Comeback mare Pride Of Jenni has given Trelawney Stud a number of reasons to look forward to the spring after a dashing victory in the Gr.2 Feehan Stakes (1600m) on Friday night.
Pride Of Jenni was crowned Australia’s Racehorse of the Year in the 2023/24 season after claiming three Group Ones, but was thought to be retired after finishing back in the Gr.1 Doomben Cup (2000m) in May.
Her breeders Brent and Cherry Taylor had an idea that she might return as an eight-year-old and couldn’t have been prouder to see her return with a vengeance at The Valley.
“It was just fantastic,” Cherry Taylor said.
“Obviously Tony (Ottobre, owner) had initially said that she would go to stud, but he sent us a message saying that he didn’t think she wanted to be a broodmare, she was loving her work and life back in the stable so he would give her another go.
“They’ve all done an amazing job to get her back to that form, and to beat Treasurethe Moment, who had beaten an absolute champion in Mr Brightside last start, we were just thrilled.”
The Taylors sadly lost Pride Of Jenni’s half-sister, a foal by Hello Youmzain, last spring, but are hopeful of another filly out of her dam Sancerre in the coming weeks.
“She went back to Hello Youmzain because it was such a good foal, and we are waiting for this one to be born,” Taylor said. “We’re excited and hoping it’ll be a filly again.”
As they did to produce Pride Of Jenni, the Cambridge nursery continue to reap the rewards of bringing Australian blood into their breeding programme, with the latest example a rising star in Astoria Brooke.
The progressive four-year-old carried their silks to victory when resuming in a competitive Rating 75 contest over 1400m on Saturday at Te Rapa, continuing to build on a record that now includes four wins from just nine starts.
Astoria Brooke was the second foal out of stakes winner Astor, who was purchased off the track before being sent to Coolmore sire American Pharoah.
“We bought Astor off the track when she retired from Gary Harding’s (owner),” Taylor said.
“We often send our maiden mares to Australia to get a bit of that blood into New Zealand, usually between three and six mares if they are good, well-performed stakes horses. We get them in foal, they are foaled down, then bring them back in foal with a foal at foot and go to New Zealand stallions after that.
“We sell the colts as yearlings, or if they go on to be geldings after that. We typically try to retain two or three fillies out of each family, and being the first out of the mare, we kept her (Astoria Brooke).”
Like her dam, Astoria Brooke is trained by Matamata horseman Cody Cole, who has managed her through soundness issues.
“Cody has done a fantastic job because she hasn’t been easy, she’s had little niggles and growing pains along the way,” Taylor said. “To get her winning first-up on a heavy track was great, he’s done a great job and we’re very impressed by him and the mare.
“Any horse that can string together three in a row has got ability and she’s now a four-win horse. I think you will see her go through the grades now.
“We’ll still get some sting out of the tracks before Christmas so hopefully she can get a stakes performance on the board before then. I think she’ll feel the hard tracks, but if we can get her up to that before then, which I think we can, that’s great, then she can come back in the autumn.”
Trelawney sold her half-brother by Sword Of State for $400,000 at the Karaka Yearling Sales in January, but that was their last progeny on the farm, after selling Astor to Highview’s Kurtis Gillovic.
“We try to keep all of our mares at the top end and while her first foal by American Pharaoh was a winner, he had a couple of issues mentally, so we decided to sell Astor,” Taylor said.
“Kurtis Gillovic bought the mare and now Astoria Brooke has come along, she ran in a stakes race as a three-year-old and has come up since then.
“We’re absolutely thrilled for Kurtis, he’s a young man in the industry that now has a nice, young mare that he can continue to breed from. He’s getting a lot of fun out of watching Astoria Brooke racing, we saw Brent (Gillovic) at the races after she won and congratulated Kurtis, we’re so rapt for him.” – LOVERACING.NZ News Desk
