Ron Quinton knows exactly what he needs to do when two of his favourite mares, Daysee Doom and Dixie Blossoms, leave his stable for the final time.
“I’ll have to find another couple of girlfriends,” Quinton said.
The bonny mares have been a mainstay of Quinton’s stable for the past three years, not to mention two of the more popular horses in Sydney racing.
With careers that have often intersected and mirrored the other’s, it seems only fitting that Daysee Doom and Dixie Blossoms will make their racetrack farewells in the same race – the Group One Coolmore Legacy Stakes (1600m) at Randwick on Saturday.
The pair will be retired to the broodmare barn at the end of the Sydney autumn carnival and while most of the attention will be on the final appearance of Winx in the Queen Elizabeth Stakes, Quinton will only have eyes for his own little champions.
The mares arrived at his Randwick yard two days apart, made their race debuts four months apart and have amassed more than $2.5 million prize money between them.
“And their records are almost identical,” Quinton said.
“They’ve both won a Group One, they’ve both won two Group Twos.
“Dixie’s won two Group Threes, Daysee’s won one Group Three and they’ve just about earned the same prize money as well.
“We haven’t over-raced them. They’ve had a limited number of races each prep and that’s enabled them to keep going, plus they’ve always been very sound.
“That’s half the battle.”
With Daysee Doom ($18) yet to win beyond 1500 metres, TAB Fixed Odds markets have Dixie Blossoms marginally higher in the betting at $11.
Hoping to spoil the party will be Godolphin trainer James Cummings who is banking on defending titleholder Alizee to continue the stable’s incredible run of success this autumn.
The mare finished down the track in the Doncaster Mile but Cummings expects an improved performance on a drier surface.
“The tempo was against her in the Doncaster and it was run on soft ground which she isn’t as effective (in),” Cummings said.
“She’s a seven-time stakes-winning mare who bypassed the spring as a four-year-old so we have no issue with her on the back up this Saturday.”
