Papal Miss just keeps turning up

By Glenn Davis

They don’t come much tougher than Deagon mare Papal Miss.

Papal Miss - a Sean Cormack mount - will line up for her 89th start in the Benchmark 65 Handicap over 2450 metres on Tuesday at Beaudesert. 

The rising eight-year-old is owned by her trainer Vishan Venkaya, who has coaxed her to seven wins with her career earnings just shy of $200,000.

Papal Miss has shown she’s as tough as teak having started 21 times since the start of the year.

Unfortunately, she has picked up the major share of the prizemoney just once at Warwick on April 28.

Papal Miss was a 50th birthday present for Venkaya after one of his Melbourne owners, James Brownley, bought her online for a paltry $900.

“I trained her when her previous owner decided to sell her and she was supposed to go to Vanuatu,” Venkaya said.

“She went to a trainer on the Sunshine Coast, but he couldn’t get her to go onto the track, so she was bought by one of my Melbourne owners and given to me as a 50th birthday present.

“She’s a very difficult horse to train and I’ve got to saddle her at the stables before taking her across the road to work at Deagon.”

Papal Miss is coming off a last start fourth to the William Kropp-trained Trusty Bandit over 1900 metres on a heavy track at Kilcoy on June 30.

“I thought she should have won, but she got too far back early on and you can’t afford to do that at Kilcoy,” he said.

“I love this mare and I think she’ll be very hard to beat at this distance as she’ll run 3200 metres.”

The Mauritius-born Venkaya took up training three years ago after he ended his career in the saddle.

He rode a Group 1-winner in Mauritius, but battled for rides when he first came to Australia to ride.

Venkaya held a dual-licence for a while before taking up the opportunity to train full-time.

He now has a small team of seven in work at Deagon, on Brisbane’s northside, and dreams of one day training a Group 1 winner.

“It was always my dream to start training when I finished riding,” Venkaya said.