Memsie Stakes 2024 review: Pinstriped wins big, Pride Of Jenni flops

The 2024 Melbourne Spring racing season started off with a bang at Caulfield Racecourse on Saturday. $12 underdog Pinstriped came away  with first place in the Group 1 Memsie Stakes (1400m). The Enver Jusufovic-trained gelding beat out heavy hitters Mr. Brightside ($2.50), the favourite, and Pride Of Jenni ($3.00). 
 
Pinstriped had previously run in six Group 1 races without a win before his victory at Caulfield on Saturday.  

Pinstriped wins 

At $12 odds to win, Pinstriped was far from one of the favourites for Saturday’s Memsie Stakes. In fact, the gelding didn’t look like he had a chance at all until the final 200m of the 1400m, $750,000 race on Saturday.  
 
Second-favourite Pride Of Jenni ($3.00), dark horse Gentleman Roy ($9.00), and favourite Mr. Brightside ($2.50) led the pack coming around the final turn. Pinstriped was close behind in fifth, but it was clear that he would need to deliver the sprint of his life if he was going to win. That’s exactly what the gelding ended up doing.  
 
Mr. Brightside looked set to win the race as Gentleman Roy and Pride Of Jenni faded. That was until jockey Ben Allen and Pinstriped delivered a sprint for the ages down the final stretch. The six-year-old sprinted down the outside, keeping pace with Mr. Brightside before eventually passing him in the final 50m.  
 
In the end, Pinstriped emerged as the deserved winner, beating out Mr. Brightside by half a length.  

“How we scripted it” 

As exciting and shocking as the race was for horse racing betting fans to watch in real time, jockey Ben Allen says the race went exactly to plan.  
 
“It feels pretty good! It was pretty much how we scripted it,” Allen said after the race.  
 
“(Our plan was) to hold the back of (Mr.) Brightside and just follow it everywhere,” he continued.  
 
“I was going pretty well so I just had to pop on the bend, but this horse has been absolutely flying. He arguably should’ve won his last start. There’s a lot of doubters because he lays in quite badly and he still does a bit.” 
 
Pinstriped finished second in the Group 2 P.B. Lawrence Stakes on 17 August. His win on Saturday in the Memsie Stakes is his first ever Group 1 win.  

Pride Of Jenni trainer not worried 

Besides Pinstriped’s win, another major talking point from the Memsie Stakes was the disappointing run from Pride Of Jenni. The mare finished fifth after fading in the final stretch.  
 
Pride Of Jenni is the current betting sites favourite to win the 2023/24 Australian Horse of the Year Award. At $3 odds, only Mr. Brightside ($2.50) had better odds to win the Memsie Stakes on Saturday than Pride of Jenni.  
 
Despite the result, her trainer, Ciaron Maher, is not worried.  
 
“She felt like a 2000-metre horse,” he said, referencing the fact that Pride of Jenni has struggled in 1400m races before.  
 
Given her talent at the 2000m+ distance, Pride of Jenni is the favourite for the upcoming 2024 Cox Plate at Moonee Valley in October.