After an acknowledged unlucky 2nd in the Triscay Stakes when resuming from a spell in mid February, talented 4 year old mare OLENTIA next appeared in the Group 3 Birthday Card at Rosehill Gardens on Golden Slipper day. Her moderate performance in that race to run 4th left us asking questions and it was her trainer who determined that the mare needed to step up in trip having run twice at 1,200 metres in the 2 previous features. The 1,500 metres of the Group 2 Emancipation Stakes on Saturday was the next most suitable race for OLENTIA, but only a week after she had run in the Birthday Card. The result shows that in the words of race caller Darren Flindell OLENTIA was “a big winner of the Emancipation” as evidenced by her 2.6 lengths winning margin and in turn recording the fastest last 600 metres of the program.

The mare’s rider Tommy Berry highlighted in the post race interview that her explosive sprint was exceptional and that “Chris [Waller] is too good for me….I always thought she was a fresh horse…. she’s so good first up….but he thinks he’ll back her up and put her up to 1,500 metres…..it’s probably one of the best wins of her career”. OLENTIA is now back in contention for some of the major mares’ feature races still to be run this season.

The daughter of super sire Zoustar was a $310,000 purchase for Star Thoroughbreds and Randwick Bloodstock at the 2021 Magic Millions Gold Coast yearling sale. Her significant black type pedigree will ensure that increasingly OLENTIA will eventually become a sought after broodmare not only because of her top class race performances but also because her very successful dam Mabkhara unfortunately died last spring shortly after giving birth to a filly by I Am Invincible.

Congratulations to the winning OLENTIA owners Paramount Racing (Manager: Kathryn Wood), Martin Ive, Rachel Ive, Roger Cheetham, Jeremy Rosenthal, Boeara Holdings (Manager: Denise Dunphy), Felgate Holdings (Manager: Paul Felgate), Damien Reed, Brad Russell, Ray Aurisch, CGO Racing.