Chuchichaschtli shines in Tapp-Craig win
Michael Hawkes has been managing his anticipation for Chuchichaschtli for close to half a year, but he was free to express it fully after she secured a stakes victory at just her second career appearance.
The Exceedance filly, whose distinctive name translates from Swiss-German to mean kitchen cupboard, demonstrated her considerable talent with a commanding 1-3/4 length defeat of Omolong in Saturday's Listed Tapp-Craig (1400m) at Rosehill.
The $3 favourite had only debuted last month, achieving a strong midweek success at Warwick Farm, and Hawkes indicated he had been anticipating her race debut for a significant period.
"Probably the better part of six months I've known she's been something," Michael Hawkes revealed.
"She's pretty special. There's not a lot of her, but she's all heart, and she's a racehorse."
Chuchichaschtli races under the ownership of long-time Hawkes Racing clientele, including pilot Captain Gary Lui and George Doyle, and the trainer expressed his satisfaction in rewarding their loyalty.
The unique moniker was suggested by Lui's wife, with the trainer admitting it required some practice to pronounce correctly.
"It's a bit of a tongue twister isn't it? I call her 'Koo-kar-kashli', 'Hoo-ha-ha-shli'. However you want to call it, doesn't matter, she's a winner," Hawkes stated.
Hawkes plans to assess the filly's condition post-Saturday's race before finalising her next engagement, with the Callander-Presnell (1600m) at Randwick in a fortnight being a possibility.
"We'll see how she pulls up," he confirmed.
"We were chasing stakes grade and this race presented. Her win at Warwick Farm was outstanding. She ran amazing time.
"All you've got to do is win and she's won well, but the part I loved is the further she went through the line, the more she ran through it and the better she was."
The ride aboard Chuchichaschtli was expertly handled by Tyler Schiller, who has now triumphed in three of the five editions of the Tapp-Craig, following his previous victories with Opal Ridge (2022) and Makarena (2023), another horse from Hawkes Racing.
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