Pride Of Jenni has returned to racing with a bang after claiming a dominant win in the Group 2 Peter Young Stakes at Caulfield, with Craig Newitt piloting the Ciaron Maher-trained mare to an impressive first-up triumph.
After opening as a -125 favourite with horse racing bookmakers on Wednesday, the daughter of Pride Of Dubai was sent out as a +260 second favourite.
Many expected Newitt to replicate similar tactics to what Declan Bates did throughout his time riding the star mare, and he made sure that the race was run at a brutal tempo, leading by four lengths over from Bois D’argent going past the halfway mark.
A cheeky look from Newitt at the 600m mark indicated that he thought the leader was going well, and he wasn’t wrong, as Pride Of Jenni continued to find around the home turn.
Zardozi started to take ground off the eventual winner in the concluding stages, but it was to no avail, as Pride Of Jenni cantered over the line to win by 2.5 lengths.
2025 Peter Young Stakes replay – Pride Of Jenni
Jack Turnbull represented the stable in the post-race interview.
“Right up there, Group Two, but just the lead up into this race and obviously the form she had in the spring and what she’d done to herself, just an amazing team effort to get her back,” Turnbull said.
“Very thankful for Tony and Lynn for giving us that opportunity.
“Big effort for the team too, Sammy does all the riding, and we have a very good group of staff down there at Cranbourne and with the facility there, we’re able to get her ready off one jump out.
“We’ve got a lot of information on her, a lot of workouts and the like to compare, and we’d just done certain workouts that were pretty tough in our standards and she just bounced through them, and Ciaron was there a few times and scratched his head and thought, hang on, we’re a bit more forward than we think we are.
“We just kept putting the pressure on, and she just kept stepping up; even throughout this week, she had a good bit of work on the Saturday, and again on the Tuesday.
“She is just a freak of nature, she’s a credit to herself.
“Given the way she’s run there and won, the Australian Cup would have to be looked at for sure, but then up in Sydney you’ve got races like Queen Of The Turf if you come back in trip slightly, and then the Queen Elizabeth would be her ultimate grand final, but for the moment we’ll just savour this win.”
Craig Newitt was very complimentary of the stable and owners about the work they had done to get the mare back to racing.
“She’s going the right way about it. Fair play to Tony and Lynn,” Newitt said.
“They put their backsides on the line to bring her back into work when everyone had their opinion that he shouldn’t have.
“Fair credit to him, it’s been justified today.
“Ciaron and his team, they just do a tremendous job and they know this mare inside out so I’m just very grateful to be part of the ride now.
“The old girl, when she turned down the side at the half mile, she grabbed hold of the bridle and basically said, hang on.
“So I just went with her and she picked up the tempo.
“I thought she might have just been starting to fatigue a little bit, but I put one round her tail and she dropped the gear and disappeared.
“She ran through the line as solid as anything, so she’ll only take great benefit from the run and by all signs, she looks like she’s pulled up traffic, so it’s very exciting.
“It’s a great reward for hard work. I work all year round, and we live to get on these sorts of mares. I’m grateful for the opportunity, and hopefully we can continue.”
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