MONEY MAKER
It cost £200 for a share in Marsha, now her backers can net £150,000
The cream of european racing gather at Chantilly this week for the Qatar Prix de L’Arc de Triomphe meeting, chasing some of the biggest prizes in the sport.
Arab Sheiks, French nobility and english and Irish mega-rich owner-breeders who have spent billions building racing empires will converge on the temporary home of France’s most prestigious race while traditional base Longchamp is redeveloped.
Rubbing shoulders with them will be 50 fellow owners from the almost 10,000- strong elite Racing mass-market syndicate. They paid less than £200 for their stake in a treasured filly who will try to emulate a famous fellow cross-Channel predecessor and win them a whopping £150,000 first prize.
When four-year- old Marsha, trained by Sir Mark Prescott (below), won the Palace house Stakes at Newmarket in May, she became the first winner to defy a Group One weight penalty since another flying filly, Lochsong, in 1994.
On Sunday Marsha will again try to emulate Lochsong by becoming the first back- to - back Prix de L’Abbaye winner since that Frankie Dettoriridden speedster did it in 1993 and 1994.
Marsha will go to France off the back of a thrilling nose victory in York’s Group One Nunthorpe Stakes, in which she cut down American flyer Lady Aurelia on the line.
That handed jockey Luke Morris his first domestic Group One success and he goes into Sunday’s race defending a 100 per cent record — his previous rides in the five-furlong dash being 2010 winner Gilt edge Girl and Marsha 12 months ago. After three mid-season defeats, Morris feels Marsha is peaking again, just as she did last year. Morris said: ‘ her mid- season form last year was pretty good but it improved as the year went on. We were hoping she would step up again at York and she did. ‘In her previous few starts she had been very sleepy to the start. But at York she seemed a bit more on her ‘A’ game and I was hopeful when I got the start that she would run right up to her best. ‘There was no pressure on us and she did need a career-best to beat Lady Aurelia.’ Since elite Racing was launched in the early 1990s with a runner over jumps at Newton Abbot, they have had more than 350 wins and seen their colours carried by good hurdlers Mysilv and Penzance, Flat Group winners Dandino and Ribbons and Soviet Song, a five-time Group One winner trained by James Fanshawe.
But Marsha, bred from one of elite’s mares named after one of their members after she won a competition, is now officially their best horse, rated 1lb better than Soviet Song.
Ryan Bliss, assistant racing manager, said: ‘ We think the world of her and she has taken us to some marvellous places.
‘She is favourite and, while I don’t think you could say we are confident, we are looking forward to it.’
Sunday looks likely to be her final race in elite’s black and white colours.
Bliss added: ‘ The Breeders’ Cup is an option but no decision has been made and we will take a little bit of persuading.
‘We send Marsha to the December broodmare sales. She will have a hefty reserve and if she doesn’t make it she’ll come back to our breeding programme.
‘ We still have her dam Marlinka, a two-year- old halfbrother by Cape Cross called Magistrate who should run in the next fews weeks, plus a yearling filly by Iffraaj and a foal filly by Dark Angel.
‘If Marsha is bought by one of the top breeders and goes on to produce a lot of winners, we still have the rest of the family. We think we’ve all the boxes ticked.’
It will be a massive final tick if Marsha can bow out on Sunday with an historic win.