Prepared by Warwick Farm trainer Joseph Pride, De Lightning Ridge exploded over the 1000m sprint feature finishing in a scintillating time of 55.92 seconds smashing Zephyr Bay’s previous 56.2s record set in 1975.

De Lightning Ridge ($10) held off runner-up Dorf Command ($5.50) by a half-neck with the Chris Waller-trained Stryker ($4.80) a further 1 ¾ lengths away in third, while equal favourites at $4 Swift Alliance and Typhoon Zed failed to fire finishing fourth and sixth respectively.

A daughter of Tale Of The Cat out of Nanny Maroon, De Lightning Ridge has now won six of her 16 career starts for $224, 320 in earnings.

Previously trained in Canberra by Keith Dryden, Pride took over her training when she was sent to Sydney three starts back.

In her first start under Pride’s preparation she claimed victory over 1100m but then ran a shocking eighth in a ten-horse field at Rosehill on February 27.

Her tremendous victory on Saturday was a great turnaround for the mare destined to go on to great things this autumn.

Pride will next run De Lightning Ridge in the Group 1 The Galaxy (1100m) at Randwick on April 17.

The headline race of the meeting at Randwick on Saturday was the $350, 000 Group 1 Randwick Guineas where Shoot Out claimed victory, proving himself as one of the top three-year-olds to watch this autumn.

2010 Ascend Sales Challenge Stakes Results: