Icelady & Mazu make Maurice’s magic day

A Group 2 double by his 36th stakeswinner Icelady and $11 million earner Mazu headlined a $1 million+ day in Melbourne and Sydney that has catapulted Maurice into the No. 3 spot, just behind I Am Invincible & The Autumn Sun, on the Australian General Sires’ Premiership.

Runner-up finishes by Cosmic Crusader (2nd, Sir Rupert Clarke S. G1) & Matcha Latte (2nd, Bill Ritchie Handicap G3), and a third straight city win by the promising Emperor Tzu underlined the message that Maurice is well-armed for a serious assault on Spring and indeed, the season’s, major racing.

The Ciaron Maher-trained Icelady lined up in the $300,000 MRC Thousand Guineas Prelude 1400m G2 as a maiden, after showing good ability in three starts at two, including a Group 3 second in Adelaide. 

Saturday was her first try at Caulfield, but she bounced out confidently from gate 7 to take up the running and settle sweetly in front before kicking clear of her stablemate Saintly Dancer to score by almost a length in better-than-standard time of 1:23.26. 

Icelady all the way!

A Ciaron Maher quinella in the Thousand Guineas Prelude 🥇🥈y@Brown_ethan8 @cmaherracing pic.twitter.com/nlfRSr517W

— 7HorseRacing 🐎 (@7horseracing) September 19, 2026

Jockey Ethan Brown said, “She’s a nice filly, got a good racing style. She put herself up on speed over the shorter 1200 last start, so we were keen to make use of her barrier speed and control the race. The rail out 10 [metres] probably assisted us a bit, but she fended off the second horse well, it was a tough effort.”

Icelady is nominated for both the Flight S. G1 at Randwick on 3 October and the Thousand Guineas G1 at Caulfield two weeks later.

Bred by Arrowfield, she is the first foal of Lady Patricia (by Snitzel), a winning full sister of multiple Group winner Spill The Beans, and three-quarter sister of dual Group 1 winner Kenedna & current stakeswinner Matusalem – all out of the wonderful, now-retired Arrowfield broodmare Miss Dodwell.

The combination of Maurice with Redoute’s Choice has produced 8 stakeswinners and 10 other stakes performers from 101 runners.

Icelady was offered on behalf of Arrowfield by Glenn Lee Thoroughbreds at Inglis Premier and purchased for $130,000 by Ciaron Maher & lead owner Thompson Creek Thoroughbreds. Her 2YO sister was an $80,000 buy for John Wheeler from Glenn Lee at this year’s Inglis Premier Sale, and she is followed by a Pierro colt. Lady Patricia visits Maurice again this Spring.  

Mazu became Maurice’s 4th worldwide stakeswinner back in October 2021. Five years later he is the leading earner on Maurice’s record, with $11.4 million prizemoney, and still very competitive in Group company, as he demonstrated with a defiant, front-running victory in Saturday’s $1 million ATC The Shorts 1100m G2.

MAZU LEADS ALL THE WAY ❤️

What a warrior he is! A fifth win in The Shorts for Joe Pride 👏@RachelK11 @PrideRacing @TripleCrownSynd pic.twitter.com/9dYcu2PQ68

— 7HorseRacing 🐎 (@7horseracing) September 19, 2026

Mazu’s jockey Rachel King said, “They should never forget about him. He’s so honest…Even though he gives us hell before the race, he really wants to be there. He doesn’t know how old he is and don’t tell him.”

Bred by Marc & Lindy De Stoop’s Parsons Creek Farm, Mazu and his Group 1-winning half-sister Headway are the best of five winners left by Flying Spur’s Group-placed daughter Chatelaine before her death last year. 

A $180,000 purchase by Triple Crown Syndications from the Parsons Creek draft at the 2020 Inglis Classic Sale, Mazu has given his all across 7 seasons and 47 starts for 11 wins, including the Doomben 10,000 G1, and 13 placings, one of them a third in Giga Kick’s Everest.  

As Joe Pride, who has trained him since 2024, says, “He’s an old marvel, he’d only won one race three times for me, the Hall Mark, since he’s been under my care, so it’s nice of him to win a different race, and a million-dollar race, so pretty happy with that!”