Caulfield Cup winner Jameka’s racing future is still undecided following the mare’s lacklustre performance in a 990m barrier trial at Cranbourne today.
Jameka, above, hasn’t raced since winning the 2017 The BMW at Rosehill. Photo by Steve Hart.
Jameka was having her first serious test since recovering from a life threatening bout of travel sickness but could only beat one runner home in the seven horse trail which was won by the Mick Price trained Holy Snow.
Co-trainer Ciaron Maher said that he would now discuss Jameka’s future with her owners and work out if she will continue on a comeback campaign or if the six year old mare will be sent to stud this season.
“We’ll see how she pulls up over the next few days and I’ll sit down with the owners to make a decision on whether she goes to another trial and let her come on a little bit more that way or whether she goes to stud,” Maher told racing.com.
“If she goes back to the races, she goes back to group 1 level and she needs to be competitive at that level otherwise there is no point running her, so she needs to improve a little.
“We all know what’s she’s done. Unless I feel she’s somewhere close to her best – knowing she does improve through her campaign as she stretches out in distance – if she’s not somewhere near her best or somewhere near where she needs to be to kick off, there’s probably not much point.”
“I thought she trialled OK but I thought she could have done a little bit more. She really likes these conditions – it was a soft 7 there today.
“(She) probably could have done a little more through the line but we’ll see how she is over the next few days.”
Jameka has been a consistent Group 1 performer since her three year old days when she won the Group 1 $1m Crown Oaks (2500m) at Flemington during the 2015 Melbourne Spring Carnival.
Jameka was also one of the stars of the 2016 Melbourne Spring Carnival with a win in the Group 1 $3m BMW Caulfield Cup (2400m) at Caulfield and then went on to claim her third Group 1 trophy with a win in the $1.5m The BMW (2400m) at Rosehill during the 2017 Sydney Autumn Carnival, which was her last race track appearance.
Jameka is the winner of of six of her twenty-four race starts and has amassed just over $4.8 million in prizemoney.
