'She's my Enable' - wild child Aristia now making amends for Bunny Roberts

There are those who have been happy to see the back of Aristia, a filly who seems to have now eliminated some of the errors of her former wild-child ways.

Some of those involved in her preparation bear the scars of their encounters but, with her recent fine Group 1 second to Nashwa in the Nassau Stakes at Glorious Goodwood, the daughter of Starspangledbanner has very much redeemed herself in the eyes of owner Elizabeth 'Bunny' Roberts.

Through her adviser Will Edmeades, Roberts had bought Aristia for 85,000gns at Book 2 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale.

"We sent her to Jamie Magee [the Wiltshire pre-trainer] and she was very difficult - in fact almost impossible - to get under control, being naughty," she says.

"She did an enormous amount of damage at Jamie's in that I think we had two broken arms, a few damaged bits, she was just outrageous. I don't know what got into her.

"As a two-year-old we went on trying to get her absolutely spot on, which is what we did. She was learning manners, literally, she was learning how to behave properly and it took all that time to get her right. Jamie, honestly in his own words, he'd never had anything quite so difficult to work with."

From Magee's, Aristia went into the Richard Hannon stable and quickly began to prove herself, winning a maiden at last year's Greenham meeting on her debut and placing in Listed company back at Newbury a month later behind the subsequent Group 1 winner Eshaada.

Aristia chases Nashwa home in the Nassau at GoodwoodCredit: Edward Whitaker

Later in the summer, the filly would become a valuable breeding prospect with a defeat of the accomplished Alpine Star in the Listed Lyric Stakes at York.

"I had one or two nibbles of people who wanted to take her off me but I've always said no," Roberts says with feeling. "I've always been 100 per cent behind her and I believe the best is yet to come, and I use those words quite sincerely, because I think we're now absolutely right."

Her faith has clearly been vindicated. Reborn as a front-runner, Aristia very nearly landed the Group 2 Middleton Stakes on her reappearance, only to concede victory in the final few yards to Lilac Road.

She weakened in the Wolferton at Royal Ascot but forward-going tactics in the Nassau not only saw her reverse placings with Lilac Road but finish under two lengths behind a Classic winner.

"Her race at Ascot was a great disappointment but I've since found out she wasn't quite right, she hadn't got her coat through at all," Roberts reveals.

"She was the only filly in the race and the boys sort of nobbled her at the top of the hill! She ran very well in the Middleton, when she hadn't got her proper coat either, but for this last race she looked amazing, absolutely amazing. The proper Aristia turned up.

"It wasn't a surprise to me at all that she ran as well as she did. Nashwa is top-class and we were giving her 9lb, with the weight-for-age nonsense at this time of the year . . ."

Roberts, who lives in Jersey, is not always able to see Aristia run but her next assignment is only a hop, skip and jump away on the other side of the Channel for Sunday's Darley Prix Jean Romanet.

Bunny Roberts: proud owner of the reformed and talented Aristia

"I've long since organised it," she says. "Afterwards I think we're looking at the Prix de l'Opera on Arc day or perhaps finishing off the season in the EP Taylor at Woodbine. It might be an either or with those, we'll see how things go."

Patience is a byword of Roberts and her family in their racing interests. Her brother is Robert Barnett and together they owned the 1982 Oaks winner and later magnificent older racemare Time Charter.

It is a line that pervades in Barnett's runners to this day, as does that of 1995 Irish and Yorkshire Oaks victress Pure Grain, whose grandson Pure Dreamer has been progressive for the Hannon yard this season.

The Barnetts, who oversee a long-held family concern in the grain industry, sold their stud at Fair Winter Farm in Buckinghamshire in 2017, but Roberts explains that breeding remains a shared and constant interest.

She says: "We've got all of the mares at Newsells Park. There are 15 of them up there at the moment and we continue to breed, usually sell the colts and keep the fillies because they're all our own home-grown.

"We're keeping all the good families going. Best Terms is one of the best mares and topped the sale last year at [Tattersalls Book 1] Newmarket with her Sea The Stars filly [bought for 1,500,000gns by Godolphin].

"We're very fortunate in that we've got a very splendid area at Newsells. It's so wonderfully run by Julian Dollar and we've struck up a very good relationship with them. If I was to breed from Aristia, that's where she'd go."

Roberts' own Flat breeding record has been boosted by the success of Feel Glorious, who was Listed-placed in Germany for George Baker and then sold onwards to America, where she was a multiple stakes winner. A Bated Breath two-year-old full-sister named So Glorious should make her debut shortly.

"You'll see her probably in one race before next year, maybe the end of September," she says. "She's with young Tom Ward. He was a great loss to Richard Hannon, I thought, but then I think he'll be an even bigger gain in the training world. I'm quite sure he's going to go forward."

If Roberts' black silks with red sash look familiar from another era, that is because she has perhaps enjoyed an even more recognisable independent success with jumps horses.

A dynasty which has produced plenty of winners has been maintained from Fiddling The Facts, who won the Feltham Novices' Chase and placed in a heap of marquee handicap chases, falling fairly late in Bobbyjo's Grand National.

Young relatives and those out of Doncaster Listed hurdle winner Mayfair Music by the likes of Blue Bresil and Nathaniel reside at David and Juliet Minton's Mill House Stud.

"Mayfair Music is one that I bought and she's proved to be very successful in her own right," says Roberts.

"Fiddling The Facts was a great mare, she really was. She should have won that National, but unfortunately she just over-jumped Becher's Brook the second time around."

Fiddling The Facts and Mick Fitzgerald lead over the last to beat Forest Ivory in the 1997 Feltham Novices' ChaseCredit: Phil Smith/Sporting Life

The Roberts silks can also be seen on occasion in Jersey, where she serves as president of the race club. A week on Monday organisers will reach the tail of a nine-meeting run which began at Easter, and they have had to battle the dry weather prevalent everywhere.

"It's been very successful this season, thankfully, but a lot of hard work," says Roberts. "We've got a watering system and we've been using a bowser, but it has been very difficult."

As much as Aristia seems to enjoy hearing the ground rattle under her hooves, it seems distinctly unlikely that she will ever darken the door of picturesque Les Landes racecourse.

Her past misdemeanours forgiven, she is held in the highest regard by an owner who has seen one or two decent horses over the years.

"To me she's a bit like my Enable," says Roberts. "She's the same sort of stamp of her too, she's got the size and scope. She'd make a wonderful broodmare one day, but my thoughts are I'd like to race her next year."

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