Michael Hawkes had been keeping a tight rein on his excitement regarding Chuchichaschtli for the better part of six months, but he found no need for restraint after she clinched a stakes victory at just her second career start.
The Exceedance filly, whose challenging name signifies a Swiss-German term for kitchen cupboard, emphatically underlined her raw ability with a commanding 1-3/4 length defeat of Omolong in Saturday’s Listed Tapp-Craig (1400m) at Rosehill.
The $3 favourite had made her initial race appearance only last month, achieving a strong success in a midweek race at Warwick Farm, and Hawkes conveyed that he had been anticipating her race start for an extended period.
“Probably the better part of six months I’ve known she’s been something,” Michael Hawkes declared.
“She’s pretty special. There’s not a lot of her, but she’s all heart, and she’s a racehorse.”
Chuchichaschtli is campaigned by dedicated Hawkes Racing clients, including pilot Captain Gary Lui and George Doyle, and the trainer expressed his satisfaction in being able to reward them.
The horse’s unique name was devised by Lui’s wife, and the trainer admitted that mastering its pronunciation had been a learning curve.
“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 quipped.
Hawkes will observe how the filly recovers from her Saturday performance before making a decision on her future targets, with the Callander-Presnell (1600m) at Randwick in two weeks remaining a viable option.
“We’ll see how she pulls up,” he stated.
“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.”
Tyler Schiller, who has now claimed victory in three of the five runnings of the Tapp-Craig, was the jockey aboard Chuchichaschtli. His preceding triumphs in the event were with Opal Ridge in 2022 and Makarena in 2023, another charge from Hawkes Racing.
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