Fierce Impact gained champion jockey Corey Brown’s seal of approval with a career-best effort to win the Group 3 $160,000 Summer Cup (2000m) at Royal Randwick.

Brown, acknowledged as without peer as a rider of stayers, described the Matthew Smith-trained Fierce Impact as a “very nice little horse’’ after taking out the Boxing Day feature before a healthy holiday crowd of 11,086.

“For a colt there is not a lot of him, he is quite narrow when you get on his back, but he’s got a big motor,’’ Brown said.

“He will get further, he would run 2400m no problem, he just needs something to focus on.

“We probably got to the front too soon today, but we had done the work during the race and he had the light weight, so when he cruised up to them I thought we may as well go now.’’

In another sign of the changing nature of Australian middle distance and staying races, Japan’s super stallion Deep Impact sired the big-race quinella as Fierce Impact ($4.60) sprinted past early leader Satono Rason ($71) to win by a length.

Northern hemisphere-born horses filled the trifecta with Irish-bred Life Less Ordinary ($7) running on for third, a half length further back.

Favourite My Nordic Hero ($3.80) got a long way back and never got into the race before finishing ninth.

Smith’s training effort should not be understated as he’s had Fierce Impact in work through the spring into the summer, and concentrated on having the five-year-old peaking for the Summer Cup.

“It is extremely satisfying to get this horse from overseas and turn his form around,’’ Smith said.

“We made a decision not to run in the Villiers Stakes because I felt this horse would appreciate the month between runs and going to 2000m.

“He was very impressive, he’s won a Group 3 race and we can start to plan an autumn campaign for him as I’m convinced he is still improving.’’

All the jockeys wore back armbands in the Summer Cup to honour the memory of former champion jockey John Marshall, who passed away earlier this week from pancreatic cancer.

“John and I were good friends and we were teammates there for a while when we were under (jockey manager) Bryan Haskins,’’ Brown said.

“John’s passing is very sad so it is quite special to win this race.’’