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By Ray Hickson

Stefi Magnetica, the mare who less than a year ago was winning at Orange on a Thursday, has capped her amazing rise through the ranks with a shot at the $20 million TAB Everest.

Trainer Bjorn Baker (Pic: Steve Hart)

The Bjorn Baker trained four-year-old will race in last year’s winning slot of Newgate and GPI Racing who snapped her up on the back of a slashing return in The Shorts where she finished a close second to I Am Me.

While she is a Group 1 Stradbroke Handicap winner, it’s stunning when you think she won her maiden at Wellington in July 2023 then a Benchmark 58 at Orange before embarking on a rapid rise through the grades.

Four starts after her Orange win she was nosed out in the Group 1 Surround Stakes.

“It just shows you she’s kept getting better and better, she’s just about improved every run she’s had inn the last four or five runs,’’ Baker said.

“It is exciting to be there for the connections, they’re good friends and big clients of mine.

“It’s one thing getting in but at the end of the day you really want to be competitive. I remember leaving the track last year I thought Overpass was a big chance and I came away a bit flat.”

Baker has had a very successful past year with his sprinters and he’s keen to add the TAB Everest to victories with Ozzmosis (Coolmore Classic), Overpass (The Quokka and Winterbottom Stakes) and of course Stefi Magnetica’s Stradbroke.

Overpass finished sixth behind Giga Kick in 2022 and tenth behind Think About It last year while Shades Of Rose (8th in 2022) is Baker's other Everest runner.

Plans are for Stefi Magnetica to go straight into the TAB Everest (1200m) at Royal Randwick on October 19 with a trial to keep her ticking over.

“We’ve had a remarkable 12 months in these big races and that’s where you want to be,’’ he said.

“It’s a big money race but it’s the prestige, we want to get there and we mean business. We want her peaking on the day.

“She’s got an amazing turn of foot and that’s what she showed on Saturday. She has a great racing pattern and it’s a pattern that’s well suited to Randwick.

“The best way to keep one of her main weapons, her turn of foot, intact is to give her a trial in between runs.”

It’s not lost on Baker that Newgate & GPI selected last year’s Stradbroke winner Think About It for their Everest slot a year ago.

He said there’s a huge deal of respect for Newgate boss Henry Field’s eye for a horse and hopes lightning can strike twice.

Stefi Magnetica's second in the Shorts

“Henry is a good judge, that gives me confidence, he’s the one who bought into Ozzmosis after he won his second start,’’ Baker said.

“He hasn’t got to where he is without making a lot of the right decisions along the way.”

Zac Lloyd will have his second TAB Everest ride, following his fifth on Cylinder last year, on the mare who is a $15 chance with TAB.

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