After almost a full calendar year off the scene and a brief stint as a broodmare, Passive Aggressive (+700) has made a triumphant return to racing, claiming back-to-back victories in the Group 2 Challenge Stakes (1000m) at Randwick on Saturday.
The Grahame Begg-trained mare won this race impressively last year, before finding Group 1 company in the TJ Smith Stakes (1200m) too testing and was retired shortly after being unable to make an impact in the Group 1 Robert Sangster Stakes (1200m) at Morphettville on May 6 of 2023.
She was unable to get into foal while standing as a broodmare, and the decision was made to return to racing, paying dividends on Saturday as she has quickly returned to form.
It was a patience steer aboard the daughter of Fastnet Rock, with Jordan Childs sliding across to find a mid-field position one horse off the rail throughout the 1000m journey, as Zapateo (+1800) found herself in an unfamiliar front-running role.
Aft Cabin (+500) and Remarque (+400) got into lovely positions behind the speed, while the race favourite Private Eye (+120) was slightly slow away, with Nash Rawiller making the decision to take him towards the rear of the field.
Passive Aggressive rounded up her rivals with relative ease with 200m to go, while Aft Cabin never got clear running between gallopers.
Zapateo held her ground nicely to find the minor money, while Remarque rounded out the top four, with Private Eye unsighted in the concluding stages.
It was all about the winner in the end, as Passive Aggressive bounded away to score, making it back-to-back wins in the Challenge Stakes, suggesting there is still more to come from the five-year-old mare.
2024 Challenge Stakes Replay – Passive Aggressive
Stable representative Jack Lake was on course on behalf of the Grahame Begg team and praised his mare after a tough time at the breeding barn.
“Since day one she’s always been a class horse,” said Lake.
“It was disappointing when she had to be retired and when she couldn’t get in foal and she came back into work, she’s just been terrific since she’s come back in.
“After having almost a year off we probably thought she could have been very vulnerable late but she was very gallant to the line. So it was very impressive.
“She’s a bit of a cranky mare at times, so the fitter she gets, the more wound up she gets and becomes more of a bit of a typical mare, sort of thing.
“But we’re just rapt to have her back and I don’t think she could have been any more impressive there.”
Jordan Childs was delighted with the win and also spoke post-race about a change of tactics with the way the race unfolded before stating her claims to a possible Group 1 tilt in the autumn.
“It’s a bit different to last year, we went a bit conservative today,” said Childs.
“It wasn’t originally the plan but she just didn’t begin as well as what she usually could so I went to Plan B and just took her nice and quiet.
When I was travelling into the straight she gave me a really unreal feel once I pressed that button. She was just too good for them.
“She’s strengthened up a lot and she has come back a proper horse this time in, so I’m very looking forward to what the future holds.”
Passive Aggressive is now a +2500 chance with online bookmakers for the Group 1 TJ Smith Stakes (1200m) on April 6.
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