The Curious Case of Early Voting and the Vet Who Helped Cure Him

To many horsepeople and fans, the news that 2022 GI Preakness S. winner Early Voting (Gun Runner) had been cured of a syndrome that initially–apparently–spelled doom to his stud career was a complete surprise. To New Zealand-born veterinarian and scientist Dr. Padraig (Paddy) O'Casaigh, it was just another day at the office

O'Casaigh, the 'brain and chief researcher/inventor' behind the 'unique' product Chaperonze (his birthplace a contributor to this intentional misspell), has treated 'about 100' stallions with breeding problems.

“My experience in my 35 years,” he said, “is that I've never had one go back and never had one that couldn't be fixed. You find with these horses, once you've turned him around, you've turned them around.”

Consider his record intact.

It wasn't that Early Voting was lacking in fertility–as was reported in Thursday's TDN, the stallion successfully got 120 mares from his first book in foal at Coolmore in his first year in 2023 (though it is uncertain how many mares in total were covered). But it was later discovered that Early Voting was suffering from Anejaculatory Syndrome–simply put, an inability to ejaculate.

O'Casaigh, 56, has by his own accounting has flown upwards of four million miles in his lifetime and maintains offices from Lexington to Bangkok. He attended Massey University in Palmerston North, New Zealand, did an internship at Hagyard/Davidson/McGee in Lexington and then spent the better part of six years at the University of California, Davis, completing a residency in equine reproduction from 1989-1992 and a Ph. D. in comparative pathology. He was a post-doctoral fellow in the school's Department of Veterinary Medical Population Health and Reproduction from 1992-1995.

Having worked with the likes of Nureyev and El Gran Senor and given his success in helping cure horses of problems similar to that of Early Voting, it wasn't a complete surprise when his services were requested by the consortium of owners that took over from Coolmore late last year.

O'Casaigh makes use of a product Chaperonze manufactures that contains chaperone proteins. The process involves using emu oil sourced from FDA distributors to create a protein transfer oil that can carry the chaperone proteins across the skin barrier and into the bloodstream. The process calls for the admixing of freeze-dried, stable Chaperonze powder, extracted from ovine placenta, with the oil.

Applied topically, chaperone proteins can find their way to damaged and injured cells that are in need of repair and once Chaperonze has entered the cells, it causes repair, rejuvenation and regeneration. And it seems to have done the trick for the now 5-year-old stallion.

O'Casaigh said Early Voting has been at his new home at Taylor Made for 'about a month.'

“The Coolmore group have been fantastic about everything and the only reason to taking him over [to Taylor Made] is because I have an association with them and they have a much-smaller, family-run operation, and with something like this, it's going to be a different environment for the horse and for me.”

O'Casaigh reports that Early Voting was first bred to test mares and more recently to outside mares and that he has done so successfully in terms of his ability to ejaculate. His first Taylor Made-bred mares are due to be scanned in about a week's time.

And it's clear the work he has done to date has been impactful and he hopes will continue to be.

“It's not just species-specific,” O'Casaigh said. “If we can help endangered species or humans, alleviate disease, help horses, that's what science is, right?”

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Niarchos Draft: ‘We’re Not Cutting Ties With Any of the Top Families’

One of the reasons that the Racing League has struggled to catch on is that the organisers have underestimated the attachment that regular racegoers and viewers have to certain sets of silks. We all have our favourites, often depending on when we were born and who the leading lights were at the time. 

Some have now faded from everyday use, and for this fan the Ballymacoll Stud colours are much missed. Certain silks have such resonance that one almost doesn't need to have a race card handy to have an educated guess at the standard of certain races about to happen, and if the colours of the Niarchos family are spotted in the parade ring then it's a safe bet that there's a classy maiden or Pattern race in store. 

Happily, those distinctive colours are not about to disappear, though the restructuring of the family's bloodstock operation has brought about a proper 'bloodstock event', and one which offers a mouthwatering opportunity for other breeders to buy into some of the best Niarchos pedigrees. 

Forty of their fillies and mares will be offered at Goffs next week. Friday's session is likely to be the liveliest of the November Breeding Stock Sale since the Wildenstein Stables dispersal of 2016 or the Paulyn dispersal a decade ago when Chicquita (Ire) (Montjeu {Ire}), sold for €6 million to Coolmore, became the most expensive horse ever to sell in Ireland.

“We had a big draft last November at Goffs but this one is exceptional because the offerings include three homebred Group 1 winners,” says Alan Cooper, who has been the Niarchos family's racing manager for almost 40 years.

