By Trevor Marshallsea
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A little mare who was too unfashionable for a yearling sale and who’s recovered from an injury you’d want like a hole in the head will chase top-tier glory while seeking to extend a hot record for females in the Moir Stakes (Gr 1, 1000m) this Saturday.
Niance (Swiss Ace) might also be on trial for a slot in the $20 million The Everest (Gr 1, 1200m) when she contests a mouth-watering edition of the Moir, striving to give Grahame Begg his second success in the race, and his first in 22 years.
Bred by Gerry Harvey’s New Zealand holdings, and majority sold to syndicators Ace Bloodstock, Niance returns to racing looking to continue her rise through three recent stakes wins with an elite success that would crown her value as a broodmare.
The lightly-raced six-year-old is from the Grahame Begg stable, which is a major tick in itself these days, with the Cranbourne trainer being one of the form conditioners in the country at present.
Begg, who has some 95 horses on his books, completed 2024-25 with 69 winners at the keen strike rate of 26.4 per cent, with ten stakes victories. It was 37 more winners than in his previous season, with only 56 more starters.
This season (as of Wednesday), seven of his 20 runners have won – and four of his past six – including last Saturday’s Cockram Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m) scorer Magic Time (Hellbent), already a Group 1-winning mare from the stable.
“Good management I guess,” Begg quipped, when asked for a reason. “But it is nice to have it all come together.”
Having prepared Niance for her first-up test with two jump-outs and a barrier trial, Begg is confident she can continue a trajectory that in little more than a year has taken her through four wins, from mares’ Benchmark 78 grade to Group 3 success.
He’d be a little more confident had she not been cruelled at the barrier draw for what looks a classic edition of the Moir, but says Niance is ready to acquit herself well.
“There were only two marbles left at the barrier draw when her name came up – 12 and 13,” he said with a wry laugh. “We knew we were up against it.”
Still, Niance – who should jump from gate 11 once the emergency comes out – was a $4.40 equal favourite on Wednesday for her first trip to Moonee Valley, alongside last-start course and distance winner Baraqiel (Snitzel).
“I’m reasonably confident she’ll run very well for us,” Begg told ANZ News.
“The Valley is a new thing for her, but there’s abundant speed in the race. She’s just going to need a bit of luck from the barrier draw. She’ll probably just be a little bit off them in the run.
“It’s a very good field – they don’t give away Group 1s – but she’s got a great fresh record, and that’ll stand her in good stead,” Begg said of the mare who’s won four from four first-up.
“She’s certainly got to take the next step, but every time we’ve raised the bar with her, she’s put her hand up. Plus, she’s good at 1000 metres.”
The possibility of rain is forecast for Thursday, and with three wins from five starts on soft going, Begg believes his mare will be in the race up to her ears.
Coincidentally, that’s where the troubles emerged that put a check on her meteoric progress, and that have helped to make her a lightly-raced six-year-old, with seven wins from 11 starts.
Having transferred to Begg after four New Zealand runs yielding one win on debut in maiden class, Niance showed her quality in her first preparation with three wins out of four. She started with a 1.5 length win at Pakenham – still her only run over 1000 metres – before two Melbourne city victories.
She returned last spring to enhance her value with her first two black type successes – in Caulfield’s Alinghi Stakes (Listed, 1100m) and How Now Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m). In the latter, she relegated to the minor placings two mares who’ve subsequently shone: with the second-placed She’s Bulletproof (Shooting To Win) going on to run second in the Oakleigh Plate (Gr 1, 1100m), while the third-placed Miss Roumbini (Zoustar) won a $1 million race on Magic Millions day and was second last Saturday in Magic Time’s Cockram Stakes.
Begg was aiming for the Oakleigh Plate with Niance as well when disaster and mystery struck. Niance was found in her spelling paddock with a fractured skull – right between the ears – which required a piece of bone to be removed.
“A week before she was due to come back in to get ready for the Oakleigh Plate, she was found in her paddock with big swelling between her ears, on the poll,” Begg said.
“No one saw her do it. She could have done it in the shelter in the paddock, or on a fence post – who knows?
“Some bone had become detached, the wound wouldn’t heal, the bone was trying to bust out of the skin, muck was oozing out – it wasn’t pretty.
“We had to go in and do surgery, and that was her autumn done.”
Niance still came back in late May – for one race only – and duly added her third stakes win, again at Caulfield in the Bel Esprit Stakes (Listed, 1100m).
“We gave her just one run,” Begg said. “We were conscious of trying to have her ready to go in the spring, and it’s very hard giving horses 12 months off, from spring to spring. It was good to have her up to the speed of going to the races, then having another little back off, and then getting ready again.
“Now, we’re very happy with her condition. She looks fantastic – she’s got a summer coat, and she looks buffed.”
