Moyglare Buys 550k Frankel Filly At December Foal Sale

Lot 1063, a bay daughter of Frankel (GB)–Sunny Again (GB) (Shirocco {Ger}), caught the eye of Fiona Craig, who shelled out 550,000 gns on behalf of Moyglare Stud Farm at Tattersalls on Friday. The second-highest lot of the day so far, the Apr. 4 foal from the Mount Coote Stud draft, is a half-sister to Group 3 winner Elisa Again (GB) (Champs Elysees {GB}), stakes winner and G1 St Leger runner-up Berkshire Rocco (Fr) (Sir Percy {GB}), and the G1 Moyglare Stud S. third Sunset Shiraz (Ire) (Time Test {GB}). Bred by Mount Coote Estates, she is from the same female family as the late G1 Phoenix S. hero and Group 1 sire Zoffany (Ire). Her Sea The Stars (Ire) half-brother brought 550,000gns during the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale.

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Homeless Songs “The Most Important One” For Moyglare On ICW

Slap bang in its 60th year, Moyglare Stud has come up trumps with Homeless Songs, one of the most impressive Irish 1,000 Guineas winners of the modern era, who is on course to run in Saturday's G1 Coolmore America “Justify” Matron S. at Leopardstown.

The stud also has Irish St Leger hotpot Kyprios (Ire) Galileo (Ire), Blandford S. hope Trevaunance (Ire) (Muhaarar {GB}) and Boomerang Mile contender Just Beautiful (GB) (Pride Of Dubai {Aus}) to look forward to on Irish Champions Weekend but, according to Moyglare's Fiona Craig, Homeless Songs (Ire) (Frankel {GB}) is the one that matters most.

“Homeless Songs is the most important one and we're keeping our fingers crossed that there's enough rain so that she can run on Saturday,” Craig said on Monday. “She looks like a Dubawi (Ire)–she's quite heavy-topped and does herself very well. She is quite short-legged and, the thing is, we want her to race on next year.”

Homeless Songs has not run since that memorable Irish Guineas triumph in May with connections opting then to sidestep Royal Ascot with the Classic winner due to what they felt was unsuitably quick going. 

The prolonged dry period has been labelled as hugely frustrating by Craig, however, spirits were lifted when Dermot Weld's star filly worked well after racing at the Curragh last weekend. 

The forecast has also been kind to those in the Homeless Songs camp. Leopardstown was hit with 66mm of rain over the weekend, with the ground on Monday described as yielding, good to yielding to places. 

There is further rain forecast for the week and, provided it arrives, Craig expects Homeless Songs, a warm order at 6-4 favouritism for the Matron, to make her eagerly anticipated return at Ireland's flagship Flat meeting.

“She'd run her heart out on firm ground, she'd try like hell, but the question would be, what would we have left at the end? She's too important to do that. We have been praying for rain all summer and it's just been frustrating.”

Craig added, “She worked after racing at the Curragh last weekend. She worked seven furlongs and that went fine. Chris Hayes rode her and he was very happy. She had a bit of a blow but she hasn't run since the Irish Guineas. 

“Saffron Beach (Ire) (New Bay {GB}) will be a hell of a tough filly to try and beat but Homeless Songs likes Leopardstown and has won twice around there before. If she's in as good of form as she was in when she won the Irish Guineas, she will give everything a run.”

The Aidan O'Brien-trained Kyprios, the outstanding stayer in Europe this season, is expected to go off at prohibitively short odds in Sunday's Irish St Leger.

Craig said, “It would be brilliant if he could win on Sunday but, don't get me wrong, a filly is always going to be more important for us, which is why Homeless Songs is the one. But Eva [Maria Bucher-Haefner] couldn't be at Ascot or at Goodwood so it would be nice if she could be there to see him win.”

Kyprios has gone from strength to strength this season, winning the Gold Cup at Ascot followed by the Goodwood Cup, cementing a relatively new relationship between Moyglare and Coolmore Stud, who are joint-owners of the 4-year-old stallion prospect. 

