Lands McKell Cup to hand Frankel fourth stakes winner in Australia.
The Kris Lees-trained Frankely Awesome (4 m ex Street Secret by Street Cry) landed a much deserved first stakes race when she won the WJ McKell Cup (Listed, 2000m) at Rosehill on Saturday and in the process became Juddmonte Farm-based sire Frankel's 54th stakes winner overall and fourth in Australia.
The filly missed out on a stakes victory last season when finishing second in both the Kembla Grange Classic (Gr 3, 1600m) and Vinery Stud Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m), while she also finished third the Australian Oaks (Gr 1, 2400m). But there was no near miss on Saturday as she pulled three-quarter lengths clear of her stablemate Sixties Groove (Sixties Icon), while Carzoff (Zoffany) was a further head further back in third.
Frankely Awesome spent 12 months on the sidelines and it has been a slow and patient process for trainer Kris Lees to revive her form.
"She looked like being a really handy three-year-old and she went amiss in the Oaks," Lees said.
"It has taken a while to get her back to this grade and I think she is really appreciating the soft ground during the winter."
Lees admitted he had moments wondering whether Frankely Awesome would ever fulfil her early potential.
"I started to question it and just where she was at when we got her back in work," he said.
"But the team has done a really good job at home and I'm sure the soft ground has helped along the way."
Bred by Bruce Neill's Cressfield Stud on southern hemisphere time, Frankely Awesome is out of American Listed winner Street Secret (Secret Savings), making her a half-sister to dual winner Secretly Awesome (Snitzel).
Street Secret herself was purchased by James Bester for US$535,000 at the Fasig-Tipton November Sale in 2013 from the Oceanic Bloodstock draft. Cressfield sold the mare for $680,000 to Paul Moroney at the 2017 Inglis Chairman's Sale.
The mare's fourth dam is Anzille (Plugged Nickle) who is herself a half-sister to 1993 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe (Gr 1, 2400m) winner Urban Sea (Miswaki), who is largely regarded as one of the most influential broodmares of the last century, and is best known as the dam of breed-shaping sire Galileo (Sadler's Wells) and multiple Group 1 and top-class sire Sea The Stars (Cape Cross).
She also produced Grade 1 winner Last Typhoon (Giant's Causeway), dual elite scorer Black Sam Bellamy (Sadler's Wells), Group 3 winners Urban Ocean (Bering) and All Too Beautiful (Sadler's Wells).
In 2017 Street Secret foaled a filly by Snitzel (Redoute's Choice), who is now called Maternal Gift and has not yet been seen on a racecourse. After missing to Criterion (Sebring) the following season, her 2019 foal by Merchant Navy died and she has most recently been covered again by Snitzel.
Frankely Awesome joins Group 2 winners Miss Fabulass and Hungry Heart and Group 3 scorer Finche as the stallion's other stakes winners in Australia and he stood at Juddmonte Farm's Banstead Manor base in Newmarket for a fee of £175,000 in 2020.
The son of Galileo is represented in the southern hemisphere by his son Eminent, who will stand at Brighthill Farm in New Zealand for a fee of NZ$7,500 (plus GST) in 2020.
