Marabi new queen of sprint ranks
Marabi (I Am Invincible) stamped herself as the queen of Australia’s sprinting ranks yesterday, landing her first top-level race in the Oakleigh Plate (Gr 1, 1100m) and in doing so put herself firmly in the mix for the Newmarket Handicap (Gr 1, 1200m) at Flemington in two weeks.
Only once since the race’s inception in 1884 had an Oakleigh Plate winner been undefeated at the time of their victory, that being Harpagus (Boysie Boy) in 1982. However, that tally has doubled after Marabi (5 m I Am Invincible – Nakaaya by Tiger Hill) took her record to seven from seven, a meteoric rise in a short time, with yesterday’s win coming barely a year after she won a Pakenham maiden to kick off her career.
Only tested against stakes company for the first time on Boxing Day when the Ciaron Maher and David Eustace mare took out the Christmas Stakes (Listed, 1100m), Marabi stepped up to take the Australia Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) at Moonee Valley last time out before adding the cherry on top in yesterday’s Oakleigh Plate.
“Marabi, God, fantastic,” Maher said. “Greg Perry puts a lot into breeding and he’s got a lot of mares and just loves his racing. He’s very patient and very easy to train for so it’s great to get rewarded with a horse like this.”
It capped a fairytale result for young rider Ben Allen, scoring his first Group 1 win after weeks of hard work to get his weight down to 54 kilograms. It was his deft touch, too, that may have proved the difference as he allowed Marabi to track the hot tempo set by Malkovich (Choisir) before allowing his mount to inch ever so much closer on the point of the turn.
Pushing the button upon straightening, he opened up enough of a break on the field to ensure that he could not be reeled in.
“It’s unreal, I can’t explain it,” an excitable Allen said. “I probably went a little bit early on her but she’s a mare that can sustain that gallop and I thought I’d use that to my advantage.
“Doing the form I knew it would pan out like that. It’s an Oakleigh Plate and that’s just what you get. She’s got the class and the quality to overcome that.”
Reflecting on what has been a torrid month of preparation, ever since he locked in the Oakleigh Plate ride following her Australia Stakes success, Allen said: “I pretty much cut out all food I enjoy eating. Just fruit and vegetables for the past month, training twice a day. I haven’t been riding much so I could train properly.
“I said to Ciaron that I would make it fine but I still had question marks myself. I haven’t ridden that weight in a long time and, to be honest, after this morning’s training session I was 53.3 (kilograms) and it made me think what I was doing for my career over the past four years when I was struggling to ride 57 (kilograms), so I look back on that now.”
It was a Maher and Eustace quinella with hardy mare Away Game (Snitzel) filling second, a half-length behind the winner, while the Peter Moody-trained Oxley Road (Exceed And Excel) finished off well for third, a further length and a half away.
Moody knows plenty about unbeaten mares heading to the Newmarket, having won the world’s premier sprinting handicap in 2011 with Black Caviar (Bel Esprit), but this time he might be the hunter rather than the hunted with Oxley Road potentially set to tackle Marabi again.
“I suppose the pressure builds every start now but it’s a good problem to have,” Maher said. “She is a fantastic mare and we’ll just let the dust settle. This was the target and we’ll go from here.”
Bred by Greg Perry under his Greenwich Stud banner, Marabi is the fourth foal out of Sunline Stakes (Gr 2, 1600m) winner Nakaaya (Tiger Hill).
Remarkably, from five foals to race, she has produced the winners of both an Oakleigh Plate and a VRC Oaks (Gr 1, 2500m), with her first foal being Aristia (Lonhro).
Nakaaya has an unraced Flying Artie (Artie Schiller) filly named Siteki in training with Cliff Brown. She was the mare’s final foal before her death at the age of 14 in September, 2020.
In a day for the mares, Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) winner Sierra Sue (5 m Darci Brahma – Centree by Centaine) added a second Group 1 win at the Caulfield 1400 metres by taking out the Futurity Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) yesterday.
Prepared by Trent Busuttin and Natalie Young, Sierra Sue improved off a fair fourth in the CF Orr Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) earlier this month, kicking clear under John Allen to take the feature by a length and a quarter.
Mo’unga (Savabeel) produced one of the runs of the day, flashing home to finish a length and a quarter away in second, while Orr winner Tofane (Ocean Park) ran a typically honest race in third, two lengths behind Sierra Sue.
“This is unbelievable, honestly,” Young said. “The way the track was playing, we were a little worried because she generally likes to get back a little bit, but we had that barrier one and I said to John, ‘Look, don’t get off that rail, wait, wait, wait, she’s got a 250m sprint.’ It panned out perfectly.
“She might have needed that first run a little bit, we didn’t have her tuned up. But today she paraded fantastic, she looked super and now she’s a multiple Group 1 winner and she’s a valuable mare. A Darci Brahma from New Zealand, so flying the flag for the Kiwi breeders.”
Her win in the Futurity Stakes guarantees her one of five wildcards for the $5 million All-Star Mile (1600m) at Flemington next month, but Young says there are plenty of options for a mare of her calibre.
“We will have to have a think about it,” she said. “I think she is better at the 1400 metres, she’s a lot more effective. But she has won over 1700 metres in lower grades so you just never know.
“She’s won at Flemington in a Group 2 and she does love Flemington. We could weigh it up though and go to a Sangster in Adelaide if you freshen her up.
“We won’t make the decision on race day but we’ll enjoy the fact we’ve got another Group 1 win.”
Allen, though, was in no doubt about where she should head next: “She’s in form, she goes good, she’s won over the mile around Flemington before, so there’s no reason not to go to the All-Star Mile with the big prize-money on offer and she’d be in with a big shout.”
Should Sierra Sue target the All-Star Mile, it would mark an incredible rise in just three years – certainly a narrative deserving of the rags to riches moniker.
As a late two-year-old at the 2019 Karaka May Sale, Sierra Sue was sold for just NZD$2,000 by Ardsley Stud to Te Aroha trainer Peter Lock.
Winning a barrier trial in December, 2019 at Te Aroha, she was then sold to an ownership group led by Ozzie Kheir and Brae Sokolski with agent Phill Cataldo acting on their behalf.
Racing in Kheir’s colours, she was one of three Group 1 winners for Kheir and Sokolski yesterday, alongside Chipping Norton Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) heroine Verry Elleegant (Zed) and Surround Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) winner Hinged (Worthy Cause).
Sierra Sue is the fifth foal to race, and the only stakes winner, out of Avondale winner Centree (Centaine). While she was not served in 2018 or 2019, she was recorded as being in foal to Mongolian Khan (Holy Roman Emperor) ahead of the 2021 breeding season.