Despite the shocking upset by Excessive Force in the Viceroy Trophy feature event, it was the man from “Purple Island”, Shane Ellis, who was the toast at the park yesterday when he reached a remarkable milestone of 1,300 career winners on the 10-race programme.

Ellis’s landmark came from his first ride of the day aboard the Alford Brown-conditioned Yellowstone, who made one move to win the native-bred three-year-old maiden special weight event over five-and-a-half furlongs (1,100m).

Yellowstone got a flyer from the number one post and shot to the early lead ahead Without Remorse (Andre’ Martin), Freedom Street (Raddesh Roman), and English Annie (Everton Miller). The thee-year-old chestnut gelding kept up his work coming into the lane, and when Ellis said go, Yellowstone reponded well and sprinted clear to win by 8 ½ lengths in a time of 1:08.4. Freedom Street was second and Code of Conduct (Dane Dawkins) finished third.

Ellis, who had three more rides on the programme, left the racetrack shortly after his milestone and was stood down for the remainder of the day.

Meanwhile, five-year-old American-bred chestnut horse Excessive Force, who was sent off at odds of 11-1, impressively defeated rivals by 5 ¾ lengths in the $1.5-m Open Allowance/Graded Stakes event over one mile (1,600m).

Trained by many-time champion conditioner Philip Feanny, Excessive Force tracked stablemate I’ve Got Magic (Paul Francis) for most of the way down the backstretch. The Broken Vow offspring, Excessive Force, after biding his time well, hugged the inside rails, cutting the turn entering the stretch for the drive before sprinting clear with a furlong (200m) to go to win easily in a time of 1:37.3. Splits were 23.3 x 46.4 x 1:10.4.

I’ve Got Magic was second and Calculus (Dane Dawkins) third. Reigning Horse of the Year and favourite Further and Beyond never showed up during the running of the race and finished a disappointing fourth place in the six-horse field.

It was the second winner on the day for Feanny as he had earlier saddle Taurus Boy (Omar Wlaker) in the fifth race over the straight (1,000m) course.

Racing continues next Saturday.

— Ruddy Allen