Pride Of Jenni owner Tony Ottobre discussed Melbourne Cup idea with trainer Ciaron Maher before astonishing Queen Elizabeth Stakes win

The owner of Pride Of Jenni was taken aback by Ciaron Maher’s response when he raised the idea of training the freak mare for the Melbourne Cup.

Ciaron Maher told owner Tony Ottobre anything is possible with Pride Of Jenni. Picture: Getty Images

Ciaron Maher’s faith in Pride Of Jenni is so unshakeable that at one stage he even discussed a blueprint copied from Bart Cummings which could have seen the freak mare trained to race in the Melbourne Cup.

The idea is now unlikely after Pride Of Jenni’s astonishing Queen Elizabeth Stakes romp which is set to see her target the King Charles III Stakes, Cox Plate and potentially Champions Stakes in an elite spring campaign.

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But Racenet can for the first time reveal how, prior to the Queen Elizabeth, champion trainer Maher and Pride of Jenni’s owner Tony Ottobre had privately discussed an incredible Melbourne Cup idea.

You would have to question whether Pride of Jenni could successfully take her bold frontrunning style to the 3200m of the Melbourne Cup on the first Tuesday in November.

Pride Of Jenni’s win is even better from above! What an absolute star ⭐️ pic.twitter.com/utncCWMqUS

— TAB (@tabcomau) April 14, 2024

But Maher is the master of the unorthodox and his time spent working for Cups King Bart Cummings told him it was far from impossible.

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Maher has studied how Cummings took Rogan Josh to win the 1999 Melbourne Cup.

“I said to Ciaron, what do you think of the Melbourne Cup?” Ottobre said.

“Ciaron said, ‘yup, yeah, we could do that’.

“I said, ‘what, you could stretch her out to 3200m?’

Ciaron Maher and Declan Bates after Pride Of Jenni’s jaw-dropping Queen Elizabeth Stakes romp. Picture: Getty Images

“He said, ‘well, Bart Cummings did it with Rogan Josh’.

“He took a 2000m horse to win the Melbourne Cup.

“Ciaron mentioned that and he said that he knew how Bart did it and he said he could implement a training regime for Pride Of Jenni (to race in the Melbourne Cup).”

Ottobre’s No.1 racing dream is to win the Melbourne Cup but he even he admits the Pride Of Jenni Cup idea is now extremely unlikely to come to fruition given her extraordinary demolition of her rivals over 2000m last Saturday.

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“It (the Melbourne Cup) was floated as an idea, but things have changed,” Ottobre said.

Pride Of Jenni’s owner Tony Ottobre (right) and strapper Sammie Waters. Picture: Getty Images.

“Pride Of Jenni is champion at 1600m and 2000m, so you probably wouldn’t now take a risk of going to a Melbourne Cup.

“But we definitely discussed it.

“At the moment, it looks like she will race in the King Charles into the Cox Plate – and I love Flemington so I’m pretty sure we would go back for Champions day there.”

After her amazing heroics at Randwick, Pride Of Jenni firmed to become the $4.50 favourite to take out the 2024 Cox Plate in October.