With just five career starts under her belt, Princess Jenni takes on some battled hardened fillies in Saturday’s $500,000 Group 1 Schweppes Oaks (2000m) at Morphettville.
Even the most casual observer would recognise that a daughter from the final crop of the sadly missed Coolmore stallion High Chaparral (IRE) out of a Zabeel mare would have a leg up in an Oaks but you don’t have to dig too far back in the pedigree to find something that we have been harping on about for years, the influence Gooree Stud has had with the importation of mares from America tracing back to the most influential matrons.
This association goes back to 1989 with the importation of Rush For Gold (USA).
A stakes-placed daughter of the TV Lark stallion Quack, Rush For Gold (USA) was a granddaughter of the remarkable matron Courtly Dee.
The1983 Broodmare Of The Year left 19 foals, 17 reached the track and 15 won.
Of those 15 an incredible 11 were stakes-winners led by the mighty mare Althea (Alydar) who earned an Eclipse Award as the champion 2-year-old filly.
Althea is one of 11 daughters of Courtly Dee and 10 of those left stakes-winners.
Althea is the dam of 1994 Japanese champion 2-year-old filly Yamanin Paradise (by Danzig) but closer to home Courtly Dee’s daughter have produced the 1993 Group 1 Sydney Cup winner Azzaam (Chief's Crown) and the 1994 Peter Pan Stakes and Withers Stakes winner Twining (USA) who proved disappointing at his short stint at Vinery Stud although he did sire the 2008 Listed SAJC Proud Miss Stakes winner Soaressa who is proving a top-notch broodmare for David Moodie.
Perhaps the most influential of Courtly Lee’s daughter was the unraced Sir Ivor mare Foreign Courier who is the dam of the 1986 July Cup winner and hugely influential stallion Green Desert (by Danzig) whose sons Volksraad, Invincible Spirit, Oasis Dream, and Cape Cross have left an indelible legacy on the breed.
The dam of nine named foals, Rush For Gold (USA) is out of Courtly Dee’s daughter Vireo (True Knight).
The best of Rush For Gold’s progeny was her last foal, Beauty Watch.
A daughter of Belong To Me (USA), Beauty Watch won six races including the Group III Hawkesbury Gold Cup but she was runner-up in the Group 1 Flight Stakes and Group 1 Arrowfield Stud Stakes and was third in the Group 1 AJC Australian Oaks and Group 1, STC Queen of the Turf Stakes.
Beauty Watch was Rush For Gold’s second stakes-winner. The first was Precious Glitter who won the Group II STC Magic Night Stakes.
A daughter
of the great Danehill, Precious Glitter divided her time between Australia,
America and New Zealand.
She proved largely disappointing with just four winners from her eight named foals the best of which was the stakes-placed Lara's Glitter(Don Eduardo), while one of her daughters is the dam of the Bahana (Elusive City) a Group III winner in Singapore.
To a mating with the Kentucky Derby winner Fusaichi Pegasus, Precious Glitter produced Glitter Woman who is the dam of Princess Jenni’s 5-time winning dam Glitzabeel (Zabeel)
Princess Jenni (pictured as a yearling ) was purchased by owner Tony Ottobre for $120,000 from the Phoenix Park draft at the 2017 NZB Premier Yearling Sale.
Tony Ottobre who races Princess Jenni with his wife Lynne and their son Mick says he always names his good horses after his daughter Jenni who passed away in 2015.
That’s another reason to cheer on the daughter of High Chaparral (IRE) in her Group 1 assignment on Saturday.
