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Top Echelon sprinter Our Boy Malachi continued his remarkable rise from country sprinter to potential Group One winner with a classy first-up win in the G3 Hall Mark Stakes at Randwick on Saturday.
From his lowly beginnings in northern Queensland, Our Boy Malachi has built the amazing record of 17 wins in 19 starts and is unbeaten in four Sydney starts since his transfer from Rockhampton to the Hawkes stable at Rosehill.
His Sydney wins include three Group and Listed races and have the six-year-old gelding set to return to his native Queensland for a Group One treble that would make him one of the hjighest rat6ing sprinters in Australia.Co-trainer Michael Hawkes said Our Boy Malachi had earned an assault on the Brisbane sprint treble of the G1 BTC Cup (1200m), G1 Doomben 10,000 (1350m) and G1 Stradbroke Handicap (1350m) in May and June.
“He’s good enough,” Hawkes said. “He’s a marvel, he just does it himself.”Our Boy Malachi had suffered only two losses in 13 races before his owner-breeders the Donovan family from Rockhampton decided he deserved his chance with the Hawkjes stable in Sydney.
“The boys in Rocky did a great job with him,” Hawkes said. “It’s a family affair and I’m sure everyone at Rocky would be pretty proud.”Our Boy Malachi has amassed $474,000 prize money and is the best-performed of seven winners to race out of his dam, the winning mare Rusticate (Rustic Amber).
His fourth dam is Ada Hunter, the famed imported mare who produced six winners including the champion Kingston TownOur Boy Malachi’s sire Top Echelon, a son of Umatilla, was an outstanding juvenile, racing six times for two wins and two placings including a second in the G1 TJ Smith at Eagle Farm.
He is out of a Kingston Rule mare that is a three quarter sister to the stakes placed Champagne Kiss and closely related to the G1 Epsom Handicap winner Regal Native.From limited opportunities at stud he has sired 56 winners from 81 runners, including last year’s G1 Stradbroke winner River Lad, stakes winners Lady Echelon and Ellawisdom, 17-time winner Craiglea Tina and stakes placed pair Topping (8 wins) and Nickiera (7 wins).
