Kah weaves magic to claim G1 Kingsford-Smith Cup on Vega One

It was looking like a nightmare but the Kingsford-Smith Cup turned into a dream Group One result for connections of Vega One. 

A wide draw saw Jamie Kah take Vega One to the back of the field and it seemed the race would be chalked-up as a luckless outing when she had nowhere to go with a wall of horses in front of her midway down the straight.

Even with 100m to go a win was looking unlikely with Jonker and Singore Fox seemingly set to fight out the finish, while Vega One was awkwardly placed on the back of Trekking. 

Kah was somehow able to squeeze her way into the clear and when Vega One saw daylight he displayed a withering burst of speed to not only win but put half-a-length on his stablemate Jonker on the line. 

Kah said the plan had been to not expose Vega One too early, but the run had come much later than she’d been hoping for.

“I wanted to get held up on him, but not that much!” Kah told Sky Racing. 

“I needed a run desperately in the end.”

“I was in a lot of trouble on him. I’ve got to thank Bossy (Glen Boss), he came up to me and told me everything about this horse and I wanted to get held up on him because if you expose him, he thinks about it. He overthinks things.” 

The win took Kah’s Group One tally to six, with four of the wins coming this season. 

Gollan said he had left the tactics up to Kah.

“Jamie Kah doesn’t ride obviously very often up here, but geez I hope she comes back a bit more often.” 

“She’s done a great job. There was no instructions, just like James (McDonald) the other day on (Outback) Barbie. Do whatever you want to do on him, just ride him how he feels. 

Gollan said it hadn’t been smooth sailing this campaign with Vega One. 

“We’ve had a torrid time with him actually this prep, with a few little niggles.” 

“It’s just amazing, I was really happy with him after his work here Tuesday morning, but we were on a knife’s edge if we were even going to be here this week, just little things … going wrong”

Trekking just missed the placings behind Jonker and Signore Fox, but it was a run full of merit from the top Godolphin sprinter 

The barrier proved to be his downfall, caught out four-wide after jumping from barrier 12. 

He loomed in the straight, but the wide run took away from his finishing burst, however he still managed to finish within a length of Vega One on the line. 

Vega One’s victory has seen him surge into $9 for the Stradbroke in what is now a wide-open market following Ayrton’s defeat earlier in the day. 

Wild Planet holds favouritism at $7 (TAB) from Mr Quickie, The Harrovian and Tofane all at $8 with Vega One on the next line.