Racing Future in Doubt for Mating Call

The promising racing future of South Australian star Mating Call is in doubt after a throat problem was discovered following her recent return to competition, leaving connections to decide whether the newly crowned South Australian Champion Racehorse undergoes surgery or is retired to stud. The four-year-old daughter of Brazen Beau, trained by Dan Clarken and Oopy MacGillivray, has been one of the state’s brightest emerging performers during the past 12 months, winning the Gr3 Auraria Stakes and finishing runner-up in the $1 million Gr1 Australasian Oaks before beginning her latest campaign with a fourth placing in the Gr3 Behemoth Stakes at Morphettville. Subsequent examinations identified an issue that could require tie-back surgery, and MacGillivray conceded that while the procedure may allow Mating Call to return to racing, there can be no certainty that she would reproduce the level of performance that established her among Adelaide’s leading fillies last season, according to punters.com.au. Owner and breeder Robert Hill-Smith will ultimately determine whether the mare proceeds with surgery and is prepared for an autumn comeback or whether her racecourse career ends after just 10 starts and approximately $380,000 in earnings. The timing is particularly poignant, with Mating Call only days earlier recognised as South Australia’s Champion Racehorse of the Year after a campaign highlighted by her rapid progression through the grades. Her defining victory came in the Gr3 Auraria Stakes over 1800 metres in April, when she produced an explosive finish under Emily Finnegan to book her place in the Australasian Oaks, a race Clarken had identified as her principal autumn objective. Despite being by noted sprinter Brazen Beau, connections had always been confident that the stamina influence of her High Chaparral damline would allow her to cope with middle distances, a judgement vindicated when she subsequently finished second to Panova in the Gr1 Oaks over 2000 metres. That performance appeared to establish a platform from which she could develop into one of South Australia’s most important older mares, making the throat issue particularly frustrating for a stable that had carefully managed her development. MacGillivray remains understandably reluctant to prejudge the outcome and has emphasised that Mating Call’s welfare will dictate the decision, while breeding options are already being considered should Hill-Smith elect against surgery. Either path leaves the mare with considerable residual value: as a Gr3-winning, Gr1-placed daughter of Brazen Beau she possesses obvious appeal as a broodmare, while successful surgery would preserve the possibility that one of South Australia’s most progressive performers could yet return and fulfil the promise of her outstanding three-year-old season.