The familiar colours of Waikato Stud were part of a remarkable finish at Hawkesbury on Saturday as Fall For Cindy dead-heated for first in the A$160,000 The Lawn Shed Benchmark 88 Handicap (1400m).
There was only half a length separating the first five horses across the line, with Fall For Cindy and apprentice jockey Jett Stanley finishing strongly out of the pack to join in a blanket finish across the track.
In a head-bobbing battle to the line, Fall For Cindy and Rise Of The Masses were locked together at the finish and unable to be separated. The third-placed Highlights was only another nose away, with a neck back to Coastwatch in fourth.
From 14 starts, Fall For Cindy has had four wins and five placings, earning A$228,500 for owner-breeder Garry Chittick.
“This was a deserving result for the Chittick family and for Garry, who has a big birthday coming up soon,” trainer John O’Shea said. “It’s nice to get some sort of win for him today.
“She’s a really good mare. She got hampered at a crucial time today, not to take anything away from the horse she dead-heated with, so it was a really good performance.
“We’ll probably take her up to Scone next and try to run for a bit of black type. We’ll hope for a bit more luck in the straight there.
“She’s in great form and she showed that today.”
Fall For Cindy is by Waikato Stud’s homebred former stallion Sacred Falls, who has sired 168 winners from 276 runners including nine individual stakes winners.
The dam of Fall For Cindy is the unraced Savabeel mare Cindy Cee, who is a three-quarter-sister to the stakes performer Save The Date and a half-sister to the Group Two winner and Group One-placed Sports Illustrated.
Further down the pedigree page, the stakes-placed second dam Pin Up is a half-sister to champion racehorse and successful sire Starcraft.
Cindy Cee is the dam of three named foals and all three have been winners. Her first foal Willinga Freefall is a five-year-old and has won four races across New South Wales and Queensland.
Fall For Cindy was Cindy Cee’s second foal in 2019, followed a year later by the winning Tivaci filly Cintivee. Cindy Cee’s subsequent foals are a two-year-old colt by Ocean Park, a yearling filly by Tivaci and a weanling colt by Ardrossan.