He adds with no little understatement, “It's a very special gathering of the family's stock.”

Before we run through some of the bluebloods on offer, it is worth emphasising that the Niarchos family will still be developing these equine families through the young stock being retained. More than 100 horses, including those in training, remain within their ownership.

“It's not a dispersal,” says Cooper. “These are going to auction but from each of the core families, we've got several fillies who are either foals, yearlings, or two-year-olds of this year going forward. We're not cutting the tie with any of the top families. That is important because Maria and her father and her brothers have built this up, and it's still ongoing.”

Stavros Niarchos, the Greek shipping tycoon, made a significant impact on the world of Thoroughbred breeding in the second half of the twentieth century, and his passion for the sport was shared by his daughter Maria Niarchos-Gouaze, one of his five children, who took on the running of the bloodstock sector of her father's empire following his death in 1996. 

Earlier this year, Haras de Fresnay-le-Buffard, the Normandy farm bought by Stavros Niarchos in 1979, was put up for sale. It had previously been home at different times in their lives to such luminaries of the turf as Nureyev, his incredible daughter Miesque, and her influential son Kingmambo (Mr. Prospector). Other top names include Hernando (Ire) (Niniski) and his son Sulamani (Ire), both of whom were winners of the Prix du Jockey Club, and the Breeders' Cup Mile victrix Six Perfections (Fr) (Celtic Swing {GB}).

Members of those families and more are included in the draft for next week's sale. As referred to above, three Group 1 winners form the cornerstone of that elite group. 

Albigna (Ire) (Zoffany {Ire}), the Prix Marcel Boussac winner whose first foal by Wootton Bassett (GB) sold for €460,000 as a yearling this season, is offered as Lot 1212 from Baroda Stud and is in foal to St Mark's Basilica (Fr). She also has a weanling filly by Dubawi (Ire) on the ground. 

Later, as Lot 1240 from Kiltinan Castle Stud, comes Alpine Star (Ire) (Sea The Moon {Ger}), the G1 Coronation S .winner who was runner-up in the G1 Prix de Diane, G1 Jacques Le Marois ad G1 Prix de l'Opera. She is in foal to Frankel (GB) and had a colt foal by the same stallion.

It remains to be seen which of the draft becomes the jewel of the crown in broodmare terms, but as a racehorse it is easy to argue the case for Alpha Centauri (Ire) (Mastercraftsman {Ire}), who sells last of all as Lot 1263 from Norelands and is in foal to Sea The Stars (Ire), carrying what will be her fourth offspring. On the track she was both the European champion three-year-old filly and champion three-year-old miler of 2018, when her wins included the Irish 1,000 Guineas, Coronation S., Falmouth S., and Prix Jacques Le Marois, which ran under the long-term sponsorship of the Niarchos family. 

Alpine Star and Alpha Centauri are half-sisters and daughters of the Rahy mare Alpha Lupi, representing the family which has become synonymous with the name Niarchos. Their granddam was another Jacques Le Marois winner and dual Classic heroine, East Of The Moon (Private Account), herself a daughter of one of the most revered mares of the modern era, Miesque. The latter's many Group/Grade 1 triumphs included back-to-back wins in both the Jacques Le Marois and Breeders' Cup Mile, as well as victories in the 1,000 Guineas, Poule d'Essai des Pouliches, Prix Marcel Boussac, Prix de la Salamandre, and Prix d'Ispahan. And that was just the entree to Miesque's celebrated career at stud.

The Hall of Famer produced the aforementioned Classic winners Kingmambo and East Of The Moon, as well as the Group 3 winners Miesque's Son (Mr. Prospector) and Mingun (A.P. Indy), Listed winner Moon Is Up (Woodman) and stakes-placed Inventing Paradise (Mr. Prospector). Another daughter, Second Happiness (Storm Cat), is the dam of  the Prix du Jockey Club winner and young sire Study Of Man (Ire) (Deep Impact {Jpn}), while another, Kingmambo's full-sister Monevassia, is the dam of Group 1 winner Rumplestiltskin (Ire) (Danehill).

Along with the aforementioned Group 1 winners, Miesque's direct line is also represented in the three-year-old Frankel filly Humankind (Lot 1104). Meanwhile, another branch of the family appears through Miesque's half-sister Yogya (Riverman), the dam of Six Perfections whose daughter Raja Ampat (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) features as Lot 1259 and is carrying a member of the first crop of Baaeed (GB). 

