Champion New Zealand mare SUNLINE has done it again!

Amidst a star-studded crowd in Melbourne, SUNLINE made racing history when she was crowned Australia’s Champion Racehorse of the Year for a record third year in a row.

In front of a sell-out audience of over 1200 local and international racing identities, the racing industry acclaimed both our past and present elite at the inaugural ‘Australia’s Racing Champions’ dinner, held at Crown Palladium in Melbourne.

The Champion Racehorse of the Year win completed a sensational night for the six-year-old Kiwi superstar as earlier in the night she became the first horse still competing to be inducted into the Australian Racing Hall of Fame.

Twenty new inductees to the Hall of Fame were announced in four categories.

JOCKEYS:

Mick Dittman, Billy Cook, Bobby Lewis, Jim Pike, Neville Sellwood

HORSES:

Manikato, Might and Power (NZ), Rising Fast (NZ), Sunline (NZ), Wakeful

ASSOCIATES:

Sol Green (bookmaker/owner), Theo Green (trainer of apprentice jockeys), Ken Howard (racecaller), James White (owner/breeder), Wootton Family (owner/breeders)

TRAINERS:

Angus Armanasco, Etienne de Mestre, Fred Hoysted, Maurice McCarten, George Hanlon

In one of the most hotly contested Horse of the Year polls for many years, Sunline polled 62.5 votes to defeat Caulfield/Melbourne Cups winner Ethereal on 53 and WA champion Northerly which polled 42.5. Star three-year-old Lonhro polled one vote.

Votes for the Australian Champion Racehorse of the Year award were cast by representatives of Australia’s Principal Race Clubs and members of the Australian Racing Writers’ Association.

SUNLINE won five of her eight starts on Australian racetracks in the past 12 months to earn $2,963,950 in prizemoney. She won three Group 1 races and was also a close second to Northerly in a sensational running of the Carlton Draught Cox Plate which Sunline had won in the previous two years.

Her career record now stands at 44 starts for 31 wins and ten placings and prizemoney earnings of $11,019,741, an Australasian record.

Such is SUNLINE’s popularity with Australian punters that she has started favourite in 31 of her 32 starts on Australian tracks.

Melbourne jockey Damien Oliver was announced Mitty’s Champion Group 1 Jockey for the season while Gai Waterhouse received the New Zealand Bloodstock award for Champion Group 1 Trainer.

Ethereal's trainer Sheila Laxon received the Australian Racing Writers' Association’s annual Personality of the Year award while the Warrnambool-trained Badger's Wood upstaged his better-known rivals when he was voted the Magic Millions Bloodstock Australia’s Most Popular Racehorse by the public.

Category winners were:

YALLAMBEE STUD CHAMPION 2-YEAR-OLD VICTORY VEIN

NZ T’BRED MARKETING CHAMPION 3-YEAR-OLD LONHRO

VINERY STUD CHAMPION FILLY/MARE SUNLINE (NZ)

EXECUTIVE THOROUGHBRED TRAVEL CHAMPION SPRINTER FALVELON

CROWN CHAMPION MIDDLE DISTANCE NORTHERLY

RADIO SPORT 927 CHAMPION STAYER ETHEREAL (NZ)

ROSEMOUNT ESTATE CHAMPION JUMPER ST STEVEN (NZ)

IRT CHAMPION INTERNATIONAL PERFORMER FALVELON

AUSTRALIAN CHAMPION RACEHORSE SUNLINE (NZ)

MITTY’S CHAMPION GROUP 1 JOCKEY DAMIEN OLIVER

NZ BLOODSTOCK CHAMPION GROUP 1 TRAINER GAI WATERHOUSE

ARWA PERSONALITY OF THE YEAR SHEILA LAXON

MAGIC MILLIONS BLOODSTOCK AUSTRALIA’S MOST POPULAR RACEHORSE BADGER'S WOOD