She’s Due: Trainer Danielle Seib plots Group 1 breakthrough with Due Calzini in 2024 Spring Champion Stakes

When Danielle Seib saddles up Due Calzini at Royal Randwick on Saturday, she will have someone special watching proudly from above.

When Danielle Seib saddles up Due Calzini at Royal Randwick on Saturday, she will have someone special watching proudly from above.

The Goulburn trainer will be preparing to enjoy a career highlight with her Group 1 starter in the Spring Champion Stakes (2000m) but knows it would never have been possible without her late father Lewis.

Lewis Seib died in early June of 2017 not long after collapsing at his Muswellbrook stable.

An inoperable tumour was later found on his brain.

Seib’s father worked in racing for most of his life, including with Brian Mayfield-Smith during his golden era before beginning his own training journey.

He passed on his love of the horse to his daughter.

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“He was my best mate and a great horseman,” Seib said.

“It’s his birthday soon, the 8th of November so it’s always this time of year and gets a bit more forthright in your mind.

“Hopefully it makes him proud.”

Seib’s maiden Group 1 starter comes a little more than seven years after she had her first runner at Gosford in June, 2017.

The emerging conditioner had spent six months as a school teacher before being drawn back to racing.

But she hadn’t planned on taking out her trainer’s licence until her life changed immeasurably.

“It probably happened all a lot earlier than what I planned or wanted but unfortunately when Dad passed away seven years, that’s why I took the licence up,” Seib said.

“We had eight or so in work and there was a lot of Dad’s hard work in the stable and things I felt I needed to see those horses out.

“It was always in the blood and I really enjoyed it.

“I was fortunate that Assault’N’Bathory kicked my career along early winning dual Highways and I’ve had such great support since.”

Trainer Danielle Seib.

Seib has got support from within the Goulburn racing fraternity as well as from partner Aaron Day and mum, Julie.

Day is an important part of Seib’s stable while she began a business partnership with her mother following Lewis’ passing.

“Mum has really put everything she has into it over the years and has been a great supporter,“ Seib said.

“I think Aaron and I both learnt a lot off Danny Williams and that’s where we met.

“Danny is a great horseman and trainer and we learned a lot in our time there and lessons of how you approach things in life, both of us are lucky to have great families.

“We aren’t from money and Aaron’s family is a historical trotting family. We haven’t been gifted anything and have worked hard to build the stable.”

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Seib is now closing on 100 winners and credits the support of Jason Abraham’s Champion Thoroughbreds as well as JJJ Racing.

JJJ Racing races Due Calzini as well as several other talented gallopers in the stable including Associate.

Due Calzini was purchased as a $60,000 yearling and it wasn’t long before Seib knew she had a bargain buy.

“He has always shown us well above average ability, even from his first trial,” Seib said.

“He defeated Switzerland in that trial. He has done a good job and I think his run in the Gloaming was definitely a pass mark at that level.

“It’s worth a roll of the dice to run him in the Spring Champion.”

Due Calzini (by D'Argento), trained by @SeibRacing, holds off Switzerland (Snitzel) to win a Warwick Farm 2yo trial on Tuesday with Pro Forma (Capitalist) in third. @tabcomaupic.twitter.com/bLtCIHnbpm

— Racing NSW (@racing_nsw) January 1, 2024

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Due Calzini has already twice run in stakes grade, finishing ninth in the Listed The Phoenix as a two-year-old at Eagle Farm.

The son of D’argento was doing his best work through the line in the Gloaming Stakes in which he was six lengths off the winner El Castello.

Bookies rate him as a 100-1 outsider in the Spring Champion Stakes but Seib believes he’s a better prospect than that price suggests with Kerrin McEvoy aboard.

“There are quite a few horses in this race out of his last start and he finished alongside Duvana, which is $19 and were 100-1 or so,” she said.

“I think it’s not like he is stepping out of country grade or something like it because he’s been exposed to nice races throughout his career to date.

“Even back to his Highway run, and I know they were only Highway horses, but he was ridden out of his comfort zone and was the only three-year-old in the race.

“It was a big field with high pressure and he stuck on really well. He has always given us every indication he will run the trip and they are only three once.”

El Castello strings together three wins in a row and wins the G3 TAB Gloaming Stakes for Josh Parr and @ACummingsracing!@aus_turf_clubpic.twitter.com/yj5en5VxT3

— SKY Racing (@SkyRacingAU) October 12, 2024

• ‘He’s the horse to beat’: Form guru’s Spring Champion tip

Win, lose or draw on Saturday, Seib knows it’s an important day for the stable.

The Goulburn conditioners has made an excellent start to her training career and hopes the Group 1 raceday will be the first of many.

“I’m very excited,” Seib said.

“We are not a big stable but we are continuing to get nicer horses in and hopefully this is the start of many journeys like this,”

“Hopefully he can run up to the best of his ability and keep standing up in this sort of grade or better.”

• Shayne O’Cass’s race-by-race tips and analysis for Royal Randwick on Saturday

Seib could settle the nerves early on in the card with two chances in the Highway Class 3 Handicap (1600m).

Cable Express ($9.50) is second-up in Highway event while stablemate Ghost Walker ($14) was runner-up over a mile at Canberra last time.

Tommy Berry pilots Cable Bay while Tyler Schiller is on Ghost Walker.

“I think it is going to be tricky for Cable Express because he’s probably drawn a bit low (barrier two),” Seib said.

“He is a horse that needs a bit of room and being behind the leader didn’t suit him the other day.

“He is a really big horse and we’ve put some winkers on him which should allow him to travel a little bit better in himself.

“Ghost Walker has had a really good prep and is a big horse as well.

“He is drawn perfectly (barrier seven) and I thought it was a really gallant run against Tulsi last start, who ran alright in really good grade last weekend.”

Seib has her stable firing on all cylinders this month with six winners already in October.

Originally published as She’s Due: Trainer Danielle Seib plots Group 1 breakthrough with Due Calzini in 2024 Spring Champion Stakes