2016 Magic Millions Guineas Results: Mahuta Wins Again

Mahuta led from start to finish to record his fifth win on the trot in the 2016 Magic Millions Guineas at the Gold Coast this afternoon.

Mahuta held-off his rivals to take out the 2016 Magic Millions Guineas at the Gold Coast this afternoon. Photo by: Steve Hart

Mahuta held-off his rivals to take out the 2016 Magic Millions Guineas at the Gold Coast this afternoon. Photo by: Steve Hart

Jockey Brad Rawiller was forced to ride Mahuta aggressively in the early stages of the race to get the Flying Spur entire to the front from barrier 20, but he was able to find the lead and kick away at the top of the straight.

Mahuta looked like a sitting duck when a wall of horses charged at him late, but he was able to hang on bravely to deliver trainer Darren Weir a race to race double following the win of Lucky Hussler in the Magic Millions Cup.

Rawiller has steered Mahuta to victory on three occasions from as many rides, but he was quick to pay credit to the training performance of Darren Weir, who gave the three-year-old a freshen-up following his win in the Group 2 Sandown Guineas (1600m) on November 14.

“It is a fantastic effort from all the team involved,” Rawiller said.

“D Weir it all speaks for himself what he has done in the last six months – let alone the last five years.

“All the owners and all the connections in it are just a fantastic group of guys and girls.

“He has been doing most of his work with Lucky Hussler and without the blinkers Lucky Hussler has had him covered, but he has been working good and we were really confident.

“At the end of the day he has had to freshen up and he hasn’t lost his interest.

“I couldn’t have been more confident coming here today apart from the fact that he drew barrier 20.”

Weir admitted that he was worried about the wide barrier draw in the lead-up to the Magic Millions Guineas, but he revealed after the race that those worries were quickly put to bed after Rawiller found the lead.

The leading trainer was quick dedicated the victory of Mahuta to his teams at both Warrnambool and Ballarat and he said that both stables played a key role in getting the talented three-year-old to this race.

“If you went on his form it was the right form for a race like this, but it was the first time the reverse way and he had the outside barrier,” Weir said.

“After 300 metres all that stuff was out of the road, Brad was able to get him across in a great rhythm, he was getting tired late, but he was entitled to get tired late.

“I keep thanking my team all the time, but my racing manager alerted me after the Sandown Guineas that this horse was Magic Millions qualified otherwise I probably would have put him in the paddock.

“He was at Ballarat at our stable all of last preparation until the Sandown Guineas, but when this race came on the radar we thought we would swap him to our Warrnambool stable to give him something different.

“That is the beauty of having two stables and having two really good people run them.”

Single Gaze produced one of the best performance of her career to savaged the line for second, while Egyptian Symbol did not have a great deal of luck in running and was still able to finish third.

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Thomas Hackett

Thomas is a passionate and opinionated racing journalist and punter who has been obsessed with horse racing since he backed Saintly to win the 1996 Melbourne Cup. An international racing enthusiast, he has his finger on the pulse of racing news not just from Australia but all around the world.