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Southport Tycoon wins the 2024 Howden Australian Guineas

2 March 2024 Written by Racing & Sports

Southport Tycoon took out the Group 1 Howden Australian Guineas at Flemington on Saturday.

Ridden by Jamie Kah, Southport Tycoon ($19) scored a widening 1-¼ length win from Veight ($4.80) with the $2.50 favourite Riff Rocket a length away third. 

Maher said Southport Tycoon was the forgotten horse after his narrow defeat in the Autumn Stakes (1400m) at Caulfield on February 10. 

"I was very confident last start and I almost doubted myself a little bit," Maher said. 

"Jamie had the barrier (4), and I was confident she had the right barrier to bounce, land in the right spot, and she couldn't have ridden the horse any better. 

"She travelled, followed Veight into the race. You know he's a genuine, genuine horse and I was very confident coming down the straight." 

For the second week in succession, Kah landed the feature race on the program after winning the Blue Diamond Stakes aboard Hayasugi at Caulfield last week. 

Saturday's victory was Kah's 11th at Group 1 level and she said the race had worked out like a dream. 

"We got into a beautiful spot, the horse I wanted to follow was Veight and we were following him," Kah said. 

"When I popped out at about the 400 (metres) I thought he's going to run a really nice second and then he just found and found and kept finding. 

"The scary thing is he's so raw still, dumb and immature and he's got a lot of improvement there. 

"But I'll take that – that was awesome. It's just been weird these past few weeks. 

"This is really cool."