Who needs Snoop Dogg when you have Jenni on the block!

If there was a “Chickenman” in Melbourne last week, it had to be shorter odds than Treasurethe Moment in the Feehan that it was Snoop Dogg - indeed he was “everywhere.”

Roosting goals at The GG, gigging at The Espy, even fake Doggs in cheap stretch limos took to Chapel Street. 

3AW’s popular “Rumour File” suggested Snoop was a lock at The Valley for Manikato Stakes night - yes work had been done but alas Dogg was instead spotted at Ms Collins in the city Friday night before his grand final gig Saturday.

The grass might be greener and shorter there than The Valley (who ended up getting a Melbourne DJ called Joel Fletcher off the bench for Snoop,) but more importantly they got Jenni on the block, on song for free, and absolutely smoking!

Talk about “Drop It Like It’s Hot!”

That’s Pride Of Jenni, the former Australian racehorse of the year, retired a few times, been a bleeder, written off almost like Lachie Neale, sometimes as polarising as Bailey Smith. 

So with no appearance fee, no attached exorbitant riders, apart from Declan Bates being back on of course, she then turns The Valley into a mosh pit that only Snoop could crave. Da Da Da Da Da!

Who needed Snoop’s bitches, pimps, cribs and whatever that all means when Pride Of Jenni just goes out without fanfare and does Jenni things, reducing grown professionals to incredulous blubberers and night time punters and fans into a raucous cheer squad. 

Even Dec Bates heard them, first time in one of his Jenni races, but that is as much as her, as is  The Valley cauldron. Some wonder that may be lost in the track rejig. Only another Jenni could provide that answer, and could she????? 

They ran a Group 1 race a half hour later and sure winner Charm Stone got respectful applause and Blake Shinn a few birthday calls, but that moment when Jenni exploded in the Feehan, was the stuff of real theatre, the sort of performance rare in that a horse like Jenni transcends the game from mere gambling (responsibly, of course) to a “you had to be there” or at least wish you were moment.

Remember she was racing Treasurethe Moment, who was on a gaggle of nine straight wins, four at the Charm Stone like elite Group I level, the market rated her a $1.5 chance, Jenni, returning from the wilderness (again), as much as $4.

Again Jenni ripped up the script, and with it there were standing and dancing ovations.

It’s easy to forget such moments, as racing quickly moves on to the next race, the next race day, footy finals even, but this was another moment to be treasured for the sport and Jenni.

Every so often racing naval gazes itself and comes up with the usual talking points about engaging with a younger audience (plus enriching the barnacled on) and all the fatuous babble that associates itself with that.

Pride Of Jenni is an enduring vaudeville show. She is eight, proud owner Tony Ottobre wanted her to become a mum this spring, had booked her in for a speed date with I Am Invincible. Jenni said no, not ready yet, and became the oldest winner (since Makybe Diva) of a Group 1 or 2 race in the last two decades.

When a day (or night) at the races needs more than a hero to get you through the gates, it doesn’t need Snoop Dogg, it needs a Pride of Jenni, one of those horses  than inspires affection, adulation, a hint of X-factor, disaster or triumph lurching, never knowing what you are truly going to get, but more often than not, it’s going to be some sort of show.

And now we know this is not another farewell tour. 

Sydney’s racing gurus are hammering their new spring toy - The Everest - and the marketing this year is claiming a severe outbreak of “FOME” - or Fear Of Missing The Everest - it’s gripping Sydney and clinics needed for treatment of this rare racing ailment they say. It seems to be working - those addicted have boosted sales by 82 percent for the cure of a ticket.

It runs October 18 at Randwick, the same day as the historical Caulfield Cup, but on the same Everest card is the $5m King Charles III, a race next earmarked for Pride Of Jenni.

Sydney already has its global star in Ka Ying Rising headlining the act(ion) over from Hong Kong, but surely the fear of missing out on Jenni, builds a support act like no other. Sweet Caroline will never sound so sweet. And you don’t need Neil Diamond orchestrating anything when you’ve got Ka Ying and Jenni.

Ciaron Maher, who had the sort of hair that lent to his stable brand logo when he first got Jenni, almost channeled Chris Waller in teary awe(some) amazement on Friday night. 

There was due deference to "the team” - Jack Turnbull, Sammy Waters and of course Tony Ottobre - for “the courage” to keep Jenni going, something that hasn’t come without much scrutiny.

Not that the former apprentice jockey, who never rode a winner, became a strapper at Lindsay Park and led in a Caulfield Cup winner (Bush Win in 1974), would worry about the slings and arrows carried as he has openly embraced the memory of his daughter in racing the band of Jenni horses with wife Lyn (absent on holidays in Europe Friday) and son Michael (wearing the now ubiquitous sky blue and purple diamond) coloured socks at The Valley.

It is fair to say Ottobre is not one to suffer fools. A social media ban was an easy step to eradicate “the haters” who didn’t believe his only interest was in his horse and not taking any risks: “I know her better than anyone else, everyone else can shove their opinion up their arse, I don’t listen to fuckwits.”

So it was with some reserved satisfaction that Ottobre left his call on Jenni Friday night to “she is just a champion”, without chest beating and finger pointing, just treasuring the moments like this that keep surfacing.

The winning team (Racing Photos)

But he and many others already knew that. Sure the 11 wins, the nearly $11m in stakes, sits alongside the form sheet but it has always been more what Jenni means to the Ottobre family and what she does for racing in general.

When he went into the successful business of making LED brake lights for automobiles that gave him the wherewithal to come back to building a racing Jenni stable - thankfully Pride of Jenni only came with an accelerator. (Others may not have needed brakes, but then that is racing.)

And there’s the punt too, and Ottobre jokes that the TAB bought him the penthouse in the new Valley Trackside House, where he can soon watch the redevelopment and listen to front runners called as “the next Pride Of Jenni."

But right now, he knows there is only one, he and the family are richer in many ways for it, racing though, always looking for stories to be told, should keep sharing hers, hoping for many more chapters, and leaving Snoop Dogg to what he does best - elsewhere. 

Ciaron, Jenni, Sammy and Tony (Racing Photos)