‘It’s not where you start off, it’s where you finish’
Trainer Bjorn Baker believes Stefi Magnetica (All Too Hard) can step into some rarified company as she attempts to complete a top-tier double in the space of a week in Saturday’s Queen Of The Turf Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) at Randwick.
Only one mare has claimed the Doncaster Mile (Gr 1, 1600m) and the Queen Of The Turf in the same season since the latter gained top-level status in 2005, and that was Gai Waterhouse’s champion More Joyous (More Than Ready) in 2012.
More Joyous also had the relative advantage over Stefi Magnetica of the two races being a fortnight apart at the time.
But Baker is notching some phenomenal achievements in a break-out season, in which he’s currently second on the Sydney metro trainers’ table, with 69 winners to Chris Waller’s 104, and having trained 21 stakes winners in a career tally of 90, including two Group 1s.
The Warwick Farm-based trainer is confident Stefi Magnetica can underline her standing as one of the most valuable broodmares in the country as she seeks to follow her barnstorming Doncaster victory, where she surged home after gaining clear running at the 150 metres to score by 0.14 lengths over Royal Patronage (Wootton Bassett).
Stefi Magnetica, who became Baker’s sixth elite-level winner when emulating her dam Mid Summer Music’s (Oamaru Force) Stradbroke Handicap (Gr 1, 1400m) success last June, has attempted an eight-day back-up only once before.
Last November, after powering home from near the tail of the field for a 1.96-length fifth in the Golden Eagle (1500m), the spring four-year-old was taken to Flemington for the Champions Mile (Gr 1, 1600m), where she again stormed to the line for a 1.12–length fourth behind the quality trio of Mr Brightside (Bullbars), Antino (Redwood) and Fangirl (Sebring).
She confronts Fangirl again on Saturday, with bookmakers installing the Chris Waller-trained mare at $1.95 and Stefi Magnetica as a $5 second-favourite as she attempts to join her on three Group 1s.
Fangirl resumed three runs back with victory in the Apollo Stakes (Gr 2, 1400m) but has had to make do with seconds in her past two starts. She was beaten 0.36 lengths by the outstanding Via Sistina (Fastnet Rock) in Randwick’s Verry Elleegant Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) and 0.02 lengths by Gringotts (Per Incanto) in Rosehill’s George Ryder Stakes (Gr 1, 1500m), when a $5 third-favourite.
Baker would not be drawn on whether Fangirl, now six, is as good as she was, but was content in the knowledge Stefi Magnetica was “in very good order” after improving from a first-up eighth in the Canterbury Stakes (Gr 1, 1300m) and a sixth in the Ryder to win the Doncaster.
“She’s come through the run really well and I couldn’t be happier with her,” said Baker, who’s naturally given Stefi Magnetica a light week on the track before her back-to-back mission.
“We’ve got confidence with how she backed up from the Golden Eagle to the Champions Mile. That was a very good run and that gives us a bit of hope.
“She seems bright and well this morning [Friday], and she’s favoured by a good gate [barrier four] tomorrow as well.
“She can often hit a flat spot second-up, and that was maybe the case in the Ryder, but she improved off that run into the Doncaster.
“She’ll probably have to improve again off that to beat Fangirl, but I’m confident she’ll run a good race.”
The rise of Stefi Magnetica is a remarkable story, and mirrors that of her dam.
Mid Summer Music debuted as a four-year-old at Warracknabeal, with a 4.75–length maiden win. Trainer Peter Moody later related in his autobiography he felt the “plain little chestnut” – bought off a farm for just $5,000 – had “had a big birthday” and that he’d told her owners they might consider starting breeding with her with that one win under her belt.
He was convinced otherwise by jockey Linda Meech, and was later grateful when Mid Summer Music won four of her next five starts, three in town, and later won the 2012 Stradbroke amongst four stakes wins.
Mid Summer Music’s fifth foal, Stefi Magnetica was bought by Baker, Cunningham Thoroughbreds and Clarke Bloodstock from breeders Cressfield for $140,000 at Magic Millions Gold Coast in 2022.
A couple of years earlier, a Fastnet Rock (Danehill) filly from the same mare had fetched $600,000 when bought by Godolphin. She became Hellfest, a Group 3 winner who last October bore Darley a Frankel (Galileo) filly, and is now in-foal to Zoustar (Northern Meteor).
While Hellfest is a stakes winner, she’s been outstripped by her younger half-sister, who’s become one of five Group 1 winners for Vinery Stud stallion All Too Hard (Casino Prince).
But the road was not always so clear.
Stefi Magnetica first stepped out when fifth in The Debut (900m) on Magic Millions day in 2023 on a Heavy 10 – the last race before the meeting was abandoned.
