Passive Aggressive gets the head down in Challenge Stakes

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It was a ding-dong battle down the straight at Royal Randwick as got the verdict in a grandstand finish of the Group 2 .

Trained by Graeme Begg and steered by jockey for his only ride of the day on Saturday, the first-up mare produced an electric turn-of-foot to storm to line in a photo finish with multiple Challenge Stakes winner, .

It was the affectionately known ‘Special Eddy' Eduardo who lead them up as the firming favourite looking for his third success in the race for trainer Joseph Pride and the nine-year-old almost pinched the race turning for home.

Passive Aggressive under a terrific ride from Jordan Childs stalked the speed and came across from the wide draw, his run to perfection.

Drifting market elect Giga Kick ($4.60) lost no admirers on return though, missing the start significantly and produced an enormous first-up effort running into third, setting up more intrigue for the moving forward.

2023 Group 2 Challenge Stakes – Passive Aggressive

The mare out of proved too strong in the end though, making it now a career record of six starts for five wins.

Graeme Begg spoke post-race and was delighted with the return of his mare after a 189-day spell, setting course on a Group 1 Galaxy and possibly a TJ Smith Stakes tilt.

“I thought she won on the line, but I know coming to Randwick, rail out 6m, outside horses normally get the bob in,” said Begg.

“Great effort because she hasn't run for six months. She's a bloody good filly.

“She's a very understated mare. It's only her sixth start in a race to go to a Group 2 weight for age against very good accomplished horses. Great effort

“There's a couple of races. There's obviously , hopefully the TJ Smith maybe in a month's time so we'll work it out from here. But we'll look after the horse and get her home and let the dust settle and make a plan.”

Jockey Jordan Childs spoke post-race as well and was very relived to see he got the nod in the photo finish.

“I wasn't too sure. About the 100m I was a bit confident and then Eduardo ended up coming back, I'm just glad we held on,” said Childs.

“She's a nice horse that does everything right, gets in a nice rhythm. She's got a very high cruising speed and she can also find off that.”

Passive Aggressive is now a $5 equal favourite with online betting sites for The Galaxy.

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