El Grand Senor Too Classy In Group 1 Hudson Pacific Maturity Classic
The flying El Grand Senor showed why he is rated as one of the country's finest young chasers after a brilliant all-the-way victory in the Group 1 Hudson Pacific Maturity Classic at The Meadows over 525 metres last Saturday night.
The son of Where's Pedro and Elgrando Gold used his favourable box draw to perfection, flying out to an early lead off box one, running a sizzling 5.01 to the first section. Despite pressure from rival Arsonist down the back straight, El Grand Senor highlighted his superior ability, stopping the clock at 17.53 before cruising to a 29.99 victory – two and three quarter lengths clear of Arsonist.
Mid Levels – trained by Peter Giles – finished three lengths further afield.
The victory was El Grand Senor's first success at Group level, improving his record to 15 wins and three seconds from just 20 starts, winning $98,955 in the process. The Carolyne Jones trained star will now be set for the Victorian State Sprint series, which starts this week.
The action continues next Saturday night at The Meadows with the running of the Victorian State heats of the National Distance Championship.
After the placed runners the field finished in the following order 4th Red Lesta ($9.10), 5th Cosmic Planet ($10.10), 6th Carcoar Kurt ($23.00) 7th Le Fox ($19.30) and Iceman Raikkonen ($7.50).
El Grand Senor is a Black dog whelped April 2008 by Where's Pedro from Elgrando Gold (Elgrando x Sweet Liberty). He raced trained and was bred by Carolyne Jones at Sale in Victoria. He has now won 15 races and been placed on three occasions from his 20 starts. The Maturity Classic first prize of $50,000 brings El Grand Senor's overall prizemoney to $98,995.
The Maturity Classic was first held at Olympic Park in 1970 when won by talented sprinter Phantom's Heir first prize at that time was $1250. The prizemoney increased marginally until 1975 when it went to $3,500.
In 77 it was $5,600 and jumped to $7000 in 79 before going to $10,000 from 1980 until 1987 the year the mighty New Tears won the race. First prize went to $15,000 for seven years then to $20,000 for two years and reached $30,000 in the year 2000.
In 2001 it was worth $40,000 and the Classic was won by AGRA Hall Of Famer Brett Lee. It was elevated the next year to the current amount of $50,000. Listed below is the Maturity Classic Honour roll highlighted by some of the many stars that enjoyed outstanding careers after winning the feature.
Maturity Classic Honour Roll
- 1970 Phantom's Heir
- 1971 Linden Lad
- 1972 Nulla's Call
- 1973 Shan's Tempest
- 1974 Temlee
- 1975 Warranwood Girl
- 1976 Aaron King
- 1977 Overflow Love
- 1978 Satan's Legend
- 1979 Marajax
- 1980 Worthy Weston
- 1981 Murchison Champ
- 1982 Rocky Pyramid
- 1982 Wynlee Spirit
- 1983 Not Held
- 1984 Broken Cup
- 1985 Storm Glade
- 1986 Pharaoh's Mask
- 1987 New Tears
- 1988 Hay Dinney
- 1989 Best Of Blue
- 1990 Eureka Man
- 1991 Enfield
- 1992 Executive Class
- 1993 Keystone
- 1994 Refur
- 1995 Northern Legend
- 1996 Royal Honcho
- 1997 Running Gold
- 1998 Adrenalin Storm
- 1999 Coriole
- 2000 Acacia Dee
- 2001 Brett Lee
- 2002 Rocka Cockatoo
- 2003 Hall's Northern
- 2004 Hallucinate
- 2005 Poetic Magic
- 2006 Train A Journey
- 2007 Run's House
- 2008 Paddy's Flame
- 2009 Aston Trivett
li>2010 El Grand Senor