Group Three win a family affair
Award-winning racing photographer Trish Dunell scored a sentimental victory last Saturday when her filly Fringes (NZ) (Niagara) took out the Gr.3 SA Fillies Classic (2546m) at Morphettville.
While international stakes success is nothing new to Dunell, Saturday’s win meant more than most, with the filly named after her four grandchildren.
“Fringes I named after my grandchildren – Greta, Freda, Fergus and Sienna,” Dunell said. “The name Fringes is made up from the letters of their names. It is a bit like how Makybe Diva was named (after five of owner Tony Santic’s employees).”
Dunell was also pleased to get the Group Three win with a daughter of Niagara, who she has been a shareholder in.
“He is a gorgeous stallion,” Dunell said.
With Saturday’s victory, Fringes became the fifth Group winner for Niagara, joining Xbox, Raziah, Fancify, and There You Go, with Dunell having also bred Xbox and Fancify.
Dunell bred Fringes out of Golan mare Miss Jaydeejay, a full-sister to Gr.1 Victoria Derby (2500m) winner Kibbutz, who she bought out of Westend Partnership’s 2014 New Zealand Bloodstock Winter Mixed Bloodstock Sale draft for $24,000 in-foal to Ocean Park.
She sold the resulting filly, Miss Damita, as a weanling out of Lime Country Thoroughbreds’ draft at the corresponding sale a year later to United Syndications for $58,000, and she went on to win five races and more than A$139,905 in prizemoney.
Dunell bred a further seven foals out of Miss Jaydeejay, four of those by Niagara, before she passed away last year.
Like many of Dunell’s racehorses, Fringes was entrusted to the care of her good friend Ilone Kelly in Levin early in her career.
She showed plenty of early promise for the Horowhenua trainer, winning on debut at Otaki on Boxing Day last year before finishing unplaced in her other two runs in New Zealand, including the Gr.2 Lowland Stakes (2100m).
“She didn’t know what to do in her second start (Lowland Stakes), she had the ability but she didn’t have a clue,” Dunell said. “She is a nice, big, strong girl but her brain is only just waking up and she is learning what it is all about.
“Suddenly we ran out of good races here and the idea was to go to Australia.”
Dunell has formed a good association with Michael Hickmott and has sent several of her horses across the Tasman to be trained by the South Australian horseman, including Fancify (NZ) (Niagara), who she subsequently sold to a stable client before she won the 2024 edition of the Gr.3 Hong Kong Jockey Club Stakes (1400m) at Flemington on Melbourne Cup Day.
Faced with limited opportunities back in New Zealand, Dunell elected to do the same with Fringes, and while she took a couple of starts to find her feet in Australia, finishing towards the rear of the field in her first two outings, she displayed her talent when breaking through to win over 2200m at Balaklava last month.
Buoyed by that result, and how strong she finished the race, the decision was made to step her up to Group company in the SA Fillies Classic, and she duly delivered.
“I have been looking so closely at that last start and the time was really good,” Dunell said. “I know she didn’t beat much but the way she got there you could tell she had so much left and she was just getting better.
“Even in this race (SA Fillies Classic), look where she was after it. Everybody else was pulling up and she was still looking to go further.”
Dunell is excited about the future with Fringes and she has recently renewed her passport in preparation for heading across the ditch to watch her pride and joy in the flesh.
While she has plenty to look forward to with her exciting filly, Dunell is also hopeful about her Ocean Park two-year-old half-brother, who is currently in the care of Kelly.
“He is a good-looking boy and is with Ilone Kelly, which is where Fringes came from, so he will be the next one,” she said.
Dunell is currently breeding from two mares, including Laced Up, who is currently empty after missing to Ocean Park last year.
The dam of Fancify, Laced Up is a half-sister to five-time Group One winner Jimmy Choux, Group One winner Miss Wilson, and Choux Mania, the dam of dual Group One-winning filly Ohope Wins.
Dunell is planning an early service for the mare where she will return to Ocean Park in the hope of getting a close relation to Ohope Wins, who has made waves on both sides of the Tasman this season.
But in the meantime, Dunell will follow Fringes with excitement, hoping the filly named after her grandchildren can add further stakes victories to her resume.
