Lady Shenandoah, Pride Of Jenni and other Saturday racing winners

One Group 1 on Saturday is a far cry from the action that we will get in seven days. Despite that, it was another day of superb racing at both Rosehill and Caulfield. An emerging star, a current star winning where she never has in her career before and a shock win for a former European runner over a distance too short! What an afternoon of racing!

Five straight wins from Lady Shenandoah

A wide barrier was no concern for Lady Shenandoah in the Coolmore Classic. In fact, the way that the result panned out, it was arguably a positive to be drawn wider on the track. Barriers 12, 14 and 13 were the first three across the line with barrier 10 finishing in fifth.

It was a fifth straight win for Lady Shenandoah and a third Group 1 win. That has all come from a career that at present, spans just seven races. It is something that will put fear into her rivals that with such an unexposed profile, there should still be much better yet to come from her.

It was a smart race with the ‘right’ fillies and mares chasing her home. Lady Of Camelot had a very wide passage but she ran a huge race to finish a close-up third. Firestorm split the pair with our roughie tip Olentia finishing fourth to give Chris Waller three of the first four home.

Pride for Jenni with first-up win

One thing that has been a constant in Pride Of Jenni’s career is her first-up record of not winning. That was finally broken on Saturday in the Group 2 Peter Young Stakes at Caulfield. It was a small field with just five rivals for her which made it easy to dominate from the front.

The big help to her was that her main rival Zardozi really wants softer ground to be seen to her best effect. Despite that, the Godolphin mare ran a fine race to come home a clear second in the contest in a race that was absolutely blown apart.

Jenni had an SP of $3.80 with punters going against her as they know that first up is not the right time to catch her, 0/8 in her career to that point. It might be unwise to take the form too literally for her 10th first-up start, however.

Vauban wins over 2000m for Waterhouse

2000m looked a long way short of Vauban’s best distance but he shrugged off that concern with a narrow win in the Sky High Stakes. He has flopped in a pair of Melbourne Cup bids when trained by Willie Mullins but all of his best form in Europe has been over 800+ extra metres than his Saturday race.

He sat in last of the six runners in the early stages but had more than enough natural ability to see off his Group 3 rivals. It will be interesting to see how he is campaigned now by Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott compared to how he was in Europe.

The Tancred Stakes and Sydney Cup were the two races that were mentioned in the aftermath of the race. While his ex-trainer was busy dominating England’s famous Cheltenham Festival this week, his former charge was adding an unexpected win on the other side of the globe!

Halfway through March and the Group 1 action kept coming. The betting sites will have been busy and they will continue to be so with Golden Slipper Day coming up at Rosehill next Saturday with a string of Group 1 races on the card.