Pride of Jenni’s owner Tony Ottobre to unleash new prospect in 2025 Autumn Stakes at Caulfield on Saturday

An amazing first-up win at Cranbourne was the catalyst for trainer Alex Rae and prominent owner Tony Ottobre to target Saturday’s Group 2 Autumn Stakes at Caulfield.

Easy first-up winner Jenni The Fox will jump sharply in class in Saturday’s Group 2 Autumn Stakes at Caulfield. Picture: Racing Photos

It makes perfect sense for connections to throw Jenni The Fox in the deep end in Saturday’s Group 2 Autumn Stakes at Caulfield.

Jenni The Fox produced a barnstorming first-up win at Cranbourne on January 18 at he r first start for the Alex Rae stable.

Rae said the Too Darn Hot filly was unlucky in her two runs for previous trainer Ciaron Maher but different riding tactics produced amazing improvement.

• PUNT LIKE A PRO: Become a Racenet iQ member and get expert tips – with fully transparent return on investment statistics – from Racenet’s team of professional punters at our Pro Tips section. SUBSCRIBE NOW!

“We stumbled across the right way to ride her at Cranbourne and she just had no luck at her first two starts, which was an obvious excuse,” Rae said.

“She was a different horse the other day but we want to see her do it again before we get too carried away.”

The Cranbourne win convinced Rae and prominent owner Tony Ottobre, who paid $380,000 for Jenni The Fox as a yearling, to step up Jenni The Fox sharply in class on Saturday.

“Tony wanted to be really aggressive with the way we placed her after that win,” Rae said.

“She’s only got six months left in her three-year-old season so we identified that as a suitable race.

“There’s a fair few handy horses in the race but she won really well at Cranbourne and she’s an expensive filly with a good pedigree.

“Once you get that maiden out of the way, the next target is black type.”

Jenni The Fox explodes from nowhere to break her maiden 💥

An early double for Craig Newitt at Cranbourne ✌️@AlexRaeRacingpic.twitter.com/PX2ieIbzvT

— Racing.com (@Racing) January 18, 2025

• Brad Waters’ Blackbook: Future winners from Victorian trials and jumpouts

Rae said rising to 1400m would suit Jenni The Fox but added the three-year-old – who is from the same family stars Mr Brightside, Foxwood and Gurner’s Lane – would in time be suited over longer trips in time.

“They ran along at Cranbourne and she looked good over 1300m but 1400m will be better for her,” Rae said.

“Hopefully they run along again on Saturday and she can finish off strongly again.

“I think once we get her to a mile, we’ll see her at her absolute best.”

Winning Saturday’s $300,000 would lead most stables to think of tackling the Group 1 Australian Guineas (1600m) at Flemington.

But Rae and Ottobre haven’t got that far yet.

“She only had a little bit of a freshen up after her couple of runs before she came to me so I think Tony is looking long term,” Rae said.

“We’ll get through Saturday, dip our toe in the deeper water and we can have a conversation after that.”

Originally published as Pride of Jenni’s owner Tony Ottobre to unleash new prospect in 2025 Autumn Stakes at Caulfield on Saturday