‘She looks magnificent’
Peter Walsh hoping for big display from Amelia’s Jewel in Randwick’s Tramway Stakes
Owner-breeder Peter Walsh is hopeful, rather than confident, that the real Amelia’s Jewel (Siyouni) will stand up on her resumption at Randwick on Saturday, as he prepares for the birth of her full–sister and the sale of her full–brother.
The former West Australian-trained mare will have her first run as a five-year-old, and first for new trainers Annabel Neasham and Rob Archibald, in the Tramway Stakes (Gr 2, 1400m), a traditional spring kick-off with an illustrious honour roll including Neasham’s now retired star Zaaki (Leroidesanimaux) in 2021 and 2022.
With Amelia’s Jewel drawing gate eight of 14 for Tommy Berry, bookmakers have shown their respect for her illustrious record by making her favourite at around $2.70.
But while she set the turf scene abuzz throughout her first three-and-a-half preparations, the mare’s progression towards hopeful confirmation as a national superstar has not been so smooth in her past two campaigns.
Then trained by Simon Miller, Amelia’s Jewel took her first trip east last year on the back of nine Perth runs for seven victories, all at black type level and capped by the Northerly Stakes (Gr 1, 1800m).
She would continue that run by winning her next two starts in Flemington’s Let’s Elope Stakes (Gr 2, 1400m) and Moonee Valley’s Stocks Stakes (Gr 2, 1600m), in which she beat rising star Pride Of Jenni (Pride Of Dubai) into second.
The picture has become somewhat muddled since, with runs of ninth, 11th, second, second and 12th.
There were excuses for the first two: she pulled up unwell after starting $2.40 favourite in Caulfield’s Toorak Handicap (Gr 1, 1600m), then was held up, bumped and battered in the straight in the Golden Eagle (1500m).
After spelling and nursing a lacerated near fore leg, Amelia’s Jewel managed only second as $1.60 favourite in Ascot’s Roma Cup (Gr 3, 1100m), before running a 0.9–length second in $5 million The Quokka (1200m), beaten for the second year running by Overpass (Vancouver).
While those runs still achieved pass marks, Walsh and Miller were left scratching their heads after her abject flop in The Goodwood (Gr 1, 1200m) at Morphettville, when she showed none of her usual finishing powers from the back when 12th of 15 as $4.40 favourite.
As worrying as that was, Walsh on Friday said Amelia’s Jewel looked in fine order for her first run as a Sydneysider following two barrier trials for a second over 900 metres at Warwick Farm and a first over 1000 metres at Hawkesbury.
The Tramway comes as Amelia’s Jewel’s stakes-placed younger half-brother and stablemate – $900,000 yearling Bosustow (Blue Point) – resumes as a three-year-old colt hunting black type in The Valley’s McKenzie Stakes (Listed, 1200m), and as Walsh contemplates a a next cover for the pair’s dam Bumbasina (Canford Cliffs), from either I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit) or Zoustar (Northern Meteor).
“She looks magnificent,” Walsh told ANZ. “Annabel says she’s not fully screwed down yet at this stage of the prep, but I think I know when she’s really on her game, and she’s ready to go.”
The only possible reason Walsh could discern for Amelia’s Jewel’s Adelaide failure was that as she’s grown older, she’s also grown more fond of her food, particularly on the farm.
“She spelled at my farm after the Golden Eagle and we sent her back a bit fat,” Walsh said. “That first run in the Roma Cup, she was huge, and that was no fault of Simon’s – he just didn’t have the time to trim her up.
“She was still a bit fat for The Quokka, but she still ran well and beat a lot of good horses home. But those two Perth runs, in her condition, might have just flattened her for Adelaide.
“In her past five runs, there’s been excuses for two of them – the Golden Eagle and the Toorak. Her seconds in Perth weren’t too bad, because she’s not really a sprinter, but her Goodwood run was very disappointing.”
Amelia’s Jewel’s appetite also set a task for her new trainers, after her latest spell in the Hunter Valley under the gaze of Walsh’s long-term associate, Segenhoe Stud’s Peter O’Brien.
