Jockey Wiremu Pinn is almost catapulted out of the saddle aboard Little Black Dress when the filly was severely hampered inside the last 250m of the two-year-old race at Ellerslie last Saturday. The Snitzel filly recovered amazingly well to get up and snatch victory on the line.
John Jenkins is a longtime racing journalist based in Hawke’s Bay.
OPINION
Mazu confirmed another Queensland winter holiday for Havelock North couple David and Bry Mossman when he returned to winning form in the Group 3 $272,000 TAB Hall Mark Stakes in Sydney last Saturday.
It was the six-year-old gelding’s first win since he took out the same race 12 months ago but he has rarely run a bad race in the interim, competing against the best sprinters in Australia just about every time.
The Mossmans own a 5% share in Mazu and have enjoyed a dream ride with a horse that has now recorded nine wins and has earned more than A$10 million in stakemoney plus another A$2.6m bonus for being the most consistent Group race sprinter in Australia during the 2022-23 racing season.
The couple crossed the Tasman this time last year to watch Mazu compete at the Queensland winter carnival and plan to do the same again, with the horse’s next start likely to be in the Group 1 A$1.5m Doomben 10,000 (1200m) on May 17.
“We are going over on May 16, the day before he races,” David Mossman said this week.
“Hopefully, we will get to see him run in a couple of races while we are there. His trainer [Joe Pride] has sent an email to all the owners saying there is also the Moreton Cup in June that could suit the horse.”
The Group 2 A$300,000 Moreton Cup is run over 1200m at Eagle Farm on June 7.
Mossman said Pride’s email also said that the horse has come through last Saturday’s winning performance in great order and he is looking forward to getting him up to Queensland again.
“This horse has given us so much fun for a long time,” Mossman added. “It’s been unbelievable really with what he has done and we’ve absolutely loved it.
“He hadn’t won for a year but he had never been far away in all of his races and has been racing against the very best sprinters there.”
Mazu was having his fourth start this campaign when he scored a decisive 1-1/2 length win over Coal Crusher in last Saturday’s 1200m feature, in the hands of top Australian woman jockey Jamie Melham.
The Maurice gelding appreciated the rain-affected track, but Mossman said two other key elements helped bring the best out of the horse again.
“Joe Pride knows how to train older horses and he took the blinkers and gear off and Jamie is the right jockey for him. He is a very intelligent horse and she understands him and kids with him,” Mossman said.
“Nash Rawiller rode him the start before and he tried to bully him and he didn’t like it.”
Jamie Melham (formerly Kah) was also aboard Mazu when he won last year’s TAB Hall Mark Stakes and was impressed with how the horse really dug in over the final stages last Saturday.
A Black Dress that is really smart
Flashy two-year-old filly Little Black Dress, part-owned by Dannevirke’s Dean Shuker, looked a future star in the making when prevailing in a dramatic finish to last Saturday’s Listed $100,000 Skycity Star Way Stakes (1200m) at Ellerslie.
The only thing that seemed certain with 200m left to run in the two-year-old feature was that it looked like a Stephen Marsh-trained quinella with pacemaker Lady Iris clinging resolutely to a narrow lead from Little Black Dress as the pair went stride for stride at that point.
Lady Iris suddenly veered to her left and hampered both her stablemate and the late closing Too Sweet, before being straightened by rider George Rooke.
Little Black Dress was knocked off balance, almost unseating rider Wiremu Pinn, but amazingly managed to regain her momentum and stretch out to snatch victory by a head from Lady Iris with a further long neck back to Too Sweet.
With Marsh en route to Hong Kong to link up with stable star El Vencedor, it was left to stable representative Dylan Johnson to sum up the final result.
“We have been in this position before with stablemates challenging each other late in the piece at Ellerslie, but when you have runners in nice races, it is lovely when they are at the sharp end of it,” Johnson said.
“It was nice to quinella the race and the winner is a lovely, well-bred filly by Snitzel that Albert [Bosma] and Matt [Allnut] did a great job sourcing and they now have a very valuable stakes winner, who is two from two.
“The second filly has also gained valuable black type, and although there is not a lot to her she just fought and fought.
“There is not a lot more for them, so they can go out in the paddock before we get them back in to attack the spring.”
Jockey Wiremu Pinn was also impressed by how his mount picked herself up and finished off so resolutely to the line.
“She is a very good horse with class written all over her,” he said.
“She is beautifully bred and won her first start in good fashion and has put away a smart field here today.
“Even with the bump, she picked herself up, pinned her ears back and had a real go.
