Jeune (29 March 1989 – 4 January 2006) was a British

Thoroughbred The Thoroughbred is a horse breed best known for its use in horse racing. Although the word ''thoroughbred'' is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thoroughbred breed. Thoroughbreds are ...

racehorse Horse racing is an equestrian performance sport, typically involving two or more horses ridden by jockeys (or sometimes driven without riders) over a set distance for competition. It is one of the most ancient of all sports, as its basic pr ...

who raced in England and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

and is best known for winning the prestigious

Melbourne Cup The Melbourne Cup is a Thoroughbred horse race held in Melbourne, Australia. It is a 3200-metre race for three-year-olds and over, conducted by the Victoria Racing Club on the Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne, Victoria as part of the Melb ...

in 1994. He was a muscular chestnut stallion who sometimes raced in

pacifiers A pacifier is a rubber, plastic, or silicone nipple substitute given to an infant to suckle upon between feedings to quiet its distress by satisfying the need to suck when it does not need to eat. Pacifiers normally have three parts: an elongate ...

. He had an aversion towards wet ground and was most effective on ground which was at least dead.

European career

Reasonably well-bred and bred for stamina, Jeune was by

Kalaglow Kalaglow (1978–1994) was an Irish-bred, British-trained Thoroughbred race horse. In a career which lasted from August 1980 until October 1982 he ran fourteen times and won ten races. He is most notable for his performances in 1982 when he ...

out of Youthful, by Green Dancer. He began his racing career in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

, becoming a Group Two winner over a mile and a half, as well as running several good placings in English middle-distance races of the second rank. His owner, Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, sent him to

at the end of his 4-year-old season, where he was trained by David Hayes.

Australian career

Jeune established himself as a top-class performer in Australia with his victory in the

Underwood Stakes The Underwood Stakes is a Melbourne Racing Club Group 1 Thoroughbred horse race, run over 1800 metres under weight-for-age conditions, held at Caulfield Racecourse, Melbourne, Australia in late September each year. Total prize money for the ra ...

(1800 metres) at Caulfield in the early part of the spring. Later that same preparation, he was runner-up in the

Caulfield Stakes The Might and Power, registered as the Caulfield Stakes is a Melbourne Racing Club Group 1 Thoroughbred horse race run under weight-for-age conditions, for three-year-olds and upwards, run over a distance of 2,000 metres at Caulfield Racecourse ...

and the

Mackinnon Stakes The VRC Champions Stakes, registered as the ''LKS Mackinnon Stakes'', is a Victoria Racing Club Group 1 Thoroughbred horse race run under Weight for Age conditions over a distance of 2000 metres at Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne, Australia on ...

. 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 odds of 16/1 due to doubts about whether he would run the distance. He won by 2 lengths, while favoured

Caulfield Cup The Caulfield Cup is a Melbourne Racing Club Group 1 Thoroughbred horse race held under handicap conditions, although the Melbourne Racing Club is in the process of turning the race into weight for age (WFA) conditions. This is for all horses ...

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 sprinters. He also won the Queen Elizabeth Stakes (2000 metres) to finish that campaign. However, in between time, Jeune developed the tendency of running second in major races. One of these efforts a close second to champion sprinter Schillaci in the Futurity Stakes over 1400 metres. He also lost the

Australian Cup The Australian Cup is a Victoria Racing Club Group 1 Thoroughbred horse race for horses three years old and older, held under Weight for Age conditions, over a distance of 2000 metres, at Flemington Racecourse, Melbourne, Australia in March duri ...

at Flemington to the Western Australian mare Starstruck, and the

Rawson Stakes The Ranvet Stakes is an Australian Turf Club Group 1 Weight for Age Thoroughbred horse race for three-year-olds and older over a distance of 2,000 metres, held at Rosehill Gardens Racecourse in Sydney, Australia in March. Total prize money is A$7 ...

and

The BMW H E Tancred Stakes is an Australian Turf Club Group 1 Weight for Age Thoroughbred horse race for horses three years old and older, run over 2,400 metres at Rosehill Gardens Racecourse in Sydney, Australia. The prize money for the event is A$1,5 ...

at Rosehill to front-runner Stony Bay. Jeune raced on as a 6-year-old, and despite an early-season victory over Mahogany in the

Craiglee Stakes The Makybe Diva Stakes, previously called the Craiglee Stakes, is a Victoria Racing Club Group 1 Thoroughbred horse race at Weight for age conditions for three year olds and older, over a distance of 1,600 metres held at Flemington Racecourse i ...

(1600 metres) at Flemington, he thereafter lost form, failing in several major races. In the end, Jeune's overall racing record in Australia and England stood at 10 wins and 17 placing from 42 starts, and nearly A$3million in prizemoney.

Stud record

Jeune began his stud career at Hayes' Lindsay Park property in

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest o ...

before transferring to Collingrove Stud in

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

in 2004. Chief among Jeune's successful offspring was the ill-fated 2003

winner Mummify and On A Jeune, who ran second in the

. He also sired Jeune Mark (so named because he closely resembled his sire), who won over $200,000 in prizes. Jeune Mark was made famous after saving his owner's life in the 2009

Black Saturday bushfires The Black Saturday bushfires were a series of bushfires that either ignited or were already burning across the Australian state of Victoria on and around Saturday, 7 February 2009, and were among Australia's all-time worst bushfire disasters. T ...

in Victoria. Despite his very good race record and ability to sire good progeny, Jeune was not the most commercial of stallions in Australia. The quality of mares he attracted in South Australia was only moderate and did not match those enjoyed by the more fashionable overseas shuttle stallions and speed-oriented locals, with whom he was competing. Nevertheless, over 5% of his runners won stakes races. On the morning of 4 January 2006, Jeune was found dead in his paddock at Collingrove Stud from an apparent heart failure.

References

{{Reflist
Jeune's pedigree and partial racing stats

Jeune Pedigree

European career

Australian career

Stud record

References

See also