Fastnet Rock represented by another top-level winner

Fastnet Rock supplied his 27th top-level winner when the two-year-old filly Catchy maintained her unbeaten record in the prestigious Group 1 Blue Diamond Stakes at Caulfield on Saturday.

Trained by the Hayes and Dabernig faction, Catchy raced off the pace for jockey Craig Williams before coming through with a withering late run to run down the James Harron-owned colt Pariah close home.

The winner, who was taking her record to four wins from four starts, is the fourth foal out of the dual Group 2-winning Fusaichi Pegasus mare Cats Whisker, and was bought by owner Dorrington Farm from the 2016 renewal of the Inglis Easter Yearling Sale for A$220,000.

Since producing Catchy, Cats Whiskers has had a sister to Saturday’s winner, who fetched A$700,000 when going through the ring at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale in January, and last year was covered by Pierro.

Catchy is the latest in an ever-increasing list of Group 1-winning two-year-olds to be sired by Coolmore’s shuttler Fastnet Rock, having also supplied the likes of Racing Post Trophy winner Rivet and Moyglare Stud Stakes scorer Intricately in the northern hemisphere in 2016.

The Blue Diamond Stakes, Victoria’s richest two-year-old event, has previously been won by the likes of Extreme Choice, Coolmore’s latest shuttle sire Pride Of Dubai, Sepoy and the inimitable Redoute’s Choice.

One more for wondermare Winx

Some 20 minutes later Winx notched her 15th straight victory when landing the Chipping Norton Stakes at Randwick to gain her tenth win at the highest level.

There was some anxiety before the race over Winx’s participation owing to the rain-soaked conditions, but in the event Chris Waller’s mare never gave her legion of fans a moment’s worry, as she cruised clear to beat Lasqueti Spirit by two lengths in a common canter.

The five-year-old daughter of Street Cry is out of the Al Akbar mare Vegas Showgirl, a Listed winner over 6f-7f, which makes her a half-sister to Group 3 winner El Divino.

She was bought by Magic Bloodstock for A$230,000 from the 2013 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale.

Red-hot Snitzel at the double

Snitzel, who heads the leading sires’ list in Australia, supplied a brace of stakes winners on Saturday, with Farson landing the Group 2 Autumn Classic at Caulfield and Summer Passage scoring in the Listed Matamata Slipper in New Zealand.

Farson was bought for A$180,000 by Gai Waterhouse from the draft of breeder Stuart Ramsey's Turangga Farm at the 2015 Magic Millions Gold Coast Sale. He is out of the stakes-winning Clear View, a daughter of Gallo Di Ferro, and from a family that has produced New Zealand Group 1 winners So Casual and Zola.

Summer Passage was bred and offered by Ron and Deb Gilbert's Highgrove Stud at the 2016 Inglis Easter Yearling Sale, and the colt was bought for A$800,000 by owner Hermitage Thoroughbreds.

He is the second foal out of the winning Encosta De Lago mare Subsequent, a half-sister to the Listed-winning Get To Work and Singapore Group 3 winner Order Of The Sun, and is from the same family as current smart three-year-olds Northwest Passage and Man From Uncle.

Subsequent foaled a Snitzel filly last spring and is back in foal to him again.

Summer Passage was both Snitzel's 23rd juvenile winner this season and his 23rd lifetime stakes-winning two-year-old, as well as being his first black-type winner in New Zealand.

Saturday’s results take Snitzel's 2016/17 record to 17 stakes winners, his best seasonal tally yet, and inches him ever closer to surpassing the record number of two-year-old winners in a season, which stands at 30, a figure he matched during the previous campaign.