“I think she is a Group One horse as what she is doing now is on ability only, whereas in six months she will be even better.”
The Arrowfield Stud-bred Little Black Dress is by Snitzel out of the Street Cry mare Star Fashion, who won the Gr.3 Ladies’ Day Vase (1600m) and placed in the Gr.1 Australasian Oaks (2000m) and Gr.2 Edward Manifold Stakes (1600m). Star Fashion is now the dam of four winners from five foals to race.
Arrowfield offered Little Black Dress at the 2024 Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale, where Go Racing secured her for A$240,000.
Dannevirke’s Dean Shuker took up a 5% shareholding in the filly and has had a great association with the Go Racing team, being also a 5% shareholder in the outstanding performer Atishu, winner of 11 races and more than A$6m in stakemoney.
Former Hastings galloper now a real star
Former Hastings-trained galloper Jimmysstar has stamped himself as one of the most exciting sprinters in Australia with a brilliant victory in last Saturday’s Group 1 $1.6m All Aged Stakes (1400m) at Randwick, Sydney.
The Ciaron Maher-trained five-year-old was given a masterful ride by Ethan Brown, tracking Broadsiding midfield on the fence throughout before patiently waiting for the gaps to appear.
When the son of Per Incanto found clear air, the acceleration was instant as he raced clear for an impressive half-length win over Joliestar, with Sunshine In Paris a three-quarter length back in third.
Jimmysstar has now won nine of his 18 starts with a further five placings and commenced his present campaign with a stunning win in the Group 1 Oakleigh Plate (1100m).
He was subsequently third on an off track at The Valley in the Group 1 William Reid Stakes (1200m) and fourth after blundering at the start in the Group 1 T.J. Smith Stakes (1200m).
“He is such a ripper,” a delighted Ciaron Maher said. “This prep, he has come out with the Oakleigh Plate and his next two runs have been absolutely outstanding. He has run in four Group Ones and to claim two of them is pretty special.
“He’s a cool horse, Jimmy, with a great ownership group and he’s got a pretty cool jockey as well. I’m just thrilled.”
Jimmysstar began his racing career from the Hastings stable of Guy Lowry, who produced him to win two races from only three starts before a majority share in the gelding was sold to clients of Maher following a Rating 65 win at Hastings, and the chestnut has now gone on to amass A$2,139,272 in prizemoney.
Further lucrative targets loom, with the A$20 million The Everest (1200m) an obvious target in the spring and Maher drawing comparisons with recently retired stablemate Bella Nipotina, who won the lucrative contest.
“I was thinking about The Everest after the Oakleigh Plate,” Maher said. “The other day, he ran home a quicker time in the TJ Smith than he did in the Oakleigh Plate, and his Oakleigh Plate was blistering”.
Jimmysstar was bred by Wairarapa couple Pete and Chrissy Algie in partnership with Masterton’s Little Avondale Stud.
Stud proprietors Sam and Catriona Williams, along with the Algies, remain in the ownership of the star galloper.
The chestnut gelding is by Little Avondale Stud’s outstanding stallion Per Incanto out of the Zed mare Anniesstar, who won five races including the Listed Feilding Cup (2100m).
Loire started successful run in Hastings
Group One-winning mare Loire passed away last weekend following a paddock accident.
Bred by Trelawney Stud, Loire was by Champion sire Redoute’s Choice and out of Traditionally mare Syrah, a half-sister to Group 1 winner Vouvray, the grandam of multiple Group One winner and Australian Horse of the Year Pride Of Jenni.
Loire was retained by Trelawney’s Brent and Cherry Taylor and entrusted to the care of Cambridge trainer Tony Pike, for whom she won two and placed in five of her 16 starts, and accrued nearly $250,000 in prizemoney.
She won at just her second start over 1300m at Hastings as a juvenile before returning as three-year-old where she carried Trelawney’s silks to victory in the Group 1 New Zealand 1000 Guineas (1600m) and placings in the Group 2 Lowland Stakes (2100m), Group 2 David and Karyn Ellis Fillies Classic (2000m), Group 3 Desert Gold Stakes (1600m), Group 3 Gold Trail Stakes (1200m) and Listed El Roca-Sir Colin Meads Trophy (1200m).
She failed to add to her record as a four-year-old and was retired to stud where she produced a Frankel filly and a Frankel colt, with the latter offered at the Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale earlier this month where he was purchased by leading Australian trainer Ciaron Maher for A$500,000.
Rather than being 'aesthetic changes', the work has been 'remedial'.