Moyglare can also call on Jessica Harrington, Ger Lyons and Paddy Twomey on its training roster and, while Weld remains the number one, Craig revealed the new approach to be one that's working well. 

She explained, “We're feeling our way with it. Dermot is still the main trainer but he seemed to have lots of other owners so it seemed to be a good idea to have horses elsewhere. 

“The ones with Aidan are foal shares with Coolmore so Kyprios, Thoughts Of June (Ire) (Galileo) and Kiss You Later (Ire) (Galileo) are all owned 50-50. The other ones are out of newer mares and obviously it has got off to a great start.”

Not only will the stud celebrate 60 years of success this weekend, but Sunday marks the 40-year anniversary of the G1 Moyglare S., in which the operation will be represented by Harrington's Eternal Silence (War Front). 

Speaking on running plans for the rest of the team, Craig said, “It looks as though Eternal Silence will run, although we'll know for sure on Tuesday. The plan had been for Trevaunance to run in France; she will now run in the G2 Blandford S. on Sunday. Just Beautiful will run in the Boomerang on Saturday.”

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Thoughts Turn To June In Moyglare’s Milestone Year

It is a year of important milestones for Moyglare Stud, most notably the 60th anniversary of its foundation by Swiss businessman and philanthropist Walter Haefner. The 50th running of the G1 Moyglare Stud S. will also take place on Sept. 11 at the Curragh, the famed Irish racecourse and training grounds which have been the beneficiary of significant support from Eva-Maria Bucher Haefner, who took over the running of Moyglare on her father's death, at the age of 101, a decade ago in June 2012.

A passionate equestrian who took up race riding in his 50s and became the 1963 Fegentri champion amateur at the age of 53, Haefner would surely have approved of his daughter's gathering of the reins at the Irish farm and continuing, with manager Malachy Ryan and advisor Fiona Craig, very much in the spirit of his beloved enterprise. Fittingly, in the early days of this noteworthy season, Moyglare Stud has already been represented by a decent smattering of classy representatives and has a couple of potential Classic fillies to savour in the coming weeks.

One of those, Homeless Songs (Ire) (Frankel {GB}), has been ruled out of Sunday's Poule d'assai des Pouliches on account of the lively ground, and she will likely take aim at the Irish 1000 Guineas on her home track. She is trained on the Curragh by Dermot Weld, a mainstay of the Moyglare operation for decades, who, in tandem with Walter Haefner, embraced a pioneering approach to racing abroad. Their travels resulted in victory in the 1990 GI Belmont S. for the Moyglare homebred Go And Go (Ire) (Be My Guest), followed the next year by lifting the inaugural Hong Kong Bowl with Additional Risk (Ire) (Ahonoora {GB}), who became the first overseas-trained winner in Hong Kong.

Continuity is a hallmark of Moyglare Stud, and doubtless one which has aided its success over the years. Fiona Craig joined the team in 1990, the year after the purchase of GI Acorn S. winner Aptostar (Fappiano) at Fasig-Tipton's Night of the Stars Sale in Kentucky. More than three decades later she still plays a key role in the operation and is looking forward to a Classic turn for Homeless Songs, a fifth-generation descendant of Aptostar and recent winner of the G3 Ballylinch Stud 1000 Guineas Trial. The filly's dam Joailliere (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}), also trained by Weld, earned multiple group placings and won a German listed contest.

“We ran her mother on firm ground in the Guineas and she didn't run again for 10 months,” says Craig of the decision to swerve Paris on Sunday. “But Joailliere came back as a 4-year-old, and this filly is stronger than her dam. It's a long year and we'd love to race her all year and next year. She's a good filly and she deserves to run in the Guineas.”

She continues, “Mr Haefner always said 'you have to race them' and so Eva has a 6-year-old staying mare still in training.”

