Pride Of Jenni does it again in Hollindale

Pride Of Jenni’s (Pride Of Dubai) runaway front-running heroics have brought racetrack crowds to their feet in Victoria and New South Wales over the past few years, and on Saturday it was Queensland’s turn.

The Trelawney Stud-bred marvel did it again in the A$500,000 Gr.2 TAB A.D. Hollindale Stakes (1800m) at the Gold Coast, adding a 13^th win to a 47-start career that will continue to be talked about long after she retires.

Pride Of Jenni has made a habit of opening up jaw-dropping leads and never letting the chasers reel her in. Those tearaway tactics have carried her to four Group One triumphs, most famously a six-length blitz in the 2024 Queen Elizabeth Stakes (2000m) at Randwick after opening up a 30-length margin mid-race.

She treated the Gold Coast to something of a re-enactment of that performance on Saturday as regular rider Declan Bates allowed her to stride clear by 16 lengths through the middle stages of the race.

Pride Of Jenni’s petrol tank was empty in the straight, but she kept fighting. With the Gold Coast crowd cheering her every step of the way, she held out the late-closing Birdman (Free Eagle) by three-quarters of a length.

“I really just work with her,” Bates said. “It’s all about her terms, especially when she’s really loving it and nice and on song. And I knew very early today that we were in business.

“It’s probably the first time I’ve felt it that strongly since the Queen Elizabeth, but at the same time I’ve just got to manage her.”

Trainer Ciaron Maher was delighted to see the eight-year-old at the peak of her powers again.

“She’s just a marvel,” he said. “Have a look at her, she is just a beautiful mare, and she's got a great constitution.

“You’d think a track like the Gold Coast would suit her style, and it certainly did.

“Coming into this, I was mindful that she’s had three very tough runs, and you don’t want to over-train her. We’ve just kept her fresh. You know pretty quickly in her races whether she’s on, and when she stepped well, I thought, ‘Oh, we might be on today.’

“She was sprinting flat out from the 1000m. She’s used to doing that, being off the bridle a long way out, but it was a super ride from Dec.”

Pride Of Jenni has now had 47 starts for 13 wins, 14 placings and A$12.3 million in prize-money.

She was bred by Trelawney Stud and is out of the O’Reilly mare Sancerre (NZ), who was prepared by Cambridge trainer Tony Pike to win on four occasions for the stud. The star mare stems from a family fashioned over generations at the famed Kiwi nursery, which has been in the Taylor family’s ownership since 1993, having been established by Seton Otway in the 1930s.

Group Two winner Real Success, the taproot of star Trelawney Stud graduates Vouvray (NZ) (Zabeel), Loire (NZ) (Redoute's Choice), A Touch Of Ruby (NZ) (Pins) and Pride Of Jenni and many others around them, was one of the first families the Taylors bought into upon taking ownership of Trelawney.

Pride Of Jenni was sold at the Sydney Classic Sale for A$100,000 through the Segenhoe Stud draft, where she was purchased by Tony and Lynn Ottobre’s Cape Schanck Stud.