When Age Is No Barrier - Racing’s Greatest Veteran Performances

As Pride Of Jenni seeks her second Group 1 success as an eight-year-old, last spring's Empire Rose Stakes winner takes her place as favourite in Saturday's All-Star Mile at Flemington.

With that in mind, it is timely to have a look at some of the great achievements by older horses.

European racegoers have twice celebrated ten-year-old Group 1 winners - Yavana's Pace and Alcazar - whilst a dig into the local record books shows that Perth racegoers got to witness history when, at that age, Magistrate was able to record his second Perth Cup victory.

He had also won that two-miler as a nine-year-old and, during his lengthy career (he raced 128 times from two till 12), he claimed the scalps of some smart gallopers such as Family Of Man in the Moe Cup and Penny Edition in the Bendigo Cup. 

Magistrate also lined up in four consecutive Melbourne Cups, finishing eighth behind Hyperno, fourth to Beldale Ball, 13th behind Just A Dash and 17th behind Gurner's Lane.

One tough galloper!

By 2001 the Perth Cup had been relegated to Group 2 status, but that year saw Lottila Bay add his name to the honour roll as a ten-year-old winner.

St. Joel holds a special piece of Caulfield history - that horse (whose dam Worrolong is the ancestress of Rubiton) contesting one of the track's feature events (then known as the Invitation Stakes, now the Sir Rupert Clarke) five times and winning it on three occasions.

At the ages of four, seven - and ten.

There have been quite a few nine-year-old Group 1 winners, with Fields Of Omagh diving on the line to take out the W.S. Cox Plate at his final start, having won the Futurity Stakes in record time at eight.

Takeover Target was also nine when he had his last racing campaign, racing in three countries during that season and winning two big ones - the Group 1 TJ Smith Stakes and the Group 1 Goodwood Handicap.

On both occasions he defeated horses who would go on to stellar stud careers; Northern Meteor and I Am Invincible.

At his penultimate start at nine, the eye-catching chestnut Cascadian hauled in Pride Of Jenni to record his second Group 1 Australian Cup victory (the same race won in 1901 by the same-aged horse Dreamland).

Meanwhile the popular galloper Black Heart Bart was nine when recording a surprise Group 1 Underwood Stakes victory at the juicy odds of 100-1.

Another durable campaigner, one who lined up in four Melbourne Cups (his best result a third behind Protectionist and Red Cadeaux in 2014), Who Shot Thebarman also ran in five consecutive Sydney Cups!

He ran poorly after a wide run in the first of those but was competitive in the next three (nabbed right on the line by Grand Marshal in 2015, solid when fourth behind Gallante a year later and outbobbed late by Polarisation in 2017).

That toughness was eventually rewarded with a well-deserved breakthrough at the age of nine; the age at which he had also won a Group 2 Moonee Valley Cup.

Other notable nine-year-old feature race winners include Zipping (the 2010 Turnbull Stakes - three weeks before his fourth Sandown Classic success), Kingfisher (1877 Sydney Cup), Mairp (1904 Newmarket Handicap), Bonnie Bee (1886 Brisbane Cup), Royal Pageant (1953 Adelaide Cup), Stanley (1891 Adelaide Cup), Fernridge (1941 Perth Cup), Masquerade (1883 Epsom Handicap), Bar One (1883 Toorak Handicap), Gloaming (1924 Melbourne/Mackinnon Stakes), Bragger (T.J. Smith's first winner won the 1946 Railway Quality, the race now run as the George Ryder), Battle Heights (1976 Metropolitan Handicap) and Man O' War (1907 Railway Stakes).

Several others have, as Pride Of Jenni has done, won Group 1 races as eight-year-olds - such as Via Sistina (three in a row last spring), Buffering (Moir Stakes, Winterbottom Stakes, Al Quoz Stakes), Almandin (Tancred Stakes), Arapaho (last year's Sydney Cup), Zaaki (Champions Stakes), Fawkner (Makybe Diva Stakes), Mourinho (Underwood Stakes), Sir John Hawkwood (Metropolitan Handicap), Alcopop (Mackinnon Stakes), Ista Kareem (Sydney Cup), Scenic Shot (Doomben Cup), Zavite (Ranvet Stakes) and Think It Over (Verry Elleegant Stakes).

Meanwhile, Twilight Payment, Toryboy and Catalogue are the eight-year-old winners of the Melbourne Cup.

It can be argued that a few of those imported, Northern Hemisphere-born gallopers were technically not quite eight, but their achievements are certainly still noteworthy.