Pride Of Jenni delivers in first race after returning from retirement

Pride of Jenni is back. The three-time Group 1 winner dominated her first race back from retirement, the Group 2 Peter Young Stakes at Caulfield Racecourse on Saturday.

This race was just a little over a month after Ciaron Maher revealed that Pride Of Jenni would be coming out of retirement. She was previously stabled after suffering a scary bleed in the Group 1 Champions Mile at Flemington in November.

Silenced the doubters

“Pride Of Jenni, she’s back! It’s the spectacular Pride Of Jenni!” was the call from the race announcer on Saturday. It might be too early to say whether the mare is actually back to her best, but it’s hard to overstate how dominant she was at Caulfield this weekend.

The 2024 Australian Champion Racehorse of the Year lived up to her huge reputation and was simply a class apart in the $300,000 Peter Young Stakes.

Pride Of Jenni took the lead just ahead of the 1200m mark and never looked back. She won the race by a stunning three lengths over the betting sites favourite Zardozi ($2.10). Pride Of Jenni entered the race with a $3.80 starting price from the betting apps.

Annabel Neasham’s Bois D'argent finished third, over five lengths behind the winner.

“Amazing effort”

While Pride Of Jenni’s comeback win looked routine for the Group 1 winner, Ciaron Maher and his assistant trainer Jack Turnbull say it took a huge effort to get the seven-year-old back to her current level after her retirement last year.

“Just the lead up into this race and obviously the form she had in the spring and what she’d done to herself, it’s just an amazing team effort to get her back,” Turnbull said post-race on Saturday.

Turnbull also praised Pride Of Jenni’s spirit, saying that she met every challenge that Maher’s team through at her.

“We’ve got a lot of information on her, a lot of workouts and the like to compare her and we’d just done certain workouts that were pretty tough by our standards, and she just bounced through them,” he said.

“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.”

Team targeting Australian Cup

After her dominant return on Saturday, Turnbull revealed that Maher’s team and Pride Of Jenni’s owners are hoping that she will run in the Group 1 Australian Cup at Flemington on March 29.

“Given the way she's run there and won, the Australian Cup would have to be looked at for sure,” Turnbull explained.

“In Sydney you've got races like the Queen Of The Turf, if you come back in trip slightly, and then the Queen Elizabeth would be her ultimate grand final.

“For the moment we'll just savour this win, it's a great effort and thankfully we have her back.”