he Autumn ended with a shock if you were wondering who the best 3yo in Australia was. The Godolphin horse Anamoe, having run second in the Cox Plate after winning the Caulfield Guineas had been unchallenged as clearly the best of his age. A week after Anamoe’s unlucky defeat in the Cox Plate, a relatively unheralded colt won the VRC Derby, a race that connections of Anamoe probably thought was of little value to his resume. That colt was Hitotsu, a son of the Japanese shuttle stallion Maurice and most thought that the Derby was going to be the pinnacle of his career. In only two starts in the Autumn, Hitotsu proved that his Derby win was just the beginning as he won the Australian Guineas and AJC Derby to lay claim to the title of our best 3yo and to match some wonderful racing records on the way. Hitotsu’s win in the AJC Derby saw him join an elite group to have won the two Derbies in the modern era, and in fact he was to become the first colt to achieve the feat since the fabulous Mahogany in
