Pride Of Jenni’s return at Caulfield sums up extremes of the horse breeding industry

Pride Of Jenni winning the Queen Elizabeth II at Randwick in April. Photo / Bradleyphotos.

The beauty and brutality of the horse breeding industry are summed up by the return of Kiwi-bred superstar Pride Of Jenni at Caulfield today.

The mare has become the people’s champion of Australasian racing after a series of spectacular victories last season, headlined by her win in the Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Randwick in April when she raced 25 lengths clear of her opponents in the middle stages and never stopped.

It was one of the great modern-day horse racing wins in this part of the world and means Pride Of Jenni is the centre of attention for any race she is being aimed at, the rarest of horses who might scare other superstars away from taking her on.

Today she brings her talents to the A$750,000 Memsie Stakes at Caulfield for the first race of her new campaign, a race with a strong Kiwi flavour as former NZ galloper Mr Brightside is the logical danger while Aegon, trained here by Andrew Forsman, could be the sneaky in the Group 1.

But for all the glory and joy Pride Of Jenni has given Waikato breeders Brent and Cherry Taylor of the famous Trelawney Stud, the breeding game is not for the faint-hearted.

The Taylors welcomed a half-sister to Pride Of Jenni recently only for the filly to die when just 3 days old.

“She was in the stable with her mum (Sancerre) and the staff went and checked on her at 3.30am and she was fine,” said Cherry Taylor.

“They came back at 6am and she was dead. There wasn’t a mark on her and an examination found nothing so all we can think is it was a congenital defect.

“I was devastated because she was a lovely little filly, who loved a cuddle. She wasn’t insured but that wouldn’t change anything for us.

“The heartache you feel when something like this happens has nothing to do with money.”

Pride Of Jenni’s dam Sancerre will now return to the same stallion, Hello Youmzain, who sired the deceased filly.

So Pride Of Jenni’s resumption today will be tinged with sadness but Cherry Taylor said that is the reality of breeding racehorses or any animal.

Sometimes Mother Nature gives and sometimes she takes away.

Pride Of Jenni is in the unusual position this spring of trying to repeat the almost unrepeatable, her signature wins last season were so stunning that anything short of winning the Cox Plate in October might be considered a step backwards.

Of course, winning Group 1s season after season isn’t quite that easy and Taylor said they would just enjoy the ride.

“What she has done has been amazing and we are so proud of her and we’d love to have her become the third Cox Plate winner bred by Trelawney after Tulloch and Ocean Park.”

Her reappearance is the highlight of racing on both sides of the Tasman today even though plenty of other big names return, including last season’s juvenile hype colt Storm Boy in Sydney.

Closer to home the major domestic meeting is at Whanganui where the track will be a heavy 10 for the Whanganui Guineas and that could mean the winner is decided as much by how they handle that slog as their ability.

Saturday Punt Pointers

1: Belardi (Whanganui, R5): Has won here on a heavy track before and trialled strongly recently. His early speed could help him dictate his own line.

2: The Victress (Riccarton, R4): Showed zip last term and her last trial was excellent. Good bet with cover on Enterprise (No 1).

3: Autumn Glow (Rosehill, R7): Won’t pay much but is a real excitement machine of a filly for whom Chris Waller has Group 1 aspirations.

Michael Guerin wrote his first nationally published racing articles while still in school and started writing about horse racing and the gambling industry for the Herald as a 20-year-old in 1990. He became the Herald’s Racing Editor in 1995 and covers the world’s biggest horse racing carnivals.