamond in Melbourne.
She added a Group Two Danehill Stakes win and a Caulfield Guineas placing during her five-start spring campaign but had gone winless in four runs this preparation, including in some of Melbourne’s premier sprints against older horses.
Against her fellow three-year-olds in Saturday’s 1200m Group Two race, Catchy ($9) settled last before sprinting down the outside to score by 1-1/2-lengths from Showtime ($14), with I Am Excited ($5) a neck away third.
Catchy gave Hong Kong-based champion Moreira his first Australian win this season and his first Sydney win since September, 2016.
“It feels like getting the monkey off my back,” Moreira said.
Catchy is raced by Robert Crabtree and is trained by the Lindsay Park team of David and Ben Hayes and Tom Dabernig.
Moreira won last year’s Group One Oakleigh Plate in Melbourne on Sheidel for the same connections.
Catchy will get another chance to post a Group One win as a three-year-old in the Robert Sangster Stakes at Morphettville on May 5.