That mare is Search For A Song (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), one of eight black-type winners and two Group 1 winners for Moyglare's celebrated matriarch Polished Gem (Ire) (Danehill). The Irish St Leger heroine of 2019, Search For A Song appeared for the first time this season when running second to her full-brother Kyprios (Ire) in the Listed Vintage Crop S. The 4-year-old colt is one of a handful of horses Moyglare has in training with Aidan O'Brien and owned in partnership with Sue Magnier and Michael Tabor. They include the recent Cheshire Oaks winner Thoughts Of June (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), who naturally is a potential candidate for the Oaks on the first weekend of the month for which she is hopefully portentously named.

In the meantime, Kyprios and Search For A Song will appear again on the same day this Friday, but in separate races in different countries, with the latter heading to the Knavesmire for the G2 Yorkshire Cup and Kyprios to the G3 Saval Beg Levmoss S. at Leopardstown.

These siblings, too, descend from a mare bought in America, a favoured venue for the globetrotting Haefner. Their third dam is the dual Grade I winner Talking Picture (Speak John).

Craig recalls, “Walter Haefner loved American racing. He found it faster and more exciting, and that's where most of the broodmares on Moyglare came from, such as Talking Picure and Grenzen. They bought Talking Picture out of the Gluck dispersal in 1978. She came off Elmendorf Farm and was in foal to Hoist The Flag. This is the one branch of the family that is still thriving for us.”

That branch stretches through Talking Picture's daughter Trusted Partner (Affirmed), winner of the Irish 1000 Guineas in 1988. That mare's most vaunted offspring is Dress To Thrill (Ire) (Danehill), a star for Moyglare on both sides of the Atlantic when winning the GI Matriarch S. at the now-defunct Hollywood Park, as well as the G2 Sun Chariot S. at Newmarket. She was also runner-up in the G1 Moyglare Stud S. of 2001. As can often be the case in families, while Dress To Thrill excelled on the track, her lesser-performed full-sister Polished Gem outdid her in the paddocks.

“Dress To Thrill had a very bad foaling with her third foal and was always a bit on borrowed time after that,” says Craig. Dress To Thrill produced six foals and died in 2010 at the age of 11.

“But then there was Polished Gem. Kyprios was her eighth stakes winner but you would not have picked out Polished Gem. Dress To Thrill had all this presence, real pazzazz. She was a bigger, stronger mare. But Polished Gem was more like Trusted Partner, quite weak and light.”

Kyprios's Ballydoyle stable-mate, the grey Thoughts Of June, is half-owned by Moyglare and is out of mare who exemplifies the profile prized by Bucher Haefner and Craig in her combination of talent and toughness. With 17 starts and six wins under her belt, Discreet Marq (Discreet Cat), who was purchased as a filly in training from her breeder Patricia Generazio, won the GI Del Mar Oaks among three graded stakes wins and seven Grade 1 placings.

“Her mum was as brave as they came,” says Craig. “She was with Christophe Clement and I watched her train and race for two years. Then the Generazios wanted to sell and Eva bought her. She was really game and never gave in.

“The Generazios were breeders from New Jersey who bred many good grey horses and they always said to me, 'Have you had a grey yet?' When Discreet eventually had a grey Mr. Generazio said to me, 'That'll be the one'.”

She continues of Thoughts Of June, “But she's only just starting. We are looking at next year and onwards. Moyglare is not really commercial but there comes a point when you have to retire them, but there's not the urgency if they are good and they are racing and enjoying it. Why stop? Some of the horses bred are only starting as 3-year-olds.

“Eva wants racehorses. Her father didn't go racing as much but Eva and her children Chiara and Mischa go racing a lot more and they want to race them. It's so competitive in Ireland and therefore if you have something that can compete it's fantastic.”

Craig adds, “You watch Search For A Song coming down the yard in the morning and she loves it. I don't know whether she will win a Group 1 this year or not, but it seems a pity to put her in a field just yet.”

Mischa and Chiara Bucher race horses respectively in the colours previously used by their grand father Walter–blue and white to represent Switzerland, and green, white and gold for Ireland. The silks now sported by the Moyglare horses of a black and white jacket with a red cap and black star have a rich history as the former colours of Kaiser Wilhelm II, presumably based on the national colours of the German empire.

