Via Sistina landed a 10th Group 1 win in Saturday’s Group 1 at Randwick.
This isn't the first time we've looked into the pedigree of Via Sistina in these pages, with the Irish mare having established herself a star from the time she first set foot on an Australian racetrack.
That was almost 18 months ago in the Ranvet Stakes (2000m), which was the first of an Australian Group 1 tally that now sits at nine after success in Saturday's $1 million Winx Stakes (1400m) at Randwick.
It was Via Sistina's second straight win in that race, having won the Turnbull Stakes, Cox Plate, Champions Stakes, Verry Elleegant Stakes, another Ranvet Stakes and Queen Elizabeth Stakes in between.
She was a Group 1 winner, in the 2023 Pretty Polly Stakes (2011m) at the Curragh, before being exported to Australia, which followed her purchase for 2.7 million guineas – a tick over AU$5m at the time – by Yulong late in 2023.
Out of the Galileo mare Nigh, who has had four others to race for only one additional winner, Via Sistina cost her original owners just 5000 guineas at the 2019 Tattersalls December Yearling Sale.
Ten Group 1 wins give her the distinction of being the most successful product of champion former Coolmore stallion Fastnet Rock, a two-time Australian Champion Stallion who also spent a number of seasons standing in Europe.
Prior to Saturday, she shared the record with Avantage, the Te Akau Racing sprinter who scored her nine Group 1 wins in New Zealand.
In landing a 10th Group 1, Via Sistina joined another Te Akau mare, Imperatriz, only the list of most successful elite-level female performers Australia has seen.
The only mares to have raced in Australia who won more Group 1s are Winx (25), Black Caviar (15), Melody Belle (14), Sunline (13) and Verry Elleegant (11).
Via Sistina could make her way further up that list before the year is out with the Maybe Diva Stakes, Turnbull Stakes and Cox Plate – all Group 1 events – expected to be her next three starts with the defence of her Champions Stakes title also a possibility.
