Denise Martin’s Star Thoroughbreds has been syndicating horses for more than three decades, winning its fair share of Group One races along the way.
But a Sydney classic hasn’t been among them.
That could change at Randwick on Saturday when Star Thoroughbred’s well recognised colours of purple with white stars are worn by Aeliana, the favourite for the ATC Australian Derby (2400m).
“We have won a Slipper of course, a Mackinnon, a Flight Stakes, and had an Epsom quinella,” Martin said when asked to recall some of her Group 1 wins.
“I have longed to win a Derby and didn’t think it would really be possible because we tend not to buy stamina-type horses.”
How Martin and several of her owners came to acquire Aeliana is a story in itself.
Chris Waller exclusively prepares her team and when he spied a relative to Star’s former top mare Invincibella at the Karaka Sales, he was straight on the phone to Martin.
“Chris phoned me a couple of years ago and said, ‘there is a relative here of Invincibella’s, would you like to buy her?'” Martin recalled.
“I said, ‘I’ll think about it, I’ve thought about it, yes please’.
“I didn’t see her, but I trusted his judgement and importantly Chris works with (bloodstock agent) Guy Mulcaster and I knew he had seen the filly and recommended her to Chris and Chris recommended her to me.”
Martin descried Aeliana as a “well put together filly” as a yearling but it was clear from her light frame she would need time.
She was given it.
At a visit to a spelling farm with some clients, Martin asked for Aeliana to be paraded so she could check on her progress.
The three women accompanying her on the excursion all ended up taking shares, two of them because the filly’s markings from Rich Hill Stud in New Zealand correlated to their husbands’ initials.
“Unknowingly, while I paraded the horse to have a look at her, the three ladies saw her and she finished up being fully subscribed on that day, almost by default,” Martin said.
So far, Aeliana has raced nine times for three wins and two Group 1 placings, including a luckless and narrow second to Broadsiding in the Rosehill Guineas (2000m).
If she can claim the Derby, Martin says it will be very special.
“I have had my business for 32 years and in that time Star has had horses like Driefontein, Danglissa, Foxplay, Invincibella, Theseo, Sebring, D’Argento who won the Rosehill Guineas and of course most recently, Espiona,” she said.
“I sometimes drive home and think, where will the next really talented horse come from? And the answer is, you don’t know until you try them and the most unlikely horses sometimes do the job.
“It would be so magical to win a Derby. It would be extraordinary and I’m just so excited to be there with a major chance.”
