Sensational juvenile Sebring gave Gai Waterhouse her third win in the world’s richest two-year-old race when he was victorious in the $3,500,000 Group One AAMI Golden Slipper Stakes (1200m) at Rosehill today.

Unbeaten in his previous three runs, Sebring was sent out a $5.40 favourite with NSW punters and he didn’t let them down.

After being slowly away, jockey Glen Boss hunted Sebring up and luckily found a spot in the middle of the pack, right up against the fence. Rounding the turn Boss let Sebring balance up in the heavy going before he hit the go button. The More Than Ready colt sprinted strongly, pushing through a gap one off the fence between Augusta Proud (Lindop) and Anatomica (Oliver) to hit the lead.

At the same time, Von Costa De Hero (Williams), who also missed the start, came from last in the run to charge down the outside in the straight. Both gallopers hit the lead wide apart at the 150m mark and raced that way to the line, with Sebring getting the judges verdict. In the end the last two horses out of the gates were the first two horses home.

The official margin was a half head to Von Costa De Hero with Portillo (Quinn) one and three quarter lengths away in third. The overall time was 1.12.88 and the last 600m was covered in 36.04.

Waterhouse, who made it a feature race double after earlier picking up The BMW with Tuesday Joy, was ecstatic after the race.

“That was a sensational result, it was everything you dream about,” Waterhouse said.

“This is a horse owned by people who put up 10 or 20 thousand dollars to own a horse, it just shows that in Australia, everyone and anyone can own a racehorse and win a $4million dollar race, that’s what racing in Australia is all about.

“He’s the champion two-year-old in Australasia and he’s heading for the triple crown, we will just see how he pulls up.

“It’s a triumph for Denise Martin syndication and for Star Thoroughbreds, it’s sensational.”

Jockey Glen Boss got the ride on the winner after Sebring’s regular rider Blake Shinn was suspended for four meetings after an incident at a Canterbury mid-week meeting. Coincidentally, Boss won his only other Slipper on Flying Spur in similar circumstances.

“Commiserations to Blake Shinn, I feel sorry for him, he’s a young guy and he’ll bounce back from this and hopefully this will inspire him on,” Boss said.

“Everyone said to me this horse hasn’t run for seven weeks, I said he has got one thing on his side, G Waterhouse, why worry about it.

“The horse was incredible really, I tried to get him geed up in the barriers, but he blew the start, he walked out. It didn’t concern me a lot because he got into a good spot early and kept his composure.

“There were a couple of times that he lost his footing, and he seemed to drop off but no quicker than he dropped off that he picked up again. I didn’t want to go to the inside but I had no other option, he came through quick and it felt like I was going to win from the 200m mark.

“He’s a special horse, I think when he steps up in distance he’s going to get better and better.”

Syndicator Denise Martin of Star Thoroughbreds was clearly excited when she entered the enclosure.

“In the last 100m I thought 'I am going to fall over here',” Martin said.

“The owners are marvellous people, lifetime friends and now they have a wonderful racehorse. He’s such a special colt, Gai said ‘this is your Slipper, you’ve waited for it now here it is’.”

By More Than Ready out of the Flying Spur mare Purespeed Sebring is owned by J Hazzisevastos, Team Henderson Racing Synd, S Mekertichian, Ms M Butler, J & Mrs A McDonnell, Ms D Dunphy, B Leonard, J Screnci & Mrs W Mullens. The colt reamins unbeaten in four starts and has now returned $2,178,800 on their small investment.