Exciting young sire Home Affairs added a fourth stakes-winner to his tally when Miss Janet raced to a dominant win in the Listed Star Way Stakes (1200m) at Ellerslie on Saturday.
Trainer Stephen Marsh and syndicator Go Racing made it back-to-back wins in the Listed event as the partnership won last year’s edition with Little Black Dress.
They went into this year’s race with a pair of quality fillies to defend their crown in Miss Janet and So Fear, with the former having placed on debut at Matamata last month, while the latter was undefeated in her first two outings.
Miss Janet showed plenty of early speed from her ace draw to lead all the way and win by nearly two lengths over Belle Rebelle with So Far in third place.
“We were able to execute early and she showed a good bit of ability,” winning jockey Michael McNab said.
“Across the top she just had her ears pricked and she felt like she was doing that speed very comfortably. When I asked her to pick up just before we turned in, I didn’t think they would run her down off what she showed us the other day (when placing on debut).”
Marsh was pleased both of his fillies earned black-type and he said they will now head for a spell in preparation for a spring campaign geared towards the Group I New Zealand 1000 Guineas (1600m) at Riccarton in November.
“Both were purchased by Go Racing and they are two nice fillies with good pedigrees and they have now got black-type, one at the thick end of it and the other third,” Marsh said.
“It is really nice to get black-type with those sorts of horses.
“She (Miss Janet) was unlucky at Matamata (on debut), she got her head into the other partition, missed the jump and did a lot wrong. Michael (McNab) got off and said ‘I don’t care where she is going, I will be riding her’.
“She is very good and in her two starts she should really be unbeaten.
“She has done a good enough job, we don’t need to step her up to 1400m. We will probably put her aside and set her for some good three-year-old races, but we think she is top-class and you could see the race was over a long way from home.”
Miss Janet was a $170,000 Magic Millions purchase from Newgate Farm for Go Racing Ltd/Blandford Bloodstock and was bred by Nick Vass and foaled and raised at Newgate.
She is the first stakes-winner among four winners from four foals to race from unraced Redoute’s Choice mare Janast, a daughter of stakes-winner Booklet from the family of Group I winners Spyglass and Iron Horse. This family appears at the Inglis HTBA Yearling Sale this Sunday with Lot 137 from Riversdale Farm, a colt by Artorius from I'm Madeline, click to see him.
Janast died in 2025 and her last foal is a yearling colt by State of Rest (IRE).
Miss Janet is the sixth winner and fourth stakes-winner for Coolmore based Home Affairs, who is the leading Australian first season sire by earnings.
Interestingly, of the four stakes-winners sired by Home Affairs, three of them were sourced from the Newgate draft at Magic Millions – Guest House (Golden Slipper) , Gin Twist and now Miss Janet.
