News

A Star is born in G1 Thousand Guineas

18th Nov 2023

Exciting filly Joliestar (Zoustar) led in a G1 trifecta of Inglis graduates when winning today’s Thousand Guineas at Caulfield in spectacular fashion.

Trained by Chris Waller, Joliestar was having just her fifth career start, largely skipping the Sydney Spring Carnival to target today’s later G1 feature.

The plan paid huge dividends, with the regally bred 3YO now one of the most valuable fillies in training.

Joliestar has now run in the quinella in each of her five outings.

Bred by Chris and Jane Barham, Joliestar is a $950,000 Easter Yearling Sale purchase for her owners Brendan and Jo Lindsay of Cambridge Stud.

They purchased her out of the Segenhoe Stud draft which also included another star filly of the Spring, Tiz Invincible.

Chris Barham, who purchased, with wife Jane, Joliestar’s granddam Legally Bay as a yearling at the 2002 Inglis Easter Yearling Sale, described today’s result as “a dream’’.

“Amazing, what a win,’’ Barham said.

“You know the beautiful thing? Great farm, great sale, great owners, great trainer, great jockey, everything just tips in her favour. It really is very exciting.

“She was the second-last lot through the ring on Day 1 of Easter but Brendan and Jo [Lindsay] loved her and among others, so did John O’Shea but he just couldn’t keep bidding and Cambridge could, so they got her.

“We tip our hat to Inglis, it’s where we’ve been all the way through from day one on our journey, they’ve looked after us so well and we’re extremely grateful. They just do so much for us and they’re all fabulous people who genuinely enjoy our success, it’s very heart warming.’’

Brendan Lindsay, who flew from New Zealand for a 24 hour hit-and-run mission to watch today’s G1, tells the story of how he came to buy Joliestar at Easter.

“We absolutely loved her and we’d been underbidder on three or four others throughout the day and when this filly came into the ring very late my wife said to me ‘I’m sick of this, we didn’t come here all day to not buy a horse, I’m not going home without her’ so we got her and what a bloody good decision that was,’’ a delighted Lindsay said.

“What a filly, she won bloody well, got a perfect run from James [McDonald] and it makes a big difference. Kiwi owners, kiwi jockey, kiwi trainer, not a bad combination!

“She’s a pretty special filly this. Chris [Waller] said to us before the race that we’ve got something special on our hands and she just looked amazing in the parade and she won accordingly.’’

Joliestar (pictured) becomes the 86^th G1-winning Inglis graduate since 2018.

Today she defeated fellow Easter filly Kimochi – who has contested six races this campaign, all at Stakes level, and placed in all six – and Classic Yearling Sale filly Skybird.

Earlier on the Caulfield program Brazen Style (Brazen Beau) secured a valuable first Stakes win at just her third career start with victory in the G3 Thoroughbred Club Stakes.

The 3YO filly had to wait what seemed an age for the judge to post the official result, hitting the line almost simultaneously with Miraval Rose.

But the Shane Nichols-trained Brazen Style did enough, holding on for a tight victory but one that sees her become an incredibly valuable racing and breeding prospect moving forward.

Nichols teamed up with Hollymount to buy the Michael Birchall-bred Brazen Style for $250,000 at the Easter Yearling Sale, where she was offered by Mill Park Stud.

“That was a big buzz,’’ Nichols said.

“For her to do that at her third run in a race is huge. She’s a nice filly…she ran into a smart one on debut and we tipped her out after that and she’s come back and won at Yarra Valley dominantly and now a Stakes race. It’s outstanding.

“The ownership group are going to be pretty pumped, the boys that bred her stayed in for quite a bit and Matthew Sandblom, who’s been a good client for a long time, he’ll be pretty pumped about that too.’’

And Hypothetical (Pride Of Dubai) led in a black type quinella for Inglis graduates in the Listed Village Stakes, defeating $600 Inglis Digital buy Curran.

It was a valuable first Stakes win for Hypothetical, who was five-times Stakes placed prior to today’s success.

Trained by Anthony and Sam Freedman, Hypothetical is a $310,000 Premier Yearling Sale buy for Bill and James Mitchell of Mitchell Bloodstock, from the Segenhoe Stud draft.

She is bred by Sheikh Mohammed Bin Khalifa Al Maktoum.

“She deserved that,’’ Sam Freedman said.

“Nobody could begrudge her a Stakes win, we’ve been trying for a while and she’s had some narrow defeats.

“She’ll be off to stud next season but we can raise the bar now and maybe aim up at a good race in the autumn.’’