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Verification of Hyperlink Hypothesis only one link
Joel Caine • December 5th, 2025 3:43 pm
New Zealand’s highest-rated thoroughbred will head to Trentham on Saturday to try to complete a treble that has never been achieved before.
Waitak takes a career-best rating of 114 into the Gr.1 TAB Mufhasa Classic, having scored superb victories in the Gr.1 Howden Insurance Mile at Te Rapa and Gr.1 Livamol Classic at Ellerslie in his last two starts.
No horse has won the Howden (previously Hawke’s Bay Challenge Stakes), Livamol Classic (Ormond Memorial/Kelt Capital) and Mufhasa Classic (Captain Cook Stakes) in the same season.
Hello Dolly and Cinder Bella both came close to this elusive treble in the spring of 2001. Hello Dolly beat Cinder Bella by a long neck in the Challenge Stakes, then that result was reversed in the Kelt when Cinder Bella defeated Trounced and Hello Dolly by three-quarters of a length and a nose. In the Captain Cook Stakes, which was then run during Labour Weekend, Hello Dolly again beat her archrival Cinder Bella by a length and a quarter.
Seachange also attempted the treble in 2007, winning the Challenge Stakes before finishing fourth in the Kelt – beaten by a half-head, a nose and a nose – and second in the Captain Cook.
The Captain Cook was shifted from October to December in 2009 to move it further away from the conclusion of the spring Triple Crown, and Waitak’s trainers Lance O’Sullivan and Andrew Scott used that extra time to freshen their versatile and durable six-year-old after his five-length Livamol romp on October 18.
