The Championships Race Highlights
Gr 1- BMW Australian Derby (2014)
Gr 1- Longines Queen Elizabeth Stakes (2015)
About
The high class son of Sebring has raced among the elite at carnivals such as Royal Ascot, Sha Tin International Day and The Championships. At two years of age Criterion was a Gr 2 winner of the Todman Stakes and finished sixth to Overreach in the Golden Slipper.The following season he would land the Rosehill Guineas and the AJC Australian Derby at the inaugural The Championships meeting.
The four-year-old season would see Criterion compete in the world’s elite races over 2000metres. Criterion travelled to Sha Tin and ran a gallant third behind Designs On Rome and Military Attack in the Hong Kong Cup. During the autumn Criterion became the first horse with back-to-back races at The Championships by destroying a high class field by 2.5 lengths in Australia’s richest weight-for age contest, the $4,000,000 Longines Queen Elizabeth Stakes. That success would see Criterion return to Hong Kong for the Queen Elizabeth Cup and again finish third. The David Hayes and Tom Dabernig runner then travelled to Royal Ascot to contest the Prince of Wales Stakes. Criterion lost no admirers, running over the undulated dry conditions by finishing fifth and two months later contested the Juddmonte International with a sixth placing behind Arabian Queen and World Turf Champion Golden Horn.
Criterion returned to Australia to immediate success by winning the Yalumba Stakes, was second in the Cox Plate and third in the Melbourne Cup. Criterion is well known for his affinity with wet tracks.