A late October foal, Niance didn’t look so appealing as a youngster, and so didn’t make it to a yearling sale.
On the small side, she’s by Swiss Ace (Secret Savings), who’s standing at Harvey’s Waikato farm Westbury Stud this season for $5,000 (plus GST), having sired 22 stakes winners from 591 starters, at 3.7 per cent.
Niance’s dam, Cosmetic, was by moderate American sire Red Giant (Giant’s Causeway), and had two starts, in New Zealand, for a tenth and a 13th.
“Niance isn’t very big – you wouldn’t have bought her at a yearling sale,” Begg said. “Plus I don’t think she would’ve been commercial enough, by Swiss Ace out of a Red Giant mare.”
Still, after a win from her first four starts – the last a tenth in Te Rapa’s Mufhasa Stakes (Listed, 1400m) which convinced Begg shorter trips were warranted – Ace Bloodstock bought a majority share and syndicated her to 13 owners. Octogenarian Harvey stayed in but, with his hundreds of horses, may have lost track as to what extent, as his Baramul stud manager Luke McDonald discovered.
“Gerry apparently said to Luke, ‘Hey why isn’t Niance racing in my colours?’” Begg said. “Luke said, ‘Because you sold her, boss!’”
Those colours – red with a white Ace bloodstock logo with red and white striped sleeves and a white cap – are eerily and coincidentally similar to Begg’s first Moir Stakes winner.
Our Egyptian Raine (Desert Sun), who won a New Zealand Group 1 and seven other stakes races but was just as famous for no less than eight top-tier seconds, carried red with a white Maltese cross, plus red and white striped sleeves and a white cap.
That mare won the Moir in 2003 when it used to be run on Cox Plate Day and, alas for her, it was still ten years off being upgraded from a Group 2 to a Group 1.
She’s one of 12 females to win the race in its past 23 editions, but the gender bias is more stark in recent years, with females winning five of the past eight.
“Females have been more than competitive in this race. They get in very well under the conditions at weight-for-age, especially in the early spring,” said Begg. “I hope that continues on Saturday.”
Niance, with Jordan Childs aboard, faces some tough competition in the Moir, especially from the females who’ll comprise at least six of the 15 starters in the breakneck sprint.
Gun New Zealander Alabama Lass (Alabama Express) is a $5 chance, VRC Lightning Stakes (Gr 1, 1000m) winner Skybird (Exosphere) is at $8, while Team McEvoy’s Arabian Summer (Too Darn Hot) could be a smokey at $26.
Aside from those, Shane Nichols’ well-bred filly Esha (Extreme Choice) – who will make the race as the sole emergency after the withdrawal of Tiger Shark (Rich Enuff) – is at $6, after winning her first two starts, the latest a three-year-old handicap over this course on August 9 by 3.5 lengths. The filly, out of Nichols’ Group 1-winning mare I Am A Star (I Am Invincible) was a $900,000 Gold Coast purchase for Nichols and Kia Ora Stud, whose colours she bears.
Begg said the Manikato Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) on September 26 would be Niance’s next target. Beyond that, interest has been expressed in her from a slot holder for The Everest, to be run at Randwick on October 18.
“We have had one enquiry regarding The Everest,” Begg said. “I just said she’d be running on Saturday, then we’ll possibly run in the Manikato and work it out from there.”
As for the heights Niance might reach, Begg is cautiously optimistic. At least having missed the autumn, she hasn’t been overtaxed.
“She’s still a bit untapped really,” he said. “She’s still very lightly raced, even though she’s a six-year-old, so who knows?”
The second three-year-old filly in the wider field is star New Zealander La Dorada (Super Seth), who may be over the odds at $26..
Like Niance, she’s drawn poorly in gate 11, but at least has the filly’s weight of 50 kilograms to compensate, with apprentice Luke Cartwright to ride.
Trainer Mark Walker said La Dorada – winner of four from five including the Manawata Sires’ Produce Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) and the Karaka Million 2YO (RL, 1200m) – would improve on whatever she showed on Saturday, but was not ruling out her chances.
Walker won the race two years ago with then five-year-old sensation Imperatriz (I Am Invincible), but is also buoyed by the Moir wins of fillies Coolangatta (Written Tycoon) in 2022 and She Will Reign (Manhattan Rain) in 2017, both also under 50 kilograms.
“I’d prefer it to be 1200 metres, but she’s only got 50 kilos, and three-year-old fillies have got a pretty good record in the race,” said Walker, whose filly has had two recent jump-outs.
“She’s fit and ready to go, but there’s still quite a bit of improvement to come from her yet.
“The draw’s a bit niggly, but if they get more rain than is forecast, out wide might be the place to be.”