“She’s a real good doer. You’ve got to watch her,” Walsh said. “After Adelaide we sent her to Segenhoe and after three weeks Peter rang Annabel and said, ‘You’d better come take a look at this mare’.
“Annabel brought her straight back down into work and that gave her another couple of weeks to work on her. She’d put on an enormous amount of weight.
“Now she’s had a good long build-up, and two trials, so she’s good. She’s trialled pretty well so we’re hoping to get a bit of luck and hopefully she can bounce back.
“I’m confident she’ll come back. I’m not saying she’ll win, but I’m very confident she’ll run a good race.”
Walsh had contemplated selling Bumbasina early this year but was “talked out of it by a lot of people who said I was mad”.
Instead, having sent the mare back to France for two covers by Siyouni (Pivotal) he’s now looking forward to the arrival of Amelia’s Jewel’s full–sister late this month, following a gender test, while a “magnificent” yearling full–brother is being prepared towards, probably, January’s Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale.
“After she throws the filly, she’ll go to I Am Invincible or Zoustar. I haven’t made up my mind yet,” Walsh said. “She’ll only get one chance this year.”
Meanwhile, co-trainer Gerald Ryan is confident his mare Arctic Glamour (Frosted), who has gate nine for Tyler Schiller, might provide Amelia’s Jewel’s stiffest opposition.
The four-year-old has a three–kilogram weight advantage over the favourite under the Tramway’s set weights and penalties conditions. She also looked back to her best last start – with excuses noted by stewards – when she resumed with a fast finishing narrow second behind four-year-old entire Schwarz (Zoustar) in Randwick’s Missile Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) on August 10.
This followed what looked on paper to be a mostly patchy run of seven starts without a win. Ryan, however, said there were excuses for most of those, including falling too far behind when a fast finishing fifth in Caulfield’s Thousand Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m), and when dogged by shifting tracks in the Sydney autumn.
Back to a firmer surface in the Missile, albeit still a Soft 5, Arctic Glamour better resembled the crack filly of last spring who won a Rosehill maiden by 4.2 lengths and stepped straight into stakes grade to win the Reginald Allen Quality (Listed, 1400m). There, she beat into second place the subsequent Thousand Guineas winner – and current day boom mare – Joliestar (Zoustar).
“She’s in great order,” Ryan told ANZ. “She ran terrific first-up. The plan was to go to the Missile first-up, then if she came out of it really well to have a month leading into this race. Everything’s gone according to plan, and she’s had a nice time leading into this one.
“The thing I like about it is she’ll have no weight on her back and she’s on a good track. Hopefully she won’t get as far back as last start, when she jumped with them but got squeezed from both sides and ended up last.”
Bookmakers had Arctic Glamour a $7.50 third-favourite on Friday, with Brisbane galloper Freedom Rally (Rubick) at around $4.50.
The Tony Gollan-trained gelding, a homebred for Grandlodge Thoroughbreds, has won seven of 15 as he’s quietly progressed up to stakes grade.
Two starts ago, the five-year-old ran a highly meritorious fourth in Eagle Farm’s Kingsford Smith Cup (Gr 1, 1300m) – behind stars I Wish I Win (Savabeel), Bella Nipotina (Pride Of Dubai) and In Secret (I Am Invincible), and with more topliners behind him including Think About It (So You Think), Uncommon James (Cable Bay) and Magic Time (Hellbent).
Freedom Rally then broke through to win The Wayne Wilson (Listed, 1600m) at Eagle Farm on June 15.
“He’s always shown us he was a nice horse, but early on he tended to overrace and do things wrong here and there,” Gollan told ANZ. “But he’s a totally different animal now and a more complete racehorse.
“He showed in his Kingsford Smith run that he’s up to this level. And if you’re a genuine stakes horse you’re a genuine stakes horse anywhere, be it Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane.
“And he’s only had a couple of weeks off over the winter, so I haven’t had to punish him because there was a good bit of residual fitness there. He’s in good order and he’s shaping up really well.”
Melbourne-based Craig Williams – in Sydney to partner Bella Nipotina in the Concorde Stakes (Gr 3, 1000m) – will again team up with Freedom Rally, having ridden him to two high-level seconds in Brisbane.