Futooh has flown home on the rails to win the Listed China Horse Club Mile (1600m); the first race on Day 2 of The Championships at Royal Randwick.
Futooh was steady in the hours leading up jump and was forced to settle towards the tail of the China Horse Club Mile field, as Bold Arial, Legislation and Rheingau took up the early running.
Jockey Jason Collett began to work the filly into the race as the field turned for home, but was forced to alter courses at the 300m when faced with a wall of horses.
Immediately responding when asked for an extra effort, Futooh stormed home on the inside of her rivals to post her first win at black type level.
Muswellbrook took advantage of an ideal run in transit to finish a strong second, while race favourite Aristocratic Miss ran on well to finish third.
Collett delivered a gem of a ride aboard Futooh to win the China Horse Club Mile and was pleased with the filly’s performance.
“We couldn’t quite hold the back of the runner that I wanted to early, but we were able to come back and get into a rhythm and she started pulling me into the race,” Collett said.
“I was pretty confident turning for home, I just needed to pick a path.
“She’s lovely, she’s got a bit of length about her and she was unlucky the other day. She was looking like she was going to be again today, but we found a path.”
Co-trainer Ben Hayes was pleased with Futooh’s performance and revealed that she will likely take her place in next weekend’s Group 1 Champagne Stakes field.
“We were a little bit critical of the ride a couple of weeks ago where she was driven out of the barriers and probably just didn’t finish off, but today Jason was excellent,” Hayes said.
“She really had that turn of foot, it was really exciting. We’ve always had an opinion of her and it’s just nice to see her running so well, once she gets out to a mile.
“We’ll see how she pulls up – there’s the option of backing up, but we’ll let her tell us.”
In being crowned the China Horse Club Mile winner, Futooh has extended her record to two wins from six career starts.