Emerging stayer Immediacy (NZ) (Tarzino) backed up his last-start victory at Mornington on April 19 with a repeat result in Saturday’s A$150,000 MRC Chairman’s Club Handicap (2000m) at Caulfield.
The New Zealand-bred Immediacy is trained by Trent Busuttin and Natalie Young and has now had 12 starts for five wins and A$479,790 in stakes.
Immediacy made an exciting start to his career with wins in all of his first three starts including the Gr.2 Autumn Classic (1800m) at Caulfield in February of 2024, but then the Tarzino gelding’s form began to taper off with fifths in the Gr.1 Rosehill Guineas (2000m) and Gr.1 Australian Derby (2400m) and five subsequent unplaced runs.
The four-year-old bounced back in style at Mornington a fortnight ago, and Saturday brought more of the same.
Jockey Blake Shinn gave Immediacy a perfect run in fourth, one off the rail, as Aramco (Sea The Moon) and Shaiyhar (Camelot) showed the way.
The field bunched up approaching the home turn, but Shinn was able to switch across heels and present Immediacy on the outside of the leading pair. Immediacy lengthened stride and raced to the lead, going on to beat Aethelflaed (Saxon Warrior) by three-quarters of a length.
“We’ve got a Brisbane campaign in the back of our minds with this horse,” Young said. “That’s why we ran him today instead of in the Warrnambool Cup (Listed, 2350m). We didn’t want him to have a really hard run on a testing track that had three days of traffic over it.
“It panned out nicely today. Blake gave him a beautiful trip. He was the only one really travelling coming to the corner, and he let down nicely in the straight.
“He’s come back big and strong. He was a Group Two winner as a three-year-old. It’s always a hard step going from three to four. We gave him the time, he had a good long break, and he’s come back now and furnished into a lovely horse. He’s come back into some really good form.
“Hopefully he can carry on now into races like the Chairman’s Handicap (Gr.3, 2000m) and Brisbane Cup (Gr.2, 3200m).”
Immediacy was bred by Cambridge Stud owners Brendan and Jo Lindsay and is a son of Westbury Stud stallion Tarzino.
The dam of Immediacy is the three-race-winning Pivotal mare But Beautiful (NZ), who is also the dam of Group Two winner Bella Waters (NZ) (Sacred Falls).
Originally bought as a yearling by Guy Lowry’s Game Lodge for $15,000 from the draft of Kiltannon Stables at Karaka 2022, Immediacy returned to Karaka later that year as a member of Riverrock Farm’s draft at the Ready to Run Sale. He was bought by Busuttin Racing and Group 1 Racing for $200,000. Saturday’s runner-up Aethelfled is a half-brother to Sherwood Forest (Fastnet Rock), who won the Gr.1 New Zealand Derby (2400m) in 2020, as well as the Gr.2 Waikato Guineas (2000m) winner and Group One-placed Field Of Gold (Starspangledbanner).