Bargain-buy filly pays rich dividends

CAROLINE MARNER her budget when she Karaka last year.

The Wellington owner paid $400 for Exquisite Jewel at the festival session in 2013 but paid twice as much for a Sufficient filly a year later.

“We splashed out,” Marner said after watching Exquisite Jewel win the Group III Manawatu Classic at Awapuni on Saturday.

Exquisite Jewel has provided one of the storylines of the season as she has measured up to the leading fillies.

The Lucky Unicorn filly had finished a brave fourth in the New Zealand Oaks at her previous start and recorded another group placing in the Desert Gold Stakes at Trentham in January.

She has now won four races and earned $77,000. It is difficult to assess the value of the Cambridge Stud-bred mare but it would be vastly more than she cost.

She is almost certainly the only filly from the Eight Carat family to sell for less than $500 as a yearling. Her dam, the Montjeu mare Game Duchess, made $460,000 as a yearling and the second dam, the Zabeel mare Mazarine, is an unraced sister to Group I winner Shower Of Roses.

Third dam Marquise was a Group I winner and fourth dam Eight Carat left five Group I winners.

Game Duchess did not win but is also the dam of Nordic Duke, who has been stakes-placed in Melbourne.

Game Duchess has had five yearlings go through the sales ring. Nordic Duke, a Viking Ruler colt, cost $77,500 and Jeff Lynds doubled went to paid $46,000 for a Cape Blanco filly this year.

However, three fillies have sold comparatively cheaply, with a sister to Exquisite Jewel making $5000 in 2011 and a Keeper filly selling for $12,500 in 2012.

Exquisite Jewel, who is not for sale, is the fourth stakeswinner left by Lucky Unicorn, the most notable being this month’s Auckland Cup winner Rock Diva.

“She [Exquisite Jewel] is proof that dreams can still come true in racing on a shoestring budget,” said Marner, who had never bid on a horse until buying Exquisite Jewel.

She races the filly in partnership with Trish Lane, Regan and Bronwyn Bentley and Dion Kirkwood and all except Kirkwood were at Karaka when they bought Exquisite Jewel.

“We weren’t intending to buy and were just sitting there when she popped up in the ring,” Marner said. “We looked at the pedigree and no one was bidding, so we thought we had nothing to lose.”

Exquisite Jewel, who may now head to the Brisbane winter carnival, has also put co-trainer Sue Walsh back in the limelight.

Walsh, the first female New Zealand jockey to win a totalisator race, trained successfully in partnership with former husband David Walsh and later on her own account.

Aquidity was a big winner for the partnership and Sue had considerable success with the likes of Chatham and Innisvale.

Two of the feature winners at Awapuni on Saturday – Iamishwara and Vespa – are possible candidates for the Group I Easter Handicap at Ellerslie.