Jeune - Australian Career

Australian Career

Although expectations for him were only moderate on his arrival, Jeune improved greatly in Australia. He first established himself as a top class performer with his victory in the group 1 Underwood Stakes (1800 metres) at Caulfield in the early part of the Spring. Later that same preparation, he was runner-up in both the Caulfield Stakes and the Mackinnon Stakes. In between time, he ran unplaced in the Cox Plate when hindered in the running. Jeune therefore entered the 1994 Melbourne Cup with solid, middle distance weight-for-age form. Nevertheless, he started at the attractive odds of 16/1 due to doubts about whether he would run the distance. He proved these doubts ill-founded, winning the race comfortably by 2 lengths, and finishing it off the best of all the runners. The favoured Caulfield Cup winner Paris Lane, who had narrowly beaten him home in the Mackinnon three days earlier, was second.

Jeune opened his autumn campaign by winning the much shorter group 1 C.F. Orr Stakes (1400 metres) against the sprinters. He also won the Queen Elizabeth Stakes (2000 metres) to finish that campaign. However, in between time, Jeune developed the unfortunate tendency of running second in major races. One of these efforts was very good (his close second to champion sprinter Schillaci in the Futurity Stakes over 1400 metres) but others constituted unnecessary losses to inferior opponents. They were the result of his inability to properly finish off his race by overhauling horses he had caught up to in the straight (such as when he lost the Australian Cup at Flemington to the moderate Western Australian mare Starstruck, and the Rawson Stakes and The BMW at Rosehill to the honest front-runner Stony Bay).

Jeune raced on as a 6 year old, and despite an excellent early season victory over Mahogany in the Craiglee Stakes (1600 metres) at Flemington, he therefater inexplicably lost form. He failed in several major races. In the end, Jeune's overall racing record in Australia and England stood at 10 wins and 17 placing from a total of 42 starts, and nearly A$3million in prizemoney.