Whatever their heritage, they are silks which have become readily associated with the Haefner family's bloodstock, carried to success by a stream of top-class horses, including 2000 Guineas winner Refuse To Bend (Ire) (Sadler's Wells), Irish Oaks winner Dance Design (Ire) (Sadler's Wells), Free Eagle (Ire) (High Chaparral {Ire}) and Brief Truce (Irish River {Fr}).

“We're very lucky at Moyglare; some of the lads have been there for decades,” says Craig. “The good horses at the moment, are down to these lads and Malachy Ryan. They are the ones that do it day to day and they don't get much of the credit.”

She continues, 'The horses cannot be brought in and mollycoddled. There are big pastures and lots of trees so there are windbreaks but they have to stand out in the rain. They have to be hardy horses to compete in Ireland.

“It's not a beauty contest. Tough horses are what do it–horses that are tough enough to stay out all winter. The breeding business can get very complicated at times and it probably just needs to be kept simple. I am sure if you're a commercial breeder there are things that have to be done. But we're not really commercial–occasionally we sell things to keep the numbers down. It's 500 acres and we try to keep to around 100 horses, in the U.S. and Ireland.”

Craig adds, “We have put the odd good mare into an auction, and Eva's hope and my hope is that they would go on to be successful for someone else. They are probably going to be bred differently to how we would have bred them at Moyglare and I don't view that as a negative. For example, we sold Offshore Boom in 1997 to Joe Crowley. She was the cheapest mare in the draft and then she became the dam of Rock Of Gibraltar, but she wouldn't have been bred to Danehill had she stayed at Moyglare.”

There is no point ruing the occasional one that gets away, particularly if those who remain continue to do the stud proud.

“It's exciting to have the good ones but these things go in cycles, and if you keep doing what you do and you have some fillies, then you have a chance,” Craig says. “Moyglare has been through quite a big transition. When Eva took over the one thing we all realised was that we had to buy some new stock. Our bloodlines are so focused now that it's very hard to find something in England or Ireland that you can breed to. Galileo was such an amazing force of nature and he is throughout the pedigrees. It's equally hard to find stallions in the United States that would work back in Ireland–there's a handful–so what Eva has done in the last few years has left a handful of yearlings in training there with Christophe Clement.”

The strategy paid off in December with the Wait A While S. victory for the Uncle Mo filly Lia Marina, a daughter of Lira (Giant's Causeway), one of nine mares Moyglare has at stud in Kentucky. The Haefner family will always have strong ties to Ireland, too. Eva-Maria's support of the Curragh has been widely appreciated, and Moyglare Stud is involved in the longest-running Group 1 race sponsorship in its eponymous fillies' contest on Irish Champions Weekend.

“Eva likes helping people,” says Craig. “She helped local artists in Switzerland during the pandemic because all their work stopped. And that's why the stable staff canteen at the Curragh is sponsored because they deserve it, and it was also a significant reason for  her upgrading the facilities on the gallops at the Curragh. It was really for the community of the Curragh. All the lads live in the surrounding villages and if you lose the Curragh gallops you lose a whole world of people.”

Moyglare Stud's current crop of horses trained in Ireland also include the Classic-entered pair of Trevaunance (Ire) (Muhaarar {Ire}), who beat Thoughts Of June when breaking her maiden last September for Jessica Harrington, and Eclat De Lumiere (Ire) (Sea The Stars {Ire}), a recent fourth in the G3 Blue Wind S. The debutant winner Tough Talk (Ire) (Kingman {GB}) also looks a smart juvenile prospect for Ger Lyons.

“Eva started off with a real enjoyment of breeding and racing, but she became a very good student of it and learnt an awful lot,” says Craig

“I think it's a great satisfaction to her that the stud this year has done what it was bought to do 60 years ago. Her father didn't come to Ireland to buy a farm, he came to buy a show jumper but his flight was delayed and he got chatting in an airport bar and ended up buying a stud farm.”

