Trainer Chris Waller rounded out the Group 1 races at Royal Randwick on Saturday with his classy mares Zougotcha and Atishu completing the quinella in the 2024 Queen Of The Turf Stakes results.

Following on from the historic demolition job by Pride Of Jenni in the Queen Elizabeth the race before, attention turned to Randwick Race 9 for the Group 1 $1 million Queen Of The Turf Stakes (1600m) where last year’s champ Atishu was out to defend her title.

Waller opted to scratch her from the Queen Elizabeth Stakes in favour of the Queen Of The Turf over the mile, where his odds-on favourite Via Sistina was beaten over six lengths by the runaway champ, and Atishu was given every shot at back-to-back wins lunging late.

On the line however she just missed going down narrowly to her better-fancied stablemate, the race favourite Zougotcha making it a hat-trick of Sydney wins this campaign.

The four-year-old daughter of Zoustar came via victories in the Group 2 Millie Fox (1300m) and Group 1 Coolmore Classic (1500m) at Rosehill.

She also won the 2022 Flight Stakes as a three-year-old and is now a three-time Group 1 winning mare.

“We just had to put her in the right races and she’s gone bang, bang, bang. Tough mare,” Waller said of Zougtocha post-win.

“I was still thinking about that last race. Full credit to Pride Of Jenni but it was just terrible to watch!

“Zougotcha has done a good job. We gave her a decent break after she didn’t come up in the spring. We didn’t panic and we allowed her to be a racehorse

“We gave her a proper break and she’s won three-from-three this prep.”

Things panned out perfectly in the run for champion hoop James McDonald who got Zougtocha in a lovely position throughout settled fourth behind the front running Tropical Squall.

“Very proud of this mare. She’s an absolute ripper. Barriers win races. She has drawn beautiful marbles all the way through,” McDonald said.

“She executes perfectly. She tries really hard. A mile is probably a stretch at Randwick but her will to win is phenomenal.

“She’s so willing. She’s definitely the mare of the autumn. She did a really good job today.

She railed up the inside on the home straight, hitting the front 150m out from the line.”

The challenge came from Atishu who was coming with a big late run.

Despite Atishu’s best efforts, J-Mac and Zougotcha clung on to win.

“Atishi, she’s tough,” Waller added speaking about the runner-up.

“Another stride and it might have been different celebrations, but hey, it is 1600-metres (and) until you get to the line there’s no celebrating.

“The owners have the option to sell her. I don’t think she’ll be sold. There’s still good racing in her. These are dream horses for people and breeding is not as easy as it sounds. I think she should race on.

“They (the horses) are good mates at the stables at home, too so there’ll be a bit of bragging rights.

“It was a lovely ride from James (McDonald) and it was a good reward as he’s had a tough day.”

Trainer Ciaron Maher – who won two Group 1s on the card with the aforementioned Pride Of Jenni (Queen Elizabeth) and Circle Of Fire (Sydney Cup) – snared third with Semana ($14) running a credible placing to complete the trifecta.

2024 Queen Of The Turf Stakes Results & Finishing Order

	Finish	No.	Horse	Trainer	Jockey	Margin	Bar.	Weight	Penalty	Starting Price
	1	2	ZOUGOTCHA	Chris Waller	James McDonald		1	57kg		$3.50F
	2	1	ATISHU (NZ)	Chris Waller	Blake Shinn	0.04L	2	57kg		$3.70
	3	5	SEMANA	Ciaron Maher	Dylan Gibbons (a)	1.28L	4	57kg		$14
	4	16	MAKARENA	Michael, Wayne & John Hawkes	Tyler Schiller	1.3L	8	54.5kg		$16
	5	4	RUTHLESS DAME (NZ)	Ciaron Maher	Ms Jamie Kah	1.48L	15	57kg		$16
	6	14	TROPICAL SQUALL	Gai Waterhouse & Adrian Bott	Adam Hyeronimus	2.44L	3	54.5kg		$6.50
	7	6	OLENTIA	Chris Waller	Tommy Berry	2.58L	10	57kg		$12
	8	7	ETERNAL FLAME (NZ)	Michael Kent	Damian Lane	2.6L	6	57kg		$19
	9	3	CAMPIONESSA (NZ)	Mark Walker	Opie Bosson	2.66L	13	57kg		$26
	10	12	BARBIE’S FOX	Ben, Will & JD Hayes	Mark Zahra	4.01L	9	57kg		$91
	11	13	MORE SECRETS	Michael, Wayne & John Hawkes	Ben Melham	4.03L	5	57kg		$81
	12	9	RENAISSANCE WOMAN (NZ)	Bjorn Baker	Joshua Parr	4.14L	7	57kg		$31
	13	11	OSMOSE (FR)	Gai Waterhouse & Adrian Bott	Tim Clark	4.54L	11	57kg		$41
	14	15	ARCTIC GLAMOUR	Gerald Ryan & Sterling Alexiou	Michael Dee	6.1L	14	54.5kg		$51
	15	10	MADAME POMMERY	Chris Waller	Nash Rawiller	6.67L	12	57kg		$51
		17	TIZ INVINCIBLE	Ciaron Maher	Zac Lloyd (a)		0
		8	FOXY FRIDA	Andrew Noblet	Billy Egan		0

Table Credit: Racing Australia.

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