BRISEIS ECLIPSE 

For the first time in its colourful history, the Briseis Club elected to move into racehorse ownership, taking a 50% lease in an Overshare-Miss Pasek filly owned and bred by prominent club member Ian Bell. 

With the assistance of financial support from a 12-member “Friends of Briseis” group, all of the club’s 112 members will have a share in this horse which will race under the name of Briseis Eclipse.
 
The filly has just completed a three-month restorative sojourn at Ian’s Sutherland’s Creek property after being broken-in South Australian-style by the highly-respected horsewoman Kate Halliday.
 
Now the serious stuff starts. After Christmas, Briseis Eclipse will be transferred to trainer Paul Preusker’s 44-acre rural complex at McKenzie Creek, near Horsham, where she will take the next steps towards hopefully becoming a successful racehorse. Who knows?

Paul Preusker, aided by his partner and spokeswoman, the former talented jockey Holly McKechnie, has a lot to recommend him as an astute trainer – including a supreme vote of confidence from Ian Bell. His record speaks for itself.

 Paul took up training in 1995.  Since then, the various horses in his stables along the journey have had a combined total of 4620 starts – for 579 wins and 998 placings. His best performer was the 2019 Adelaide Cup winner Surprise Baby who went on to win the Bart Cummings Classic before finishing fifth in the Melbourne Cup. Preusker also trained Lunar Fox to win the 2021 Group 1 Australia Guineas. More recently, his very handy galloper Captain Envious snared the $500,000 Ballarat Cup. Briseis Eclipse’s progress will be monitored over the holiday period and updates will be circulated to members. So far so good!