46 Facts About Sunline

Sunline was a champion New Zealand-bred Thoroughbred racehorse who was the world's highest earning race mare of her time.

Sunline won 32 of her 48 races with earnings of NZ$14,200,000.

Sunline was named the New Zealand Horse of the Year four times and Australian Horse of the Year three times.

Sunline has won the most Group races in modern times with 27, and she previously held the New Zealand record of 13 Group One wins until Melody Belle surpassed her in 2021.

Sunline led in most of her races, and sometimes settled just behind the leader; she was difficult to pass.

Sunline loved to win and was known for her fiery temperament.

In 2006, Sunline was an inaugural inductee into the New Zealand Racing Hall of Fame, along with Carbine, Gloaming, Kindergarten, and Phar Lap.

Sunline was foaled at Pleasanton Stud near Cambridge, New Zealand on 29 September 1995.

Sunline's sire was the Group Two winning English stallion Desert Sun, a grandson of leading sire Danzig.

Sunline's dam was the capable mare Songline by Western Symphony.

Sunline came from the same family as Phar Lap, tracing back to the Entreaty through Night Raid.

Sunline was a big strong plain bay with no white markings.

Sunline was then spelled, rather than continuing on to the feature races in Melbourne, and never competed with the reigning Horse of the Year, Might And Power.

Sunline won first up but was narrowly beaten for the first time by Rose O'War, second-up, in Melbourne's Angus Armanasco Stakes, her 9th career start.

At her next start, Sunline defeated Rose O'War in the Kewney Stakes, and in her first look at the Cox Plate course, defeated the VRC Oaks winner Grand Archway by.

Sunline then ventured north to Sydney to tackle the Doncaster Handicap.

Sunline went straight to the front and never looked back to score by one-and-three-quarter lengths.

Sunline became just the fourth filly to win in the modern history of the race.

Sunline was then sent home to New Zealand for a spell.

Unlike many three-year-old champions, Sunline made the transition to weight-for-age racing as four-year-old.

Sunline's final lead-up to the Cox Plate was a close fourth under 56.5 kilograms in the Epsom Handicap.

Speculation in the media that Sunline would be vulnerable in the Cox Plate - in open company over 2,040 metres - proved unfounded.

Sunline became only the fifth mare to win the race since its inception in 1922 and the second of four mares to win the race since Dane Ripper in 1997.

Sunline led, and her jockey, Greg Childs, explained that she travelled well to the home turn, but, in an echo of the autumn's Queen Elizabeth Stakes, tired badly in the home straight and finished seventh.

Sunline then returned home to New Zealand for a spell.

Back in Sydney for the autumn of 2000, Sunline powered through the rain-affected going to win the Apollo Stakes first-up.

Sunline then carried the maximum topweight to win the first of two Coolmore Classics - at the time, Australia's only Group One race for fillies and mares.

Sunline started her five-year-old campaign in Melbourne, against the sprinters - streaking away in the Manikato Stakes at Moonee Valley.

Sunline then had wins in the Memsie and Feehan Stakes, but was narrowly beaten by Fairway in the Turnbull Stakes.

In winning, Sunline became the first Australasian horse to pass $6 million in career earnings.

In Dubai, Sunline showed her customary pace to lead the field in the Duty Free, but her breakaway tactics were not aided by a home straight of 600 metres.

Sunline returned to Australia to contest the All Aged Stakes against a sub-standard field on a wet track at Randwick.

The six year old Sunline returned with a close second to Piavonic in the Manikato Stakes.

Sunline then won the Memsie Stakes for the second year in a row, but was defeated by Northerly in the Feehan Stakes.

Sunline rebounded to win the Turnbull Stakes in her fourth start of the season.

Sunline was defeated by Northerly again in the Cox Plate, where a third victory would have equalled the record set by Kingston Town.

Just like in the Feehan Stakes, in both races, Sunline led to the home turn, but Northerly surged to the front in the straight.

Sunline then won the Coolmore Classic for a second time - again carrying the race's maximum handicap of 60 kilograms - and became the first horse in Australasia to win A$9 million in prize money.

Sunline closed her campaign with a six-length victory in the weight-for age All-Aged Stakes.

Sunline led but was run down by Defier and Excellerator.

Sunline retired with 27 stakes wins, more than any other horse in Australasian history, and was the highest grossing Australasian racehorse at that time.

Sunline was New Zealand Horse of the Year 4 times, and inducted into the New Zealand Racing Hall of Fame.

Sunline went into retirement at the McKee property near Auckland and produced four foals.

Sunline left the unraced Sunalta and the unplaced Sunsett.

In 2011, Sunline became a grandmother for the first time, when her 3rd foal and 2nd daughter, Sunalta, produced a bay filly by the Danzig stallion, Librettist.

On 1 May 2009 Sunline was put down after suffering from the debilitating hoof disease laminitis for nine months.