Six Perfections's unraced four-year-old granddaughter See (War Front) is Lot 1105, and that filly's full-sister La Fiamma is Lot 1181, and is sold in foal to Mehmas (Ire).

Another family which has stood the operation in great stead is that of Coup De Folie, the Halo mare bought from her breeder EP Taylor as a yearling who went on to win the G3 Prix d'Aumale. She later become the dam of Machiavellian (Mr. Prospector), his fellow Group 1 winner and full-sister Coup De Genie, and Exit To Nowhere (Irish River {Fr}), who was yet another winner of the Jacques Le Marois in the Niarchos silks.

That line thrives still, notably through Coup De Genie's daughter Moonlight's Box (Nureyev), the dam of Arc winner Bago (Fr) (Nashwan), dual Group 1 winner Maxios (GB) (Monsun {Ger}) and Listed-placed Malicieuse (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), whose Deep Impact daughter Bold As Love (Ire) gets the ball rolling when offered as Lot 1102, the first of the draft.

Worldwide influences loom large among the Niarchos broodmare band, which has ties beyond Europe, to America, South Africa, and Australia. Significantly the family has long had strong links to Japan, before other major owner-breeders caught on to this fertile source of class. 

“Maria was definitely a precursor of the modern age on that,” says Cooper. “And thanks to the good relations we built up with Teruya and Chizu Yoshida, which came through Hector Protector going over [to stud in Japan]. We sent him mares and then sent mares to Sunday Silence and then Deep Impact as well. And we branched out every now and again, we took mares to Bago, of course, and Lord Kanaloa, Daiwa Major.”

He continues, “And we've even got some Australian influence in the draft, with Dawn Wall [by Fastnet Rock] in there and Provocateuse by Pride of Dubai. It's truly global.”

One of those mares sent to the Classic-winning homebred Hector Protector, who was later sold to Zenya Yoshida of Shadai Farm for his stallion career, was Lingerie (GB) (Shirley Heights {GB}), a daughter of another important founder of a dynasty in Northern Trick (Northern Dancer), winner of the G1 Prix de Diane and G1 Prix Vermeille. 

Lingerie's daughter Shiva was foaled in Japan and exported to Europe where she won the G1 Tattersalls Gold Cup. Her half-sister Light Shift (Kingmambo), also trained by Henry Cecil, later won the Oaks. Five members of Lingerie's family are catalogued, including Shiva's Listed-winning daughter That Which Is Not (Elusive Quality), the dam of Group 3 winner Piz Badile (Ire), who is by another Niarchos-bred stallion in Ulysses (Ire).

The 40 mares are spread between the drafts of Norelands, Baroda and Kiltinan Castle Studs, and are also dotted evenly through the Friday of the catalogue in groups of five or six. 

“All those studs have boarded mares for us,” Cooper explains. “With this number of horses we thought it was best to divide them up between these teams, who all do a wonderful job. We thought it was very manageable that way for us, too. It would be too much for everybody to sit and watch 40 horses go through together.”

Cooper arrived at the Niarchos family's London office in February 1984 to work as assistant to Sir Philip Payne-Gallwey, the former racing manager to Stavros Niarchos who played such a key role in the operation's success through his purchase of Miesque's sire and dam, Nureyev and Pasadoble, as well as Northern Trick, as yearlings in Kentucky.

“He went back to the BBA in 1987 and I've been here ever since,” says Cooper. “Karen Clark was here before me, and she's still very much part of the original team.”

Of the draft itself, he adds, “It goes back to the yearling fillies purchased in the 80s: you've got Pasadoble, the dam of Miesque; Coup De Folie, the dam of Coup De Genie, and so much has come down from those two alone. But then you spread out and another branch of Miesque's family was Yogya, the dam of Six Perfections, another family goes back to Rare Mint, and we've got a great-granddaughter of hers, Celestial Lagoon, represented through several of her daughters. Then you've got Lyrism, the dam of Whakilyric, who is the third dam of Nature Spirits.

“So there's a lot of families that we've had for generations. It's quite a history.”

 

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Niarchos Family To Receive 2021 Longines And IFHA International Award Of Merit

The Niarchos family has been selected to receive the 2021 Longines and IFHA International Award of Merit, which recognizes distinguished horsemen and horsewomen for lifelong contributions to Thoroughbred racing. They will be honored during a ceremony Friday, Nov. 5, in Del Mar during Breeders' Cup World Championships weekend, and Maria Niarchos-Gