Southport Tycoon pulls off 18-1 surprise in Australian Guineas

Ridden by Jamie Kah, 18-1 long shot Southport Tycoon scored a widening, 1 1/4-length win Saturday in the one-mile, Group 1 Australian Guineas on the turf at Flemington.

The winning time for the 3-year-old colt by Written Tycoon out of the More Than Ready mare Ready to Rule was 1:35.48. Veight (7-2) finished second, and post-time favorite Riff Rocket (3-2) was another length away in third.

Trainer Ciaran Maher said Southport Tycoon was the forgotten horse after his narrow defeat in the seven-furlong Autumn Stakes (G2) at Caulfield on Feb. 10.

“I was very confident last start, and I almost doubted myself a little bit,” Maher said. "Jamie had the (ideal post 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 traveled (and) 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 a feature race after winning the Blue Diamond Stakes (G1) aboard Hayasugi at Caulfield last week.

Saturday's victory was Kah’s 11th at the 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 (quarter pole), 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.”