Australia: Pride of Jenni faces familiar foes in Doomben Cup

Pride Of Jenni, the Australian Horse of the Year in 2023-2024, utilized a pacesetting style to end a four-race losing streak in the Group 2 Hollindale Stakes at Gold Coast Racecourse on May 8, her eighth group-level race win. The same tactics are likely to be employed when Pride of Jenni starts in Saturday’s Group 1 Doomben Cup at 1 1/4 miles at Doomben Racecourse in Brisbane, a furlong longer than the Hollindale.

An 8-year-old mare, Pride Of Jenni faces a very familiar field. Birdman, She’s a Hustler, and Half Yours, second through fourth in the Hollindale Stakes, are among seven entrants in the Doomben Cup. Pride Of Jenni will face a stamina test and threats from those rivals in the stretch.

Pride Of Jenni, trained by Ciaron Maher, won the Group 1 Empire Rose Stakes at a mile at Flemington last November. She was then beaten in four consecutive Group 1 races from later in November through mid-April of this year. The losing streak included a nose loss in the $1.38 million Australian Cup at 1 1/4 miles at Flemington on March 28.

Half Yours won the Group 1, two-mile Melbourne Cup, Australia’s top race, last November. The Doomben Cup will be his third start of the year. He was ninth of 13, beaten slightly more than four lengths, in the Group 1 All Aged Stakes at seven furlongs at 25-1 at Royal Randwick Racecourse in Sydney on April 18 in his first start of the year.

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Half Yours was fourth by 4 1/4 lengths in the Hollindale Stakes, closing from eighth of 10. In his last start at 1 1/4 miles, Half Yours was fourth by 2 2/3 lengths in the Group 1 Turnbull Stakes at Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne last October.

Birdman, fifth in the Australian Cup, was beaten three-quarters of a length in the Hollindale Stakes after closing from seventh. He won consecutive Group 2 races at a mile and 1 1/8 miles in February and March, and he won at 1 1/4 miles in the Group 3 King Town Stakes at Randwick last September.

Post time for the Doomben Cup is 1:57 a.m. Eastern on Saturday.

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