Star mare Pride Of Jenni retired

[Wandering Eyes]

Pride Of Jenni (Pride Of Dubai), last season’s Australian Racehorse Of The Year and a three-time Group One winner, has been retired following Saturday’s A$3 million Gr.1 Champions Mile (1600m).

Bred by Cambridge thoroughbred nursery Trelawney Stud, Pride Of Jenni was sold through Segenhoe Stud’s 2019 Inglis Classic Yearling Sale draft for $100,000 to Tony and Lyn Ottobre’s Cape Schanck Stud.

She showed promise from an early stage and finished second in the Gr.2 Rose Of Kingston Stakes (1410m), Gr.1 Coolmore Classic (1500m) and Gr.2 Stocks Stakes (1600m), before she burst into stardom during last year’s Melbourne Cup Week.

Adopting her devastating front-running style in the A$1 million Gr.1 Empire Rose Stakes (1600m), Pride Of Jenni held off fellow Kiwi-bred mare Atishu to collect her first elite-level crown, and seven days later it was déjà vu for the Flemington crowd, with the daughter of Pride Of Dubai defeating Mr Brightside and Alligator Blood in the A$3 million Gr.1 Champions Mile (1600m) in similar fashion.

The Ciaron Maher-trained mare’s dazzling form continued into the autumn, with game second placings in the Gr.1 C.F Orr Stakes (1400m) and A$3 million Gr.1 Australian Cup (2000m), overshadowed by an outstanding victory in the A$3.7 million All Star Mile (1600m), but even that performance was nothing on what she produced at Randwick on April 13.

Contesting the $5 million Gr.1 Queen Elizabeth Stakes (2000m), Pride Of Jenni was taken to the front by Declan Bates, and she led the field by as much as 30 lengths on her way to what was widely-regarded as one of the most unbelievable victories seen on a racecourse in Sydney.

In her seven-year-old term, Pride Of Jenni continued to perform at the highest level and won the Gr.2 Feehan Stakes (1600m) alongside placings in the Gr.1 Makybe Diva Stakes (1600m) and $5 million Gr.1 King Charles III Stakes (1600m), but after unplaced runs in the A$5 million Gr.1 Cox Plate (2040m) and the Champions Mile, time was called on her phenomenal career.

Pride Of Jenni accumulated more than A$10 million in stakes earnings through her career, and Cherry Taylor, co-director of Trelawney Stud, couldn’t have been prouder.

“She’s just been an incredible mare, a great flagship for the stud,” Taylor said.

“We’re just so proud of her, she’s such a beautifully-natured mare and so kind, it’s so lovely that she was able to fulfil the potential that she got to.

“I thought that her performance in the Queen Elizabeth, where she was out by 30 lengths, was incredible. A lot of people thought she wouldn’t be able to hold on, but she did, and it wasn’t an insignificant field, she beat Mr Brightside and Via Sistina, and other amazing horses that day.

“We were there for the Empire Rose and then went for the Cox Plate this year, and although she was coming to the end of her career, it was still amazing to be there. I was talking to her beforehand and she gave me a big kiss, she is truly a beautiful horse.

“We’re really excited for her future now, being a mare she can go on and breed and we can watch her foals. We’re thrilled to bits to see the next chapter, and thrilled for Tony and Lyn (Ottobre).”

The dam of Pride Of Jenni, Sancerre, has a two-year-old filly by Per Incanto that was retained by Trelawney Stud, named Pouilly Fume.

“We’ve got a third-quarter sister, she’s a two-year-old, and we’re really looking forward to racing her,” Taylor said. 

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