EMOTIONS ALL ROUND AS "SHENANIGANS" MAKES IT !10
- John Curtis
- 57 minutes ago
- 2 min read
The husband and wife trainers arrived in Brisbane this morning after an overnight float trip from Hawkesbury with their Queensland Oaks hopeful Sheeza Diva, and watched on their phones as $31 chance Lady Shenanigans won his 10th race.
Purchased online for only $1750 as an unraced three-year-old in April 2021 (he had fetched $300,000 as a yearling), the unusually-named Lady Shenanigans is a gelding and rising 10 years of age.
In a tight finish which wasn’t far off being a triple dead-heat, Team Kearney’s ageless warrior edged out Divine Vicky ($4.40) and $3.30 favorite Light Infantry in the Elite Sand & Soil 5YO & Up Benchmark 64 Handicap (1100m).
“Mitch and I were very emotional,” Desiree Kearney said from Eagle Farm, where Sheeza Diva is stabled ahead of Saturday’s $700,000 Group 1 Oaks (2200m) there.
“We weren’t sure if Lady Shenanigans was going to win another race, but he’s done it.
“That was a fantastic thrill. He’s just an old warhorse and very special to us.
“Mitch was confident he had won, and I thought maybe he has dead-heated.”
Whilst the Zoustar gelding didn’t race for a leading Sydney stable and was put up for sale online, Team Kearney has now won races with him at seven different tracks, including three at home, two at Bathurst and one at Royal Randwick.
“The only problem we have had with him is foot abscesses,” Desiree Kearney said.
“He loves living in a yard, but all with the recent wet weather we have kept him in a stable.”
Desiree Kearney says she and her husband have done a few different things with Lady Shenanigans to keep him happy.
“He hates going around in circles (on a walker), so we hand walk him all the time.
“We work him early at Hawkesbury, and take him out in the middle of the day for a pick of grass.
“It must be working as he showed plenty of grit to win today.”
Lady Shenanigans was saddled up by Mrs Kearney’s brother Will Brewer and the couple’s son Jack for his 91st start.
It took him 12 starts to win his first race (at Newcastle’s Beaumont track on January 10, 2022), and he since won at Quirindi, Gilgandra and Taree as well as the aforementioned tracks.
The Kearneys own Lady Shenanigans themselves, and his 10 wins and 21 placings have earned just over $386,000.
As for retirement, that definitely isn’t on the radar after today’s success.
“He will tell us when it’s time,” Mrs Kearney said. “When that happens, we’ll stop straight away with him.
“But because he loves wet tracks (nine of his 10 wins have been on soft and heavy ground), we’ll try to find another suitable race whilst ever the weather remains the way it is at present.”
