Jenni sets Randwick alight with extraordinary performance

Crazy. Unbelievable. Nuts. Embarrassing.
Those words only scratched the surface of what was being said at Randwick last Saturday afternoon after Pride Of Jenni and her jockey Declan Bates had set Day 2 of The Championships alight with one of the most remarkable performances witnessed in Australian Group One racing.
The lead-up to the A$5 million Queen Elizabeth Stakes was dominated to a large degree by how big a lead the renowned Victorian front-runner would establish over her rivals in the 2000-metre classic.
It’s long been recognised that at the top of her game Princess Jenni can be impossible to run down. Such was the case in her Empire Rose-Champions Mile double during Melbourne Cup week last November, and again in the All-Star Mile at Caulfield a month ago. She all but got away with it when stepping up to 2000m in the Australian Cup, only for Cascadian to nail her on the line.
That had sideline commentators suggesting the wide-open spaces of Randwick, and most of all the home-straight rise, would find her out on Saturday, but nothing could have been further from the truth.
The opening stages of the Queen Elizabeth Stakes were nothing out of the ordinary, until Pride Of Jenni took control like the proverbial scalded cat at the 1400m mark. Reflecting the comments later of jockey Declan Bates that he had no say in the matter, a six-length margin quickly became 10 and then as much as 40 lengths down the side.
From the 1400 to 1200m marks she recorded 11.11 seconds and by the time she reached the 600 she had run 800m in 45.61 to establish a lead close to 40 lengths. The race was over by then and even though she was understandably slowing up the straight – as illustrated by a final 600m in 37.83 and her last 200m in a pedestrian 13.11 seconds – at the line she still had a margin of six and a half lengths over her hapless rivals.
Comparisons to similar stunning wins by Might And Power, Vo Rogue, Sunline, Secretariat, et al – and in a local context Kotare Chief and Jock Caddigan’s 1987 Auckland Cup heist – have inevitably followed. But this was a stand-alone performance that only adds to Pride Of Jenni’s aura and will forever be the benchmark.
Back at Cambridge’s Trelawney Stud, home to Pride of Jenni’s dam Sancerre and a line that goes back four generations, breeders Brent and Cherry Taylor are as awe-struck as any by the racehorse they reared and sold to Australian couple Tony and Lynn Ottobre, who named her after the daughter they lost to cancer.
“This farm has produced 10 Melbourne Cup winners and a Cox Plate winner, but this mare and what she did on Saturday puts her right alongside all of those,” Brent Taylor told RaceForm. “Just as well for wide-screen technology, otherwise we mightn’t have been able to get a full view of what actually happened.
“It’s been a fantastic family for Trelawney that was established when we bought Real Success through her trainer Frank Ritchie from the American owner. From her we bred our Queensland Oaks winner Vouvray, who is the second dam of Pride Of Jenni, and another daughter of Real Success produced our 1000 Guineas winner Loire and A Touch Of Ruby, who won the Thorndon Mile.
“We’ve got a lot of the family on the farm, including a Frankel filly and a colt from Loire, who’s now in foal to Savabeel, a Per Incanto filly out of Sancerre who is a three-quarter-sister to Pride Of Jenni, and the mare’s in foal to Hello Youmzain.
“There’s a whole lot to look forward to, and I think Cherry is already making plans for us to be at Moonee Valley for the Cox Plate. We were there when Ocean Park won and it would be quite something to see what this mare might do there.”
Fellow high-profile Kiwi couple Brendan and Jo Lindsay also have much in store with their extensive Cambridge Stud racing and breeding portfolio. They were at Randwick on Saturday to lead in their priceless Zoustar filly Joliestar after she added the Gr. 2 Arrowfield 3YO Sprint to her previous start victory in the Gr. 1 MRC One Thousand Guineas in November.
“We paid a lot of money (A$950,000) for this filly and it’s fantastic to see the racehorse she’s become,” Brendan Lindsay said over a glass of bubbly in the Randwick winners’ room. “Chris (Waller) rates her very highly and talking to James (McDonald) the other day, he’s even suggested she would be an ideal horse to line up in one of the big sprints at Royal Ascot.
“That’s for later though, she’ll probably go out now and the team will make plans to target some of the big races in the spring.”
In the final Group One race on Day 2 of The Championships, a mere nose separated the bonny Go Racing mare Atishu from a perfect farewell when she just failed to run down her stablemate Zougotcha in the Queen of the Turf Stakes.
Having won the same race 12 months earlier as well as the Gr. 1 Champions Stakes at Flemington last November amongst a 10-win and A$4.36 million career, the daughter of Savabeel bought as a yearling for $260,000 will be offered at next month’s Magic Millions Broodmare Sale.
“We were hoping for a fairy-tale ending and but for bad luck in the running it would have been too,” said Go Racing’s Matt Allnutt, who was on course for Atishu’s final bow. “It wasn’t to be though, but we can hardly complain, she’s been a wonderful mare for everyone involved.”