NEVEU JUST HOLDS OFF SPAIN IN THE GROUP 3 SA SIRES' PRODUCE STAKES

By Graham Potter | Saturday, July 18, 2026

There was a ripper of a finish, with not a favourite in sight, as the John O’Connor trained Neveu ($17) and the Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott trained Spain ($8) fought out a titanic struggle over the concluding stages of the Group 3 South Australia sires’ Produce Stakes over 1400m at Morphettville Parks on Saturday.

In the end it was Neveu who triumphed by the narrowest of margins.

Winona Costin sent Spain into an immediate lead from the number one barrier draw and Neveu was also quickly away with jockey Andrew Stead content to let Spain have the lead as he settled Neveu in second … and then third place early as the $26 chance Tweeter moved up to be closets to the leader.

After edging a couple of lengths clear at the head of affairs, Costin gave Spain a bit of a breather mid-race and, by the time Spain brought the field to the home turn, he did so almost in a line of three with Neveu and Tweeter right in contention to his outside.

When Tweeter fell away quickly after straightening, Stead pushed Neveu up alongside Spain and then gained a narrow advantage over the Waterhouse / Bott trained runner early in the straight … an advantage which increased to half a length halfway up the straight … but Neveu had to be in for the fight as Spain was not going away and, in fact, started coming back strongly at Spain down that inside rail over the concluding stages, to the point where it became a question of whether the post would arrive soon enough for Neveu to secure the win.

It did, but only by a narrow, fast diminishing margin.

The Henry Dwyer trained And There You Go ($21), in third place, led the tight charge for the rest of the minor placings as 0.89 lengths covered the next four runners (from third to sixth place) across the line.

Those runners included the $5.50 second favourite Burning Heartz (who finished fourth) and the $2.90 main fancy Brevitas who had to settle for sixth place after racing well back, six lengths behind the leader in the first half of the race … and then cornering all of six wide.

He simply was left with too much ground to make up.

Neveu has now won two of his five starts and has been placed on two other occasions.