Star Trelawney Stud-bred mare Pride Of Jenni (Pride Of Dubai) put on yet another stunning front-running display to prevail in a thrilling Gr.2 Feehan Stakes (1600m) at The Valley on AFL Grand Final eve.
The Ciaron Maher-trained mare was brilliantly ridden by Declan Bates who enabled her to skip to her customary lengthy lead before she withstood the late challenge of Mr Brightside (NZ) (Bullbars) who was as gallant as ever in defeat. New Zealand breeders supplied the trifecta, with Antino (NZ) (Redwood) also brave in third.
Maher was thrilled to see the mare return to winning ways after being toppled by Pinstriped and Mr Brightside at her first two runs this campaign.
“Unbelievable,” Maher said after the performance.
“I just can’t thank the team enough. To have her back, that’s what racing is all about. Night’s like this. Really good racing.
“Brilliant job by Dec. He understands her so well, and the atmosphere tonight was electric.
“I was just rapt to have her back. I thought she was pretty close to right and thankfully she’s right back.”
Winning rider Declan Bates has built an exceptional partnership with the seven-year-old mare, who races best when allowed to set a strong tempo that leaves her rivals gasping a long way out.
“I sat on her on Monday morning and I’d been looking forward to tonight ever since,” Bates said.
“I knew she’d just come on from that last run, and she was just on it.
“She was just really ready for a Moonee Valley race where she could just roll along and skip away.
“I was really positive on her too. A lot of the time I do like to just take it easy on her through that first 200m, but I really just let her stride from the word go today and probably got a little breather about the 1000m.
“I asked a lot of her today but I knew around here, on this ground, we were up against a champion in Brightside, and I had to do what I had to do to beat him.
“And, look, I’ve just got an absolute champion of a horse here.”
Pride Of Jenni is expected to head to the A$5 million Gr.1 King Charles III Stakes (1600m) at Randwick on October 19 and then back-up a week later in the Gr.1 Cox Plate (2040m), with both races also on the agenda of her great rival Mr Brightside.
A daughter of Pride Of Dubai, Pride Of Jenni was bred by Trelawney Stud and is out of the O’Reilly mare Sancerre, who was prepared by Cambridge trainer Tony Pike to win on four occasions for the Stud.
The star mare stems from a family fashioned over generations at the famed Kiwi nursery, which has been in the Taylor family’s ownership since 1993, having been established by Seton Otway in the 1930s.
Group Two winner Real Success, the taproot of star Trelawney Stud graduates Vouvray, Loire, A Touch Of Ruby and Pride Of Jenni and many others around them was one of the first families the Taylors bought into upon taking ownership of Trelawney.
Pride Of Jenni was sold at the Sydney Classic Sale for A$100,000 through the Segenhoe Stud draft, where she was purchased by Tony and Lynn Ottobre’s Cape Schanck Stud.
Sancerre has a two-year-old filly by Per Incanto which has been retained by the Taylors.
Pride Of Jenni is now the winner of eight races with a further 11 placings and A$9,109,490 in prizemoney.
