Australian champion mare Eye Keep Smiling returns from a spell to open her 2026 in the $50,000 Group 3 Make Mine Cullen (1710m).
It’s the first of three legs in Victoria’s mares’ triple crown and Eye Keep Smiling will be chasing them all.
The others are the $50,000 Group 3 Angelique at Cranbourne on January 31 and the $150,000 Group 1 Queen of the Pacific at Melton on February 14.
“She’s raring to go. She arrived on the scene very quickly and had been ready to race for about three weeks, but there wasn’t a suitable race,” McCarthy said.
Eye Keep Smiling, who won 12 of 14 starts against her own gender last year, has not raced since a fantastic third against the boys in the Group 1 Len Smith Mile at Menangle on September 7.
“It’s great to be able to target these mares’ races. We want to keep her against the mares as much as possible,” McCarthy said.
McCarthy will also unveil recent stable addition Steno at the Make Mine Cullen.
The winner of 23 races and $618,803, Steno has not raced since finishing third to Eye Keep Smiling in the Group 1 Golden Girl at Albion Park on July 19.
She was then trained and ridden by Jocelyn Young, but there were plans to get her pregnant.
Raced and bred by Diane Kelly, plans to breed Steno did not materialize, so they decided to give her another racing campaign, but based on the East Coast.
“She’s a lovely mare, I saw that first hand when racing against Eye Keep Smiling in Brisbane over the winter,” McCarthy said.
“She did really well last week. I would have liked to give her a run at Menangle this week against the mares and then come to Melbourne, but that race didn’t last.”
With McCarthy on Eye Keep Smiling from gate seven, Nathan Jack has the drive on Steno (back row, gate eight).
Eye Keep Smiling is an impressive $1.35 favorite over the well-backed Sweetnikkilou ($15 to $5) and Steno also at $5.
It’s an exciting few weeks for Eye Keep Smiling’s owner-breeder Jackie Gibson with the mare’s first foal, a colt by Bettors Delight, to be sold at the Nutrien Sydney auction in March.
The foal was born via embryo transfer so that Eye Keep Smiling could continue racing.
For full race entries, click here.
Through Adam Hamiltonfor Harness Racing Australia
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