Pretty Amazing Could Give O'Briens First Group 1 Win

Dr. Denis O'Brien and his wife, Claire, have been racing and breeding horses for 40 years and they have gone agonizingly close to group 1 glory on multiple occasions.

They've raced numerous high-class horses, Bring Me Roses in recent times is just one who springs to mind, but the Gold Coast couple could finally be on the verge of an elusive group 1 victory, four decades in the making.

The O'Briens' bred and race Pretty Amazing, a last-start winner of the Carlton Draught Kembla Grange Classic (G3) at Goulburn Racecourse, who is now a leading contender in the March 26 Vinery Stud Stakes (G1) at Rosehill Gardens and also shapes as an ideal Australian Oaks (G1) candidate.

The Chris Waller-trained 3-year-old by American Pharoah  , the latest to race out of the blue hen broodmare Pretty Penny (Encosta de Lago), is the fourth favorite for the Vinery behind boom Queensland filly Gypsy Goddess and the Waller-trained pair Hinged and Fangirl.

In a vote of confidence for Pretty Amazing's chances, James McDonald takes the ride, having won in midweek grade on the filly at Canterbury on Feb. 18. She will jump from barrier 13, but Clairden Racing's O'Brien is hoping luck will be on his and his jockey's side when the barriers open shortly after 4:35 p.m.

"She is pretty amazing, isn't she? Three wins on the trot. She did it easily (at Goulburn) and you'd think there's more petrol in the tank," O'Brien told ANZ Bloodstock News.

"You have just got to accept what's handed to you; you have got to accept the barriers, you have got to accept the tracks as they are, and the good luck with the bad luck. 

"I never go down there (to the races) expecting them to win, I just hope they can come first, second, third, or fourth."

Clairden Racing aims to have 10 broodmares at any one time (it is currently nine), but there is every chance Pretty Amazing, whether she wins a group 1 or not, will join the O'Briens' band of mares despite the filly's pedigree holding significant international currency and levels of interest already fielded.

"Look, there's been a number of approaches to ask would I sell her, but she is potentially the best filly I have ever bred and hopefully it turns out that way," he said. 

O'Brien, who bred and raced the group 3 winner and 2003 Carlton Draught Caulfield Guineas (G1) runner-up Face Value, his half sister Bring Me Roses, and close relation, the stakes-placed Halle Rocks, bought Pretty Penny in 2016 for AU$570,000 (US$412,053) in foal to Brazen Beau  at the Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale. 

The mare, at that time, had already thrown group 2 winner Sertorius, the stakes-placed filly Fortune Of War, I Am Titanium, as well as group 3 winner Clifton Red. 

But after that group 3 winner and group 1-placed sprinter Dollar For Dollar emerged, as did the South Australian Derby (G1) runner-up Rezealient.

"Pretty Penny didn't have as much black type as she's got now with those early runners when I bought her. Sertorius was a black type and I think there was another one with some small black type, but after I bought her those other horses that Tony McEvoy had won black-type races, so the pedigree has improved significantly since I bought her," O'Brien said.

"She was a 'tax mare,' so I got some benefit as far as that was concerned initially, and then I got AU$700,000 ($538,720) for the (Brazen Beau) foal."

That filly is Pretty Brazen, who was bought by Linda Huddy, went on to win twice at group 2 level and was third in the Neds Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes (G1) and gave further rise to the already sought-after family. 

After years of near-misses, O'Brien hopes Pretty Amazing can tomorrow become Clairden Racing's maiden group 1 winner.

The O'Briens are patient people, however, and if Saturday is not the day, then they'll bide their time for the next opportunity. They've already been patient with Pretty Amazing, having not raced until December before winning her maiden eight weeks later over 1,500 meters at Newcastle in late January.

"Chris (Waller) always felt that she did have ability, but he was adamant that we shouldn't race her early, that she needed time, which has proven to be the right decision, as she showed once she got over 1,500 meters," the doctor said. 

"Chris doesn't punish them on the track and her maiden win was the first time she'd been extended in the last couple of furlongs."

While O'Brien was the first in his family to take up breeding Thoroughbreds, he'd been captivated by racing well before he bought his first horse.

During his days as a medical student in Brisbane in the late 1960s—he graduated in 1970—O'Brien spent his time at the racetrack working as a penciller for a bookmaker.

"You had to add up figures 50 or 100 long, just go down (the settling sheet) and put down a number and then you'd think, 'that couldn't be right' and you'd add it up the opposite way and come to the same number," O'Brien recalls. 

"When you're doing it all day, every week, it is amazing how your mathematical skills and adding up and taking away can improve out of sight. They were good days, I enjoyed that."

Nowadays, retired bar for a day a week working at a private hospital where he enjoys the social interaction with his colleagues, he plays golf two to three days a week and watches the racing on Saturday, mostly captivated by the breeding rather than the punt.

"Golf is my outlet and on Saturdays I am really assessing the breeding aspects rather than the punting," he says. 

"I have a small bet, but that's not what attracts me to racing, it's the breeding."