Socks finds her feet in Queensland Oaks as first Group 1 for Sioux Nation

Coolmore’s one-season shuttler Sioux Nation sired his first Group 1 winner worldwide and it came ten thousand miles from his Ireland home, at Eagle Farm in Brisbane, and it started at 100-1.

She may even have been named for a mispronunciation of her father, adding to the ignominy, but Socks Nation’s Queensland Oaks success on Saturday will still be cheered, if not by punters, then by all involved with father and daughter.

Giving winning trainer Ciaron Maher his 45th Group 1 success and jockey Ryan Maloney his fourth, Socks Nation became one of the longest-priced Group 1 winners in recent Australian history.

Officially a A$101 chance, Socks Nation paid A$126 on TAB fixed odds and – in a first four dividend nearing six figures – she beat A$16 shot Our Gold Hope, with A$19 chance Miss Joelene third and Kind Words fourth at A$10.

The Oaks was a blow-out for fancied runners, with favourite Scarlet Oak essentially pulled up in last place. James McDonald took a few concerned looks at Scarlet Oaks’s legs in the straight, but later said she had “just come to the end of prep”, although an official verdict would likely come from course vets.

Given the odds, the win was remarkably straightforward, but still full of courage. Jumping from gate nine of 18, Socks Nation trailed leader Oceans Of Energy – one of only two fillies at longer odds than she was – and powered to the front at the 300-metre marker.

She then had to withstand the challenge of Robert and Luke Price’s Our Gold Hope, who looked to have headed her around the 100 metres mark before the inside filly dug deep to restore a margin.

Bred by South Australia’s Ian Millard, Socks Nation counts as a rare diamond indeed. She was hatched from the small crop of 39 live foals borne of Sioux Nation’s sole season shuttling to Australia, where he stood at Victoria’s Swettenham Stud for A$17,600 (£9,100/€10,800).

The nine-year-old stallion, now solely at Coolmore Ireland, has 128 winners from 223 runners worldwide, with 13 stakes winners. Until Saturday, his 14 Australian winners from 20 runners had included just one black-type victor, thanks to Archo Nacho taking a Group 3 and a Listed race in Melbourne.

Sioux Nation’s previous best performer was four-year-old gelding Brave Emperor, who despite not cracking a Group 1 amid five stakes wins in three countries in Europe, was last year’s champion three-year-old miler in Germany and Italy. Four-year-old mare Matilda Picotte has won a Group 2, a Group 3 and a Listed race in Britain.

Bought by Suman Hedge Bloodstock for A$160,000 from Milburn Creek’s draft at the Inglis Premier yearling sale of 2022, and raced by Hedge along with Sheriff Iskander, the filly’s odds starkly contrasted the regard held for her in the first half of this, her first season of racing, which has featured a lengthy time in work.

Socks Nation started favourite when winning her fourth start back in late November, a 1500-metre Sandown maiden.

She then went down narrowly as favourite over 1600 metres at Caulfield before winning again over 1500 metres at Moonee Valley.

Connections then endured a frustrating winless run of five starts including four fourths, one coming in the start before Saturday’s when beaten just over a length and a half in an Randwick Benchmark 72 over 1800 metres on May 25.

That hardly seemed formidable form against some of Saturday’s rivals, but rising 400 metres to the Queensland Oaks distance of 2200 metres proved to her liking.

It was probably just as well for her that Brisbane Turf Club officials bizarrely decided to keep that distance when the race returned to Eagle Farm from its temporary home of Doomben in 2020, rather than revert to its former and more standard distance of 2400m. But in any event, all honours were with Socks Nation despite the stunned silence greeting her return to scale.

Maher said: “It’s phenomenal, the team has done a super job. She’s been in work 13 months, this filly, and she just keeps on running really well.

“She goes to a lot of locations, she’s been to the beach and sometimes a change is as good as a holiday. She’s a tough filly. She worked well in the week so we didn’t have to do much with her.

“I didn’t tie Ryan down too much with instructions. I was surprised she was that far forward in the run, but it worked out perfectly.”

Socks Nation had in fact been in the first two or three in transit for her past nine starts. But whether the forward role was anticipated or not, Maloney conceded he was surprised he was able to ride his race.

“The race couldn’t have panned out any better for me. I was surprised nobody came to put any pressure on us,” he said.

“I knew she’d stay, and you just can’t rule out any of Ciaron’s horses, even though she was a big price. He can do it all and it’s great to win my fourth Group 1, especially for Ciaron as he used to put me on his horses when I’d just come out of my time as an apprentice.

“You can’t knock her form down south, it was a great training effort. We got all the breaks and she just outstayed them in the end.

“I was confident at the 600-metre mark, when I pressed the button we put a bit of a margin on them. I didn’t want them to outsprint me so I went a bit earlier than I would have done usually. When Craig [Williams, on Our Gold Hope] came up to me, I thought we might be passed but she was so tough.”

Hedge said he was delighted with the breakthrough Group 1 victory under his own banner.

“It’s very special for me because Sheriff is the owner and he’s supported me and backed me from the very start and gave me my first opportunity and I wouldn’t be in the industry if it wasn’t for him,’’ said Hedge.

“It’s his first Group 1 in his own right and my first since I’ve been out on my own. Since starting Suman Hedge Bloodstock, we’ve had four seconds in Group 1 races and I thought today was going to be number five, but we got the result and it’s amazing.”

Recalling her yearling purchase, Hedge said: “Scott Holcombe at Milburn Creek strongly recommended her to me. He said, ‘Don’t second-guess yourself on this filly, just buy the horse’.

“With that in mind, plus my own thoughts and knowing she was coming from such a good farm, we had the confidence to have a crack.

“She had tremendous athleticism, her action was such that she was very efficient with her movement. We weren’t overly familiar with the sire at that time but she was out of a nicely bred mare and was a great type so we were happy to buy her. Boy am I glad we did now.”

Socks Nation is the first runner of four foals so far for Tahnee Tiara, a seven-time country winner from 1100 metres to 1700 metres. Second foal Eye Of Light fetched a near-identical A$170,000 when bought by John Foote from Milburn’s draft at last year’s Inglis Classic sale, and has had two barrier trials.

Tahnee Tiara also has an unnamed rising two-year-old colt by Ghaiyyath and a weanling filly by North Pacific, by whom she was covered again last October.

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