Alizee to bow out of racing in G1 Queen of the Turf Stakes

An illustrious career will come to an end for Alizee in Saturday’s G1 Queen of the Turf Stakes at Randwick – and hopes are high that she can make a winning farewell.

One of the best of her era and a star of the local Godolphin stable, Alizee comes to her final start fit and ready, although her trainer acknowledges several of the mares engaged are in similar condition. But none has built a record to match that of Alizee’s 10 wins, three G1s and more than $3 million in prize money.

A daughter of Champion sprinter Sepoy, Alizee is out of the great producer Essaouira, a winner on the track and a broodmare who also produced the G1-winning sprinter and Darley stallion Astern and the city winners Marrakesh, Mogador and Tassort. It is a family of winners that traces to Triscay, a winner of 15 races, five of them at G1.

“She’s been a remarkable mare” said Cummings as he prepared Alizee for her final appearance.

“It was a privilege every time I put a saddle on that big, broad back. She lacked nothing and whatever she had, it came in large doses.”

“She’s won at least one race in every preparation since she turned three, and she’s beaten a lot of very good horses along the way, including in this campaign in the Apollo where she beat Dreamforce and Happy Clapper.”

“She had a setback that caused her to miss the spring of 2018. Who knows what her record would look like but for that.”

Alizee ended her autumn campaign that year with victory in the G1 Queen of the Turf, returning the following summer to win her next three starts, including the G1 Futurity Stakes.

The win of her current preparation came in the G2 Apollo Stakes at Randwick in February and her latest effort for fifth behind Dreamforce in the G1 Canterbury Stakes entitles her to consideration on Saturday.

Alizee is accompanied in the Queen of the Turf by Pohutukawa who is expected to benefit from blinkers going back on and a return to Randwick. “There is a case to be made for Pohutukawa in what is a target race for her.” said James Cummings.

Saturday’s opposition includes last Saturday’s G1 Doncaster Mile winner Nettoyer and the progressive Positive Peace, a winner of her past five starts.

Meanwhile, Microphone, the 2019 G1 Sires’ Produce Stakes winner and Australia’s Champion two-year-old of last season has been retired to stud.

A four-time winner in a juvenile season capped by his Sires’ win, and the first colt home when second in the G1 Golden Slipper, Microphone returned at three to win the G2 Autumn Stakes at Caulfield before finishing a gallant second in the G1 Randwick Guineas.

Regarded by his trainer James Cummings as “a clearly superior colt”, Microphone won twice down the straight at Flemington, returning to Sydney to take the G2 Skyline Stakes before finishing second to his stablemate Kiamichi in the G1 Golden Slipper.

“Microphone really was a very good, very tough colt who beat all but the winner in the Golden Sipper, and then beat her home in the Sires’,” Cummings said.

“His wins in Melbourne were very good and it was a shame to see him just fail in the Randwick Guineas where he beat home horses such as Warning who is a Victoria Derby winner and Castelvecchio who went on to win the Rosehill Guineas.

“He’ll stand alongside his sire Exceed And Excel and has everything necessary to be a worthy successor to him.”

In welcoming Microphone to Kelvinside Stud in NSW, Darley’s Australian Head of Sales Alastair Pulford described him as “a Champion colt in a stellar crop”.

“He’s superbly bred, by the world’s best sire of two-year-olds, there are Stakes winners right through his maternal family and he’s a very good-looking horse in the mould of his father,” Pulford said.