Winner: Sacred Choice (Choisir-Sacred Habit)
Race: AJC Aspiration Quality LR (1600m)
Sold for: $40,000
Sale: 2007 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale
Vendor: Goodwood Farm
Buyer: Anthony Cummings
Earnings: $211,090
Owner(s): A Shepherd, D Cunnen, GM Fraser, R Spee & R Woodhouse
Trainer: Joseph Pride (Warwick Farm)

Bargain buy Sacred Choice sent her value soaring when she broke through for her maiden stakes success in the listed $100,000 Aspiration Quality (1600m) at Randwick on Saturday.

Trained at Warwick Farm by Joseph Pride, Sacred Choice was sent out the favourite on the strength of a number of top runs and in a thrilling finish she got the result her connections were seeking.

Pride said he was concerned during the race when he saw his charge in a more forward position under Damien Oliver than expected.

“The plan was to ride her more quiet,” Pride said. “Under the circumstances it was a very good win.”

“That wasn’t the way we intended to ride her – I expected her to be getting back and making one big sweeping run with her big weight.”

“She had a bit of a task with her 58 (kilograms) and she did a bit of work to get there (earlier in the race).”

Winning rider Damien Oliver, who had punters reeling after missing a place aboard odds on favourite Beneteau in the previous event, was impressed with how Sacred Choice fought over the concluding stages.

“It was a very tough win,” Oliver said.

“She had an easy run until mid race when the other horse took off and that made her carry her weight.”

“She was probably only in front at one part of the race – at the post. It was a very good win.”

By Choisir, the sire of the recent Oakleigh Plate winner and Newmarket Handicap placegetter Starspangledbanner, Sacred Choice becomes the 24th individual stakes winner for her sire.

She is a well bred mare. Her dam, the lightly raced Sir Tristram mare Sacred Habit is a three quarter sister to two stakes horses including the outstanding Golden Slipper winner and sire Marauding.

Hers is therefore the family that also takes in the classy stakes winners including Voodoo Beat, Inarticulate, Red Metal, Biscalowe, Springsteen, Comrade Caviar and Distant Melody.

Purchased for just $40,000 from the draft of Goodwood Farm, Sacred Choice has boosted her lifetime earnings to over $211,000. Her future broodmare value was also sent soaring with her most recent success.