Jen wins first group race

It seems remarkable that until last night, General Jen (Captaintreacherous) had not won a feature race.

The Hayden and Amanda Cullen trained four year old mare has had to take a back seat to her stablemates Arafura and Winelight – each of whom have won features in two seasons of racing.

That all changed when the four year old mare took out the $60,000 G2 Garrards Premier Mares Championship at Addington, thanks to a patient and magic drive by Blair Orange.

“I just went back off the gate because I didn’t want to burn early. I took the chance to dive straight to the fence and just drive her for luck. Luckily enough we had that wee birdy on our shoulder and we got the luck you need in those types of races,” Orange said.

Orange was five back on the inside for most of the trip. When the field started to spread out for the run to the line, he received a dream run up the passing lane. When he pulled the ear plugs, General Jen powered home to nab Debbie Lincoln by a neck, with Nothing But You a length and a quarter back in third.

“Francent and Emeralda did a bit of work early and we weren’t doing any work on the fence. She got the gapsand she was really determined and showed how fast she is.”

The winning time was 2-23.7.

GENERAL JEN REPLAY

Owned by Kevin McKerrow of McKerrow Bloodstock the win was General Jen’s seventh and first Group win in her sixteen start career.

“She shown with the right economical run she’ll be featuring.”

The next assignment for General Jen will be the $100,000 Fahey Fence Hire NZ Breeders Stakes in a fortnight. It will also be her last race as she’s in foal to Confederate.

“Kevin bred General Jen himself and he’s always wanted to breed a few young ones out of all three mares we’ve got. She’s high enough rated now and she’s going to go out to the paddock on a good note,” Hayden said.

McKerrow borrowed General Jen’s dam Gold Elite off Derek Moore for a season to breed General Jen.

Moore has an Always B Miki yearling filly out of the mare heading to next months sales at Karaka. Gold Elite is a full-sister to Gold Ace which won nineteen races for Steven Reid.

Hayden and Amanda will have a three pronged attack for the Breeders Stakes with Arafura expected to join General Jen and Winelight.

“Arafura is going to trial on Wednesday. I wasn’t 100% happy with her trial last week. I pulled her blood and it just wasn’t 100%. With her treatment we were just unable to race.”

For complete race results, click here.

by Bruce Stewart, for Harnesslink