Rich Hill Stud received a timely and terrific family result across the Tasman Saturday afternoon. The top-quality colt Divine Prophet, a younger brother to the farm's second-year stallion Proisir, proved too good for his age group rivals in the Gr.1 Caulfield Guineas.
WATCH REPLAY courtesy RACING.COM
Trained by John, Michael and Wayne Hawkes, Divine Prophet, a son of Choisir and the Encosta de Lago mare Prophet Jewel capitalised on a superb Dwayne Dunn ride to take top honours.
"It was a matter of finding a passage through in the straight and he got the rest done," jockey Dwayne Dunn said.
"He did pull with me for the first quarter of the race and it wasn't until we got to the hill that he switched off for me.
"He came back underneath me and relaxed beautiful for me - from there it was just a matter of finding a run through in the straight and he got it done.
"He's got a great attitude and wants to work with you rather than against you.
"He's going to make someone a lovely stallion when he gets to the breeding barn."
Divine Prophet has now won four of his eight starts.
Wayne Hawkes said it was an emotional moment to secure such a valuable win with his father and brother and also Dunn.
"The Caulfield Guineas is the race for stallions and now he's done it which was a great effort. He's a bulldog this horse, Michael has always been telling me since day dot that he's a great horse and that's what he is. Dwayne does the hard yards all the time and he deserved this win."
Divine Prophet became the tenth individual Group 1 winner for sire Choisir (77 SW), and sixth individual Group 1 winner as a broodmare-sire for Encosta De Lago (55 SW).
Divine Prophet's sibling Proisir was a brilliant racehorse, retiring to Rich Hill with three victories from his seven starts at three. He was a Group Three winner and twice ran close-up Group One seconds to champion colt It's A Dundeel.
Proisir was New Zealand's most popular first season-sire in 2015 breeding 145 mares. He is again proving popular in 2016 at his current fee of $7,000+GST, Saturday's result further reinforcing his exciting stallion potential on offer to Australasian breeders.
Divine Prophet and Proisir were bred and retained to race by Tony and Mario Falcone.