Despite the hope and joy brought by horses of Classic potential, for Bucher-Haefner and for Craig, two absent friends are never far from their minds. Pat Smullen, Ireland's champion jockey who became synonymous with the Moyglare silks during his long tenure at Weld's stable, had become an advisor to the stud prior to his death in 2020.

“Pat will always be a part of Moyglare,” says Craig of her long-time friend. “He was an integral part of it all. He started off as a young rider but he ended up knowing the pedigrees and the families inside out, and that was the benefit of having someone riding those generations for so long. He won't ever not be a factor at Moyglare just because he's not physically here.”

She added, “Eva said the other day when she was watching Thoughts Of June win at Chester that she had tears in her eyes for her father. She was thinking of him and how excited he would have been, because that is a step to somewhere.”

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Enthusiasm For Dispersals Energizes Day Two Of Keeneland January Sale

Two prominent dispersals – 20 broodmares, yearlings and horses of racing age sold by Lane's End, agent for the Complete Dispersal of the Estate of Paul P. Pompa Jr., and 21 in-foal broodmares owned by Sam-Son Farm, the acclaimed breed-to-race operation in Ontario – fueled brisk commerce on Tuesday's second day of the Keeneland January Horses of All Ages Sale.

A horse from each dispersal sold for $925,000 apiece to lead the session. Via phone bidding with a Keeneland representative, Peter Brant's White Birch Farm paid the amount for the third horse in the ring, Regal Glory, a multiple graded stakes winner for Pompa. Later in the day, Gainesway Farm purchased Danceforthecause, in foal to Twirling Candy, from Sam-Son to equal the price.

On Tuesday, Keeneland sold 247 horses for $23,319,400, for an average of $94,411 and a median of $40,000.

A total of 453 horses grossed $35,414,800 through two sessions of the four-day sale, for an average of $78,178 and a median of $37,000.

“The power of the dispersal was very obvious today with nine of the top 10 prices paid for horses from the dispersals,” Keeneland director of sales operations Geoffrey Russell said. “These dispersals are bittersweet, but we appreciate the trust they put in Keeneland to put the show on today.

“The opportunity, especially with the Sam-Son Dispersal, to get into these mares has been limited over the years,” he added. “People are hungry to get into these strong female families. The same is true for the mares owned by Mr. Pompa. Breeders are looking for blue skies ahead and they have to have the product to produce yearlings to sell.”

The Pompa Dispersal generated sales of $4,037,000 and included four horses sold for $400,000 or more. Co-highest priced Regal Glory, a 5-year-old daughter of Animal Kingdom out of graded stakes winner Mary's Follies, by More Than Ready, won the 2019 Grade 2 Lake Placid and G3 Lake George and captured the 2020 G3 Kentucky Downs Ladies Turf in her most recent start. She was cataloged as a racing or broodmare prospect.

White Birch acquired another Pompa horse when it paid $260,000 for Proper Mad, whose 3-year-old Union Rags colt, Carillo, won his career debut on Jan. 8 at Aqueduct. From the family of Grade 1 winner Dunbar Road, Proper Mad is an 8-year-old daughter of Bernardini and the Unbridled mare Private Gift who is in foal to Connect. Carillo is scheduled to sell here Thursday when the Pompa Dispersal continues with 19 horses.

Pompa, a widely respected horseman and businessman who died in October 2020, had a successful association with Keeneland. In 2007, he paid $190,000 for future Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner and champion Big Brown at Keeneland's April 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale. He also campaigned Night Prowler to win the 2015 G3 Transylvania at Keeneland and raced Fanny Freud in partnership with Stephen Yarbrough and Anthony Grey to win Keeneland's 2010 G2 Beaumont.

The Sam-Son Dispersal was the session's leading consignor with sales of $6,733,000 that featured six horses bringing $400,000 and more. The dispersal represented a closing chapter in the story of the multiple Eclipse Award- and Sovereign Award-winning operation founded in 1972 by the late Ernie Samuel and still run by his family. Sam-Son bred and raced horses that earned four Eclipse Awards and 84 Sovereign Awards along with 44 graded stakes winners.

