Sheza Alibi is a bay mare foaled in Queensland on 14 September 2022, bred by long-time hobby breeders Fred and Desley Monsour. She is by Saxon Warrior, the son of Japanese champion Deep Impact who won both the Racing Post Trophy and the 2,000 Guineas over a mile. Her dam, Sheza Gypsy, was a six-time country winner by Shaft and a half-sister to Listed Canberra Guineas winner Rom Baro.

The mating was suggested by bloodstock adviser Verna Metcalfe. Sheza Gypsy was a narrow mare, so Metcalfe selected Saxon Warrior to contribute muscle and scope. The choice was made to produce a racehorse rather than a fashionable sales yearling, at a time when Australian breeders were already losing interest in the European shuttle stallion. Sheza Alibi ultimately became Saxon Warrior’s first Southern Hemisphere Group 1 winner.

The Monsours had bred from this female family for several generations, but black type had been relatively scarce. Sheza Alibi emerged after decades of small-scale breeding as comfortably its finest performer. Although she was never the dominant filly in her paddock, Metcalfe remembered that whenever the young horses galloped, Sheza Alibi would be the first one up the hill.

As the Monsours reduced their breeding interests, Sheza Alibi was offered by Middlebrook Valley Lodge as Lot 264 in the 2023 Inglis Digital June Early Sale. Central Queensland grazier Fred Noffke bought her as a weanling for A$10,000.

Noffke had been attracted by the unfamiliar Japanese sire line, the consistency of the female family and a photograph of the filly in the online catalogue. Before bidding, he telephoned Verna Metcalfe, who advised him that Sheza Alibi was unlikely to look like a conventional sales horse because she was not large or heavily built, but that she was athletic and appeared made to race. Noffke subsequently raised her on his cattle property near Rolleston.

Her value changed almost beyond recognition after her Group 1 breakthrough. Following the Doncaster Mile, Noffke reportedly rejected an offer exceeding A$6 million, explaining that the experience she had given him could not simply be replaced.

Sheza Alibi began in regional Queensland, finishing second on debut at Rockhampton in April 2025 before winning a 1200-metre maiden there eleven days later. She then travelled north and defeated a strong favourite in the A$100,000 QTIS Two-Year-Old Classic at Townsville.

Her first metropolitan appearance came in the Listed Tattersall’s Stakes at Eagle Farm. Starting at long odds, she finished second to Autumn Boy, who later won the Caulfield Guineas. That performance demonstrated that her regional form could translate to stronger company and prompted the decision to send her south.

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