The Stephen McKee-trained filly charged out of the pack from midfield under rider Sam Spratt to win the $300,000 feature by four lengths.
The 3yr-old picked up speed so impressively she left Spratt reaching for all sorts of comparisons to describe her Savabeel filly’s win.
"She went past them like they were tied to the ground," Spratt said.
"When I asked her to go, she had fire coming out the back end."
Hasahalo’s victory gave the Youngs, who have raced a long list of handy standardbreds including eight-race winner Announcement, their biggest thrill in racing.
"We were expecting her to go a good race, but to win like that was unbelievable," Jeff Young said.
After racing their last pacer, The Youngs were without a racing proposition when Jeff spotted an advertisement for Go Racing syndicates.‘‘I was just looking through one of the farming journals one day and Go Racing had a little ad in there.
"So I just rang them up about it and we went from there."
Ross and Wendy Flett, of Milton, are also involved in the syndicate that races Hasahalo.
Despite nothing going right in two down-the-track runs this campaign leading into the race, there was some confidence Hasahalo would still go a good race on Saturday.
"We were hoping if she could just get clear in the straight, we knew that she could run all right, but she did finish a bit quicker than we thought," Jeff Young said.
Hasahalo’s next main mission would be the Karaka Mile at Ellerslie in late January.
The One Thousand Guineas was a race dominated by Otago and Southland connections.
Southland fillies The Lustre and The Sparkle both went slashing races in their first taste of group 1 racing for their Otago jockeys.
The Lustre was pushed wide on the home turn but kept finding the line under rider Jacob Lowry.
The Sparkle raced fifth throughout the event and was one of two horses, with the sixth-placed Pierrocity, to keep going and figure in the photos.
The Dennis Brothers and Robert Dennis-trained filly fought on to finish fourth, half a length behind her stablemate The Lustre.
Ahead of that pair, Dijon Bleu, who is also raced by Southland owners, finished second.
Hot favourite Prom Queen led early in the race before trailing Malambo until the home turn.
After hitting the front early in the home straight the $1.70 favourite could not run out Saturday’s 1600m distance strongly and faded to finish ninth.
The 2017 edition of New Zealand Cup week was wrapped up with a Southland win by Indiana Pearl.
Despite running second in two runs leading into the race, the Sally McKay-trained galloper went out at $39 odds.
Three races before, Otago owners were in the winner’s circle again with the Andrew Carston-trained Hee’s Our Secret.
The 4yr-old dashed away from his rivals for an impressive two and a-half-length win for his Palmerston owner-breeder, Andy Denham.
