A reminder of the alternating fortunes of breeding racehorses will be laid bare when one of the most-anticipated spring returns unfolds against a bittersweet backdrop for famed New Zealand nursery Trelawney Stud.
As Pride Of Jenni strives for a winning reappearance for the first time in a career that lit up Australian racing in 2023/24, it also promises to be a moment of reflection for Trelawney’s Cherry Taylor.
Taylor and her husband Brent bred Pride Of Jenni, although she was foaled at Segenhoe in Australia. Only last week, they celebrated the arrival of a half-sister to the Memsie Stakes favourite at Trelawney.
But in a devastating blow, the filly by Hello Youmzain died, leaving the Taylors to ponder the peaks and troughs of a passion that can be as unforgiving as it is exhilarating.
Trelawney is about as famous as it gets in New Zealand racing. Seven Melbourne Cup winners have been raised on the farm’s fertile paddocks near Cambridge.
Since the Taylor family assumed ownership in the early 1990s, hardly a year has passed without a Trelawney graduate winning a major race as it has morphed from standing stallions such as New Zealand’s two-time champion sire Kingdom Bay, into a broodmare-only concern with a high-level investment in rich bloodlines.
The Taylors are cognisant of Trelawney’s influence on the New Zealand thoroughbred industry. Custodianship is vital - if not essential.
So, too, is a capacity to withstand the unforeseen.
Losing a foal bred to be part of Trelawney’s magnificent landscape for generations to come strikes at the heart of its pursuit and is always a test of character.
“You can't be a sook if you're a breeder because these things happen,” Cherry told The Straight.
“She was a really cracking little filly so we're actually going to send the mare (Sancerre) back to Hello Youmzain because we really liked her.
“The filly was clearly not going to be sold. She was going to be part of my racing team but unfortunately, she is no longer.
“We're very gutted about it but we have got the three-quarter sister (by Per Incanto) that will be in work with Stephen Marsh.
“She's only a baby - she's only two (years old). So we will see how that one goes and hope for another filly next time.
Pride Of Jenni’s emergence as a force of nature in Australia’s best weight-for-age races over the past 12 months reinforces Trelawney’s reputation for breeding quality racehorses in the same way as it is a testament to how Ciaron Maher trains them.
Trelawney is steeped in New Zealand's thoroughbred history. Established in the 1930s, it remained in the Otway family until Australian billionaire Robert Holmes a Court purchased the property in the late 1980s.
When the businessman died in 1990, Trelawney was sold to the Taylors and one of the first broodmares the family purchased continues to have a lasting impact with a deep connection to Pride Of Jenni.
“It is the oldest commercial thoroughbred farm in New Zealand and we’re very lucky to be able to look after it for future generations,” Cherry said.
Real Success, who counted Queensland Oaks winner Vouvray as the best of her 12 foals, is the great grand-dam of Pride Of Jenni and as such, a matriarch of a family that is Trelawney through and through.
“She has been amazing, absolutely amazing for us,” Cherry said.
“We bought Real Success when she retired from racing. She was trained by Frank Ritchie and she was pretty much the foundation broodmare that we bought when we bought Trelawney Stud.
“And then from there we’ve bred Vouvray, Syrah and Sancerre, who is the dam of Pride Of Jenni. There’s Loire and in that same family there is another Group 1 winner, A Touch of Ruby.
“It’s such a good family.
“And with Sancerre being quite a shy breeder, we won’t be selling any fillies out of that family ever again.”
The Memsie will usher in Group 1 racing for the Melbourne spring carnival and, as they always do when Pride Of Jenni races, the Taylors will be tuning in from New Zealand.
Vouvray ran in the 2004 Memsie but never got warm before finding her feet later in the spring with a brave fourth in Elvstroem’s Caulfield Cup and a Group 1 Mackinnon Stakes placing.
There is significantly more expectation surrounding Pride Of Jenni despite an indifferent first-up record that might leave her vulnerable.
Great Pride Of Dubai filly out of Sancerre born at Segenhoe for Trelawney great first foal strong and leggy
— cherry Taylor (@trelawneystud) August 29, 2017
But without second-guessing Maher, the Taylors are hoping Pride Of Jenni will be better on Cox Plate day than she is on Saturday.
They plan to join Pride Of Jenni’s owner Tony Ottobre and his family at Moonee Valley for Australia’s most prestigious weight-for-age race.
“We absolutely never miss her running … we always watch her on TV,” Cherry said.
“And we have been kindly invited to join the Ottobres at the Cox Plate so we won't miss that.
“It would be lovely for Trelawney to have bred a third Cox Plate winner. Tulloch was bred on the farm and we bred Ocean Park.
“And so it would be amazing to see Pride of Jenni do it as well.”
Jessica Owers