She was soon running thirds at Hawkesbury and Warwick Farm, before her first two wins, back-to-back on either side of a spell, in the wilds of NSW – which gives Baker one of his favourite stats.
“She’s now won four races: a maiden at Wellington, a Benchmark 58 at Orange, a Stradbroke and a Doncaster,” he said with a laugh, not to mention the $5.8 million she’s accumulated in prize-money.
It was the start after Orange that convinced Baker of her ability, going from there to Flemington in January 2024, where she was “a certainty beaten” up the straight 1100 metres in a three-year-old fillies’ Benchmark 78.
Two starts later she ran fourth in the Light Fingers Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) at $26, before stepping up to the top level in the Surround Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m), where as a $17 chance she ran an 0.12–length second to Tropical Squall (Prized Icon).
She’s been around the top echelon ever since.
Baker was interested in buying her as a yearling for the Cressfield factor, having trained “a couple of good ones” bred by the farm, most notably triple stakes winner Egyptian Symbol (Stratum).
“She wasn’t the biggest or strongest filly, but she had a good pedigree, and we thought we might be able to get some value. Back then we were operating on a pretty lean budget,” Baker said. “So when we got her we thought we’d done very well. We thought she was a nice filly.
“And she’s continued to improve throughout her career. When you’re running at Wellington and Orange, you mightn’t think you’ve got a Group 1 horse, but as I like to say, it’s not where you start off, it’s where you finish.
“We thought enough of her to take her to The Debut at the Gold Coast. It was very wet, but she could have gone close had she not missed the start.
“She grew out of that habit, and she’s always shown nice ability – without us thinking she was going to get to this level.
“She should have won at Flemington that first time, and then she was unlucky again when third at Rosehill next start, and then in the Light Fingers she went great.”
Stefi Magnetica, who has gate four of 12 and Doncaster partner Jason Collett again on Saturday, will have to meet Fangirl with an equal impost of 57 kilograms under the Queen Of The Turf’s weight-for-age conditions.
But Baker noted she carried a sizeable – for a four-year-old mare – 54.5 kilograms in the Doncaster, albeit short of the 56.5 kilograms Winx (Street Cry) humped in her 2016 victory in the race.
More Joyous carried 57.5 kilograms to success in 2012, after having won her second Queen Of The Turf.
“Stefi had to carry a fair weight in the Doncaster; 54.5 kilograms for a four-year-old mare is pretty good going,” Baker said. “From that point of view she’s definitely up to a race like this.
“More Joyous was a great mare, but at the end of the day, records are there to be broken.”
The Waller stable holds a strong hand, as always, with Fangirl to make the float trip from Rosehill with stablemates Atishu (Savabeel), at $7, and three-year-old Lazzura (Snitzel) at $10.
Waller said he hoped Atishu – a 2.5–length winner of the race in 2023 before a 0.04–length second to stablemate Zougotcha (Zoustar) last year – could go out with a bang in her last start for the stable. Atishu – and Zougotcha – are headed to Magic Millions’ Gold Coast National Broodmare Sale next month.
“Last run for us ever. What a great story she’s been,” Waller said of Atishu, who’s won him three Group 1s – and placed in five others – in 40 starts in Australia, after winning four of nine outings in New Zealand.
“She won this race two years ago, then got beaten a lip by Zougotcha last year. There’s no Zougotcha this time, but there’s a few others, like Lazzura, and maybe Fangirl,” Waller said.
Waller indicated he was expecting a strong showing from Lazzura, who has a 2.5-kilogram advantage over her older rivals.
The filly followed a third in the Surround Stakes with a 1.7–length victory against the males in Rosehill’s Phar Lap Stakes (Gr 2, 1500m), and a second in the Emancipation Stakes (Gr 2, 1500m) on a Heavy 8. That day, she powered home strongly up the inside after being blocked for a run until the 220 metres, going down by just 0.11 lengths to Lekvarte (Reliable Man), who’s a $41 chance on Saturday.
“Lazzura was great that day,” Waller said on social media. “She probably should’ve won the race, to be fair. She’s in great form. She’s come back a different horse in the autumn.
“She’s drawn gate 13 but Tommy [Berry] will work it out from there.”
A possible spoiler to the top chances could come from Danny O’Brien’s Grinzinger Belle (Shamexpress). The four-year-old is having her first clockwise run, and comes off a 2.75–length victory in Moonee Valley’s Sunline Stakes (Gr 2, 1600m) – the fourth Group win of her 17-start career.
With gate seven for Declan Bates, Grinzinger Belle is striving to become just the third Group 1 winner for New Zealand stud Windsor Park’s 15-year-old Shamexpress (O’Reilly).
She would be in rare – and very good – company. The other two are the now retired dual NZ top–level winner Coventina Bay, and none other than the world’s top-rated sprinter, Hong Kong’s Ka Ying Rising.