Twenty-five years after Cup glory, Ethereal is still queen of the paddock

This Saturday will mark a quarter of a century since Ethereal’s win in the Gr.1 Caulfield Cup (2400m), and the blue hen is still enjoying life at Pencarrow Stud, near Cambridge, at the ripe old age of 29.

Bred by Pencarrow Stud principals Sir Peter and the late Philip Vela, Ethereal was by American-bred stallion Rhythm and out of the farm’s globetrotting mare Romanee Conti, who had won stakes races in New Zealand, Australia and Hong Kong, including the 1992 Gr.3 Hong Kong International Cup (1800m).

There was plenty of intrigue surrounding Ethereal from a young age and she was retained by the Velas and entrusted to the care of trainer Sheila Laxon.

“We always intended to keep her,” Pencarrow’s long-serving stud manager Leon Casey said. “We only ever sold a small number of fillies in those days. She was out of Romanee Conti, who had won a Hong Kong Cup, so she was quite a well-regarded filly. Sheila broke her in and I don’t think she ever gave her back.”

Ethereal made her debut at Taupo at the start of her three-year-old season, but it took her six months and a further five starts to breakthrough for her maiden win. She strung together two further wins in quick succession before showing her true colours in Brisbane over the Queensland Winter Carnival, winning both the Gr.1 Queensland Oaks (2400m) and Listed Doomben Roses (2020m).

She returned to Australia as a spring four-year-old following two lead-up runs in New Zealand, which included a third placing in the Listed Matamata Cup (1600m). Ethereal filled the same position in her first run back in Australia in the Gr.1 Yalumba Stakes (2000m), now known as the Might and Power Stakes, before sealing an historic Caulfield-Melbourne Cup double.

Casey recalls watching her Caulfield Cup heroics and the anxious aftermath as she survived a protest following her tight finish with Sky Heights.

“It was a very close finish,” he said. “There was a protest, which seemed to take forever, but she held it.”

Her fairytale continued when winning the Gr.1 Melbourne Cup (3200m) a few weeks later, with Laxon becoming the first female trainer to win the coveted race.

“That is what you dream about,” Casey said.

Ethereal would go on to have four further starts and ended her career on a high when winning the Gr.1 The BMW (2400m), now known as the Tancred Stakes, at Rosehill.

“We retired her as a four-year-old after she won what was the BMW then,” Casey said.

“There was some controversy in the Melbourne Cup when the favourite, Universal Prince, was scratched. The connections of Universal Prince always felt that they could have beaten her in the Cup, and they had a rematch in the BMW, and it looked like he had it won and then Ethereal bombed them late.

“By that stage, she had done everything, and even though she was lightly raced, she had really matured and was taking a lot more training and needing a lot more racing to keep fit. It seemed like a good time to retire her and start her broodmare career.

“She only ran four times at a mile-and-a-half or further, and all of those were Group One races, and she won all of them.”

While she carved her name into racing history, Ethereal proved equally as effective as a broodmare and has left a lasting legacy at Pencarrow Stud.

“A lot of her daughters have carried her ability, and we are still breeding from quite a number of the wider family,” Casey said. “We are probably still breeding from 15 or 16 of the wider family and seven or eight direct descendants of Ethereal. The current form in the family is very strong.”

Ethereal’s progeny includes Gr.1 New Zealand Derby (2400m) placegetter Uberalles, the grandam of Group One performer Tomodachi; Sopra Tutto, the dam of Group One performers Supera and Eleonora; stakes winner Seraphim; Group Three performers Duquesa and Imperium; and Empyrean, the dam of stakes winner Pericles.

“We only just retired Tomodachi this year, who is her great-granddaughter, and she has just been scanned in foal to Sword of State,” Casey said. “That gives you an idea of the number of generations and spread of it all.”

Ethereal was retired from broodmare duties after she missed to fellow Caulfield Cup winner Mongolian Khan in 2017, and she has since enjoyed the life of luxury at the picturesque Pencarrow Stud.

“Her youngest daughter (Empyrean) was born in 2014, and she has left a stakes winner herself, and she was her last live produce,” Casey said.

While a great mother, Casey said Ethereal’s maternal instincts didn’t extend past her own progeny, so she has enjoyed the quiet life for the last 12 years.

“She is just in with another mare that we raced, and they keep an eye on things,” Casey said. “They truly are retired, they don’t have a side job or anything.

“A few of the mares that are retired are nannies and do other things, but we haven’t used her as a nanny. She is pretty competitive and pretty territorial. Sometimes those really good mares are good with their foals, but they are not that interested in the neighbourhood kids.”

While Ethereal will be enjoying a pick of grass in her paddock on Saturday, racing fans in Melbourne will be remembering her deeds when the race carrying her name, the Gr.3 Ethereal Stakes (2000m), is run, just three races before her former trainer, Sheila Laxon, bids to win her second Caulfield Cup with Knight’s Choice, winner of the 2024 Melbourne Cup.