By Jay Rooney
She’s the Queen of WA racing and she could be crowned the Queen of the Australian turf, should she win the $5 million All-Star Mile at The Valley.
Arcadia Queen, the superstar mare from Perth, will be one of the leading contenders in the world’s richest mile race on Saturday March 13.
The three-time Group 1 winner’s popularity has matched her deeds on the track after she was the top vote-getter in All-Star Mile voting. She was guaranteed a start in the rich race when she polled 15,105 of a record 147,380 votes.
“It’s nice that a horse from WA can be thought of that well,” Arcadia Queen’s owner Bob Peters said.
“I was told at one stage she had three times the total votes from the whole of WA.
“That shows she didn’t just get votes from here.”
Arcadia Queen’s top 10 finish in voting also helped Living Legends, the international home of retired champion racehorses, secure a $10,000 donation from Peters.
“We are excited to get behind Arcadia Queen in the big race and grateful to Bob Peters for his generous offer,” Living Legends CEO Dr Andrew Clarke said.
“As a charitable organisation, every dollar we receive makes such a difference.”
Peters and his wife Sandra have been in racing for more than 40 years and are regarded as some of the best breeders in Australia.
Another product of their successful breeding operation, Arcadia Queen is a daughter of champion sire Pierro and top-producing broodmare Arcadia. The family is littered with stakes winners and includes Group 1 winner and reigning All-Star Mile winner Regal Power, who is a brother in blood to Arcadia Queen.
“Her grand-dam Antique ran third in the VRC Oaks but did a tendon,” Bob Peters said.
“She was the first mare I put to Redoute’s Choice and Arcadia was her first foal.”
Peters knew he had something special on his hands when Arcadia Queen won a Belmont Park maiden on debut in 2018.
“She’s the best one we’ve had for a long time,” Peters said.
Later that year, Arcadia Queen created history by becoming the first filly to win the WA Champion Fillies Stakes-WA Guineas double at Ascot since 1959.
At her next start, she etched her name into the record books as the only filly to ever win the Champion Fillies, Guineas and Group 1 Kingston Town Classic with a breathtaking victory by more than four lengths.
It prompted sectional times analysts to anoint her the best three-year-old filly in the nation at the time. It also led to her transfer to the Sydney stables of champion trainer Chris Waller the following spring and a crack at The Everest. However, Arcadia Queen finished near the tail of the field and then copped significant interference at her next start in the Golden Eagle.
“I think she ran well in the Golden Eagle when you consider she was knocked over and had to get up,” Peters said.
“Unfortunately, the adrenalin kicked in and that’s when she tore muscles over her back.
“She also had feet problems when we sent her out to spell.”
A lengthy rehabilitation program followed, with no guarantees she would make it back to the track. But after recovering from her injuries, Arcadia Queen returned for a shot at the 2020 Melbourne Spring Carnival.
And despite hoof bruising curtailing the start of her campaign, she proved her quality with Group 1 wins in the Caulfield Stakes and Mackinnon Stakes, with a brave fifth in the Ladbrokes Cox Plate in between.
Her Ladbrokes Cox Plate run, in which she stumbled and almost fell in the middle stages of the race, proved she could handle The Valley in the eyes of Peters.
Grant Williams, who trains Arcadia Queen in partnership with her wife Alana, shares the same view.
“The Cox Plate was a great run,” Grant Williams said.
“The luck wasn’t with us on the day. She’s had a couple of track gallops at The Valley and a race now, so I think any track isn’t really going to bother her.”
Returning to Melbourne for an autumn campaign, Arcadia Queen warmed up for the All-Star Mile with a fast-finishing second to Probabeel in the Futurity Stakes.
“That’s what we wanted, and she should improve in the All-Star Mile,” Peters said.
“She’s had no problems this campaign so we’re hopeful.”
It could well be two All-Star Miles in a row for the powerful team of Peters, the Williams’ and champion jockey William Pike.
They might also have some unfinished business in the Ladbrokes Cox Plate at The Valley next spring, too.
Jay Rooney heads The West Australian’s racing reporting team.