Award-winning racing photographer Trish Dunell is hoping for a picture perfect performance from her homebred filly Fringes (Niagara) in this Saturday’s Queensland Oaks (Gr 1, 2200m) at Eagle Farm.
Despite a medical episode which, in her own words, has left her with a “questionable brain”, Dunell will be trackside with son Cameron to see if Fringes, whose moniker is derived from the names of her grandchildren, can upset Chris Waller’s well-fancied fillies Panova (Trapeze Artist) and Chispa (Savabeel) and deliver a first Group 1 success for the hobby breeder.
Fringes, who is hunting a hat-trick of wins for South Australian trainer Michael Hickmott, is one of seven New Zealand-bred fillies in contention to win the final Group 1 contest of the season for three-year-olds.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, she is the only Oaks runner sired by obscure stallion Niagara (Encosta De Lago), whose racetrack highlight came courtesy of victory in the 2012 Ajax Stakes (Gr 2, 1500m) for Gai Waterhouse.
Niagara, who stands for just NZ$2,500 at Hau Ora Farm in New Zealand’s Hawke’s Bay region, has thus far registered a pair of stakes winners on Australian soil – and Dunell has bred both.
After Fancify had made her black-type breakthrough in the 2024 Hong Kong Jockey Club Stakes (Gr 3, 1400m) on Melbourne Cup Day, Fringes recently joined her former stablemate in the stakes club when she showed strength and stamina in equal measure to claim the SA Fillies Classic (Gr 3, 2546m) on Goodwood Day in early May.
Her pilot that day, Ben Melham, has jumped ship to ride the $3.80 Oaks favourite Panova but his able replacement Tim Clark is a man in form, having notched a pair of stakes wins in Queensland on successive Saturdays aboard Abounding (Rich Enuff) and Alalcance (Mastercraftsman).
Given that Fringes, like most Kiwi-bred horses, prefers some give in the ground she might not get conditions to suit at Eagle Farm, with fine weather predicted in Brisbane for the remainder of the week.
However, Dunell is still daring to dream that her tough filly, who started her career in the care of New Zealand trainer Ilone Kelly before being transferred to Hickmott’s yard, is capable of outrunning her opening quote of $27.
The origins of the Fringes story can be traced back to 2014, when Dunell – on the advice of her friends and fellow breeders Jo and Greg Griffin of Lime Country Thoroughbreds – purchased Miss Jaydeejay (Golan) for $24,000 at the New Zealand Bloodstock Winter Bloodstock Sale at Karaka.
“It would just be amazing, unbelievable, thrilling to win a Group 1 with a horse I’ve bred,” she told ANZ News
“It would just be amazing, unbelievable, thrilling to win a Group 1 with a horse I’ve bred,” she told ANZ News.
“I also bred Spalato (Elusive City), who won some big races in Singapore including the Derby, but they’re not internationally recognised as Group races.
“The original plan wasn’t to send Fringes over to Australia, but they’re only three once and Michael has such a great affinity with the Niagaras. He really knows how to train them, as we saw with Fancify [now with Ciaron Maher].
“I’ve been so pleased with how this filly has adapted and thrived in Australia. She’s such a good looking and sweet-natured girl, and she has come such a long way in a very short period of time. One big advantage she has is her appetite, I think eating is her favourite pastime.”
The mare, a full-sister to the 2007 Victoria Derby (Gr 1, 2500m) hero Kibbutz, was in foal to Ocean Park (Thorn Park), and the resulting filly subsequently fetched $58,000 at the following year’s New Zealand Bloodstock National Weanling Sale.
Miss Damita would go on to win five races for Mick Price, including both the Mortlake Cup (2000m) and the Woodford Cup (1700m), but rather than return to Ocean Park the plan had always been to send the mare to Niagara, a stallion with whom Dunell had formed an instant bond.
Those early matings unfortunately produced more misses than hits, with Fringes’ full-sister Opaline failing to make it to the track while their sibling The Yes Girl has won one of 13 starts. However, Dunell’s persistence has now paid off in spades, with the penultimate foal Miss Jaydeejay delivered before her untimely death last year clearly possessing a potent combination of talent and tenacity.
“Niagara tends to leave stayers, and even though she won on debut over 1400-metres, we always thought that Fringes would excel over extended trips,” she told ANZ News.
“Having said that, Niagara is very versatile and can also produce shorter distance horses, such as Fancify and [Fringes’ stablemate] Synchro. His progeny aren’t early get-up-and-going two-year-old types, which might explain why the yearling sales in Australia haven’t attracted many Niagara buyers. They tend to do little early on, so they are much better if they are left alone to fully mature.
“Niagara isn’t well known, particularly in Australia, but I just love him. I flew to Australia to visit him before he arrived here in New Zealand to start his stud career, and it was love at first sight. He was just an absolutely gorgeous sweetheart, so laid-back. And he leaves foals that are as laidback as he is.”
Hickmott is an equally ardent admirer of Niagara, and the stallion will always hold a special place in the horseman’s heart given that his durable daughter will represent the stable’s first runner in a Group 1.
A little under 12 months ago, Hickmott had expected to sample his first taste of Group 1 action only for Party Crasher (Ocean Park) to be scratched at the gates ahead of the Queensland Derby (2400m).
But that bitter disappointment will be consigned to history if Fringes, who arrived safely in Brisbane on Tuesday night, can somehow plot a path to victory from barrier 16 in Saturday’s $700,000 contest.
“The filly is in a really good zone at the minute, she’s fit and in good form so we go there as confident as you can be in a Group 1 race,” Hickmott told ANZ News.
“We were pretty light on her when she first came over from New Zealand, because we always knew we wouldn’t see the best of her until we stretched her out over 2000 metres and with the blinkers on, she showed what she’s capable of in her last two starts.
“She’s just very tough and honest and straightforward to train, she can go back or sit up near the speed so she’s very adaptable and versatile. She’s typical of the breed, we’ve had a lot of Niagaras in the stable and my nephew recently went back through the stats and found that around 80 per cent of them have been Saturday metropolitan grade here in SA. He’s such an under-rated stallion, and I wish we had more of them in the stable.”
















