2013 Cox Plate Champion Shamus Award has led from start to finish to claim the Group 1 Australian Guineas (1600m) at Flemington Racecourse this afternoon.

After jumping particularly well, Shamus Award took up the pace from the get-go, holding strong position throughout and entering the final straight ahead of Eurozone.

Having easily snuffed out that challenge of Bart and James Cummings’ star three-year-old, Shamus Award continued to power and open the gap, eventually finishing a near two-lengths ahead of Criterion and Thunder Fantasy.

Trainer Danny O’Brien said he was particularly impressed with the way Shamus Award has now not only completed the Cox Plate/Australian Guineas double, but also led each from start to finish.

“It was a very important race and I’ve said that for the last two months; we really wanted to come and win this” O’Brien said.

“He’s done what very few three-year-olds have done winning a cox plate, but to back it up with a Guineas it puts him in very rare air.

“He’s a magnificent individual.

“He’s led all the way in a cox plate and he’s led all the way in an Australian Guineas and that’s pretty hard to do.”

Having also included Shamus Award in nominations for next week’s Group 1 Australian Cup (2000m), O’Brien said the Guineas win has opened up many more options on the way to an appearance in the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth Stakes (200m) in April.

“We’ve definitely got one eye on this year’s cox plate; obviously it’s not often you get you chance to win a second as a four-year-old, so we’d definitely be keen to be back there later in the year” O’Brien added.

“We’re really please we’ve got this on the board and now we’ve got plenty more options to come.”

Jockey Craig Williams made it two-straight wins at Flemington after taking out the Group 3 TAB Rewards Stakes (1400m) with Mouro only 30 minutes earlier, and was quick to lay all the praise on the talented Snitzel colt.

“It’s fantastic, they’ve done a great job” Williams said after dismounting.

“He’s just a really, really tough horse. I just had to trust him today; I asked him to go a long way out and he did a really good job today.

“He’s backed up well in the past when we saw him in the Cox Plate, so we’ll see what they’ll do” Williams added in relation to the Australian Cup.

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2014 Group 1 Australian Guineas Results

Finish	No.	Horse	Trainer	Jockey	Margin	Bar.	Weight	Starting Price
1	1	SHAMUS AWARD	Danny O’Brien	Craig Williams	–	9	56.5kg	$4.60
2	2	CRITERION (NZ)	David Payne	Brad Rawiller	1L	4	56.5kg	$11
3	4	THUNDER FANTASY	Anthony Cummings	Mark Zahra	1.2L	6	56.5kg	$15
4	3	EUROZONE	Bart & James Cummings	Glen Boss	1.7L	5	56.5kg	$4.60
5	9	TERONADO	Bruce W Hill	Craig Newitt	1.8L	14	56.5kg	$26
6	8	SURGE AHEAD	Anthony Cummings	Chris Symons	1.9L	1	56.5kg	$61
7	6	PRINCE HARADA	Tony Vasil	Corey Brown	2.1L	7	56.5kg	$15
8	5	HUCKLEBUCK	Phillip Stokes	Dom Tourneur	2.6L	8	56.5kg	$3.80F
9	11	LATE CHARGE	Wendy Kelly	Vlad Duric	2.8L	12	56.5kg	$51
10	7	ROCK HERO	David Payne	Michael Rodd	5.8L	10	56.5kg	$19
11	10	THE QUARTERBACK	Robbie Griffiths	Matthew Allen	6L	11	56.5kg	$14
12	13	BARDEM (NZ)	Peter G Moody	Luke Nolen	7.25L	2	56.5kg	$61
13	14	ARTIE’S SHORE	Matthew Williams	Jamie Mott	8.75L	3	56.5kg	$101
14	12	ALPHA BEAT	Anthony Cummings	Chad Schofield	9.5L	13	56.5kg	$81