Photo: Freestyle wins the Elvstroem Dequetteville Stakes (L) at Morphetville.

It would have been a good day to start a fractious 2 year old. A Saturday city race meeting, the inducement of a listed race on the card, yet you would have had more chance of being run down by the strong westerly or the silence rather than an exuberant Morphetville race fan.

Having spent the better part of 15 hours travelling from Hong Kong to Adelaide it’s fair to say that I was somewhat taken aback at the ghost town turnout. Still, the air smelt great (as only Australian air can after the smog “at home”), it was approximately 20 degrees cooler than the sweltering city I had left the previous day, and the almost deserted dining room wasn’t too bad as it meant we had the undivided attention of six waiting staff.

I did however feel sorry for Blue Gum Farm. They were sponsoring the main race – the Elvstroem Dequetteville Stakes over 1,050m. One wonders how sponsors get the necessary profile (and ROI) when they are handing out a trophy with a dearth of owners or spectators present, and the sheer number of races happening on any one day in Australia mean that as soon as one race finishes the commentator is silenced mid sentence, and any lingering glance at the sponsor’s logo surrounding the winning post merges into the blur of all the others that will be highlighted on the same day.

Anyway, I digress. The purpose of my cross-country air trip had naught to do with marketing (for once) but rather with an unusual triumvirate of fillies. All were blood relations, two had travelled from Victoria to compete, and two would face one another in the feature race.

So what’s the connection?

Back in 1997 an unraced Mister C mare with a blue collar pedigree by the name of PATRONELLA was purchased by Rob McBryde of Summerset Park (South Australia) at the Easter Broodmare sale for the handy sum of $19,000. The mare has since produced 5 winners including the black type winners Stella Artois (dual listed winner) and Smytzer’s Trish (G2 and listed winner). As broodmares the full sisters would also produce two very smart fillies (their first foals no less): Stella Artois producing an early season star in the Phillip Stokes-trained FREESTYLE, and Smytzer’s Trish producing the smart Redoute’s Choice 2yo SWISH TRISH trained by Ross McDonald at Caulfield.

And today the 2 year olds would meet face-to-face in the feature race. This in itself isn’t ground breaking. Quite a few blood relatives will end up at the races on the same day. What made this unusual is that the foundation dam – Patronella - had another starter in the second race at Morphetville as well – the Victorian-based Peter Moody trained 3yo Xaar filly XAARBARELLA who had won her previous start at Bendigo 2 weeks earlier by 4.5 lengths.

Now, I’m sure there are a few people thinking “hang on one sec – why is this person flying halfway around the world to watch 3 horses race that she has utterly no connection with? Hasn’t she heard of the television?”

Good point (not that we get the Australian races on TV in Hong Kong – we’re stuck listening to them on the Internet). I actually have to declare a conflict – I bought into this family some years ago now and part-own Xaarbarella. It was this fact – further sweetened by the appearance of Freestyle and Swish Trish – that had me heading south.

Now, if I had entertained a notion at any stage during the fifteen hours it took me to get to Adelaide that maybe I would be arguing with my co-owners about who got first rights to the trophy I was, sady, mistaken. Despite travelling beautifully to the turn, Bella had a one-paced approach in the straight and finished 5th.

Fortunately Patronella's contribution to the Australian breeding industry wasn’t to be so quickly dismissed. Her deep-chested, muscle bound (and pint sized) grand daughter Freestyle set things right in the 6th race, fighting home for her 3rd win at stakes level, her (also somewhat pint sized) other grand daughter 5 lengths back. Peter and Trish Carrick, joint owners of Swish Trish (hence the filly’s name) were disappointed but philosophical in defeat.

“That’s racing! There’s always next time.”

Indeed. Not much else you can say really (become an owner = becoming stoic).

Still, let's face it, I would’ve liked to have been having that discussion about the trophy … !

(Images: halfway down - Freestyle returning to scale after her win (right); Swish Trish and strapper (left) and Xaarbarella (in blue/white silks). All photos (c) Athlone & Associates Ltd 2005)