Over the years, a number of Sam-Son horses raced at Keeneland, and the farm received the distinguished Keeneland Tray during the 2005 Spring Meet to recognize its graded stakes success – a milestone that only 20 owners have reached in track history.

The dispersal was especially emotional for the Sam-Son team at Keeneland.

“With the business of the game and trying to get everything ready – we have worked so hard to do this – we haven't really given ourselves time to absorb it all,” Sam-Son manager Dave Whitford said. “I think after the sale is when it is really going to sink in.

“There is pressure to do things right for the (Samuel) family,” he continued. “They have been doing this for 50 years, and we don't want to mess that up. There is a great legacy, and we have felt that pressure. It is (all) bittersweet, for sure.”

Danceforthecause, who sold to Gainesway Farm for $925,000, is a 10-year-old daughter of Giant's Causeway who has produced Grade 1 winner Say the Word and Grade 2 winner Rideforthecause. She is out of the Thunder Gulch mare Dancethruthestorm, a daughter of Sam-Son's Racing Hall of Famer Dance Smartly.

“She is a really beautiful mare and has been such a good producer already,” said Gainesway director of bloodstock and racing Alex Solis II, who signed the ticket. “I feel this is the best Sam-Son family there is with Dance Smartly as the second dam and Smart Strike right there on the page.”

Hill 'n' Dale at Xalapa paid $900,000 for another Sam-Son mare, Deceptive Vision, and went to $530,000 to acquire her half-sister Fun in the Desert. Both are out of Canadian champion Eye of the Sphynx, by Smart Strike.

Deceptive Vision is an 11-year-old daughter of A.P. Indy in foal to War Front. She is a full sister to Canadian champion Eye of the Leopard and stakes winners Hotep and Desert Isle.

Fun in the Desert, a 10-year-old mare by Distorted Humor, is the dam of Canadian champion Desert Ride. In foal to Candy Ride (ARG), she is carrying a full sibling to Desert Ride.

The session's leading buyer was Phil Schoenthal, agent for Determined Stud of Maryland, who purchased five horses for a total of $2.12 million. Topping the acquisitions at $875,000 was the Sam-Son mare Southern Ring, a Grade 3-winning daughter of Speightstown in foal to Into Mischief. She is out of stakes winner Seeking the Ring, by Seeking the Gold, and from the family of Canadian champion Catch the Ring.

For Determined, Schoenthal purchased two horses from the Pompa Dispersal. They went to $570,000 for Off Topic, a 5-year-old Grade 1-placed daughter of Street Sense consigned as a racing or broodmare prospect. Out of Off Limits, by Include, she is from the family of Grade 1 winners Miner's Mark, Traditionally and My Flag.

They paid $320,000 for Sustained, an 11-year-old, graded stakes-placed daughter of War Front in foal to Connect. Out of Sweetstorm Amy, by Lemon Drop Kid, Sustained is the dam of Grade 3 winner Turned Aside, who won the Aqueduct Turf Sprint Championship in November and is scheduled to sell here Thursday.

Another top-priced horse from the Pompa Dispersal on Tuesday was stakes winner Beautiful Lover, a 5-year-old daughter of Arch sold to Moyglare Stud Farm for $650,000. Consigned as a racing or broodmare prospect, she is out of American Skipper, by Quiet American, and a half-sister to Grade 2 winner Zivo.

Moyglare's Fiona Craig said Beautiful Lover would resume her racing career with trainer Christophe Clement.

“Hopefully the pandemic will cease so (Moyglare owner) Eva (Maria Bucher-Haefner) will be able to come over and see her race,” Craig said. “Long term we'll add (Beautiful Lover) to the broodmare band.”

At $400,000, the session's highest-priced yearling was a filly from the first crop of City of Light sold to Larry Best's OXO Equine. Lane's End, agent, consigned the daughter of the Bernardini mare I'll Show Me, a half-sister to champion Proud Spell and from the family of stakes winners Indian Spell and Dak Attack.

The January Sale continues Wednesday and runs through Thursday. All sessions begin at 10 a.m. ET.

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