CROWD PLEASER

Graham Buddry reflects on the career of a Jekyll & Hyde character who always thrilled racegoers

- Graham Buddry

You may have heard the old poem of "The little girl with the curl" who, "when she was good she was very, very good and when she was bad she was horrid." Or perhaps you're better acquainted with Jekyll and Hyde; one facet of which was sheer brilliance while the alter-ego was a monster. Now meet the equine version! Australia has been renowned for it's fantastic sprinters for a very long time but even they were not prepared for Chautauqua.

Foaled on September 20, 2010 the grey colt failed to make his reserve when eventually being sent to auction. Eventually he was sent to Hawkes Racing, run by Michael, Wayne and John Hawkes and would run in purple colours with a very distinctive, and perhaps intuitive, yellow thunderbolt on the jacket.

In the 2013/14 season he proved himself useful enough running second twice in maiden events before getting off the mark in his third race. After another second place Chautauqua moved up to Group 2 class but was unplaced. Dropping down to Group 3 on his next appearance he stormed away with the Hawkesbury Guineas.

The following season started well with a couple of victories before moving up to Group 1 level and having to settle for second place on both occasions. Here was a very good horse but scarcely much different from many other antipodean runners, but that was soon to change.

One of the major highlights of the Australian sprint season is the Group 1 TJ Smith Stakes over six furlongs at Randwick for which the prize money was a massive $1.4m (Aus).