Stakes double for Exceed And Excel

Exceed And Excel's high-class daughter Curtana proved too good for her rivals when dashing away to win the Listed The Straight Six at Flemington on May 19.

Waited off the early speed, Chris Symons produced Curtana with her challenge three furlongs from home and the four-year-old dashed past Stratcombe to win going away by one-and-a-quarter lengths.

"She's a good mare, a really good mare and she certainly deserved to win a race like this." said Jeff O'Connor, racing manager for trainer Peter Moody.

This is the second Stakes win over the course and distance for Curtana, whose sire Exceed And Excel established his credentials with victory in Australia's premier sprint, the G1 Newmarket Handicap, over the same course and distance.

A half-sister to G2 winner Sunburnt Land, Curtana is raced by her breeder David Moodie. Her dam Razor Blade, a Stakes winner herself, has a 2011 colt by Medaglia d'Oro and visted Hard Spun last season.

Not long after Curtana had scored at Flemington her stablemate Kulgrinda landed the Listed Manihi Classic at Morphettville. Like Curtana, Kulgrinda is raced by David Moodie's Contract Racing for whom she has won seven of her 15 races, three of them at Stakes level including the Dermody Stakes in 2010.

Out of the Stakes performed Bellotto mare River Crossing, a half-sister to G1 winner River Dove, Kulgrinda comes from the family of the G2-winning, G1 placed First Commands, who is by fellow Darley stallion Commands.

The sire of 47 international Stakes winners including G1 winners Excelebration, Helmet and Margot Did, Exceed And Excel has had more worldwide two-year-old winners and Stakes winners than any other sire since 2008.