Polly Grey to Chase NZ G1

Media Release - Tuesday December 20

Quality mare Polly Grey will be given the opportunity to boost her future broodmare value and attain millionaire status during a brief homecoming.

The New Zealand-bred mare will depart from her adopted home in Sydney on Wednesday for a one-off crack at the Gr.1 Cambridge Stud Zabeel Classic (2000m) at Pukekohe on Boxing Day.

Polly Grey is headed back her homeland - image Steve Hart

The well-related daughter of Azamour is a stakes winner on both sides of the Tasman and elite-level success would crown the terrific ride the mare has given her connections, which includes her former trainer Kylie Fawcett.

“She is just coming over for the Zabeel Classic, there’s not really anything else for her so we’re giving it a go,” the Matamata-based horsewoman said.

“We’ve been keeping an eye on the weather and ideally we would like quite a rain-affected track.”

The winner of more than NZ$960,000, Polly Grey’s 11 career victories have all been posted on soft or heavy ground, but the eight-year-old isn’t totally one-dimensional.

“She still has run very well on better tracks in Australia without winning. She has been right there a number of times,” Fawcett said.

She prepared Polly Grey to win six races, including the Listed Matamata Cup (1600m) and placed in both the Gr.2 Japan Trophy (1600m) and the Gr.3 Thompson Handicap (1600m).

In her subsequent Australian career with champion trainer Chris Waller, she has been the dual Group Three winner of the Epona Handicap (1900m) and the Japan Racing Association Plate (2000m).

Polly Grey has also claimed the Listed Gosford Cup (2100m), Listed Lord Mayor’s Cup (2000m) and the Listed ATC Cup (2000m) and posted multiple black-type placings.

Advertisement

“She has been terrific, she’s been an absolute gem for us,” Fawcett said.

Polly Grey has run three times this campaign and finished a first-up fourth in the Gr.3 Angst Stakes (1600m) and was then seventh in the Gr.2 Matriarch Stakes (2000m) before an unplaced effort in the Gr.2 The Ingham (1600m).

“She’ll go back after the Zabeel and get ready for one more prep in the autumn and hopefully through to Brisbane before she goes to the broodmare paddock,” Fawcett said.

“We are going to keep her and get her in foal. That’s why we have raced her on a bit as we’re going to breed to race.

“Initially, we will probably send her to a stallion in Australia and then bring her back here in foal.

“We were tossing up getting her in foal last season and we looked at a couple of stallions, but decided to race on.”

The mare is a daughter of the Zenno Rob Roy mare Allanah, who was successful on four occasions, and she is a half-sister to the Gr.1 Easter Handicap (1600m) winner Pasta Post and the Gr.3 Hawke’s Bay Gold Cup winner Dom Domingo (2200m).

Polly Grey’s hit and run Group One mission aside, Fawcett will be enjoying a quieter Christmas racing period.

“I won’t be having any runners, all my racing team are in the paddock and I’ve just got a handful of young ones coming up,” she said. – NZ Racing Desk

Advertisment
More Reading...
Juvenile Trial Watch – Rosehill
There were six heats for juveniles at Rosehill on Friday morning and the winners include unraced youngsters by Cool Aza Beel and I Am Invincible, plus a Farnan colt that tried his luck in Group races in the autumn and was far from disgraced.
Polly Grey Breaks Through
The Chris Waller-trained Polly Grey finally broke her Australian duck at her eleventh start in her adopted homeland. Still, she chose the right spot to do it, the Group III Roadwork Solutions Epona Stakes (1900m) at Rosehill on Saturday.
High-flying Pencarrow Stud offers well-bred mares in Online Breeding Stock Sale
The 2024-25 season has been one of the best ever for Pencarrow Stud, and some of the renowned bloodlines that have underpinned that success are now available for purchase in the 2025 National Online Breeding Stock Sale on Gavelhouse Plus.
Breeding To Win – Crystal Ball – New Season 3YOs to Follow
Analysis of the G1 winning 3YO’s for this season has made us realise how many horses on this list took giant strides from two to three, so we are looking into the crystal ball to find some juveniles we believe could end next season as G1 performers if not G1 winners.
One to Watch – Hawkesbury
Super Seth has had three G1 winners in Australia this season and John O’Shea and Tom Charlton have trained two of them, so when they produce a lightly raced maiden winner by this exciting young sire we want to know more.
So You Think 3YO Wins $100,000 Inglis Xtra Bonus
Good placement from the Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott stable for progressive three year-old So You Think gelding Aloysius, who cast off maiden status at Hawkesbury on Thursday in a race that featured a lucrative Inglis Xtra maiden bonus.
Popular Mare Polly Grey Has Returned to Her Birthplace
Group One performer Polly Grey has returned to New Zealand to finish her racing career where she started it, in part-owner Kylie Fawcett’s mare.
Third Winner for Peltzer
Twin Hills Stud’s young sire Peltzer added a third winner to his tally with a debut victory at Canberra on Friday for the well named gelding I Show Speed.
Polly Belts Them in JRA Plate
The Chris Waller-trained Polly Grey took eleven starts to break her duck in Australia but has become a regular visitor to the winner's circle.
Sires With Winners - Friday July 4
Here is the full list of 38 stallions which had winners throughout Australasia today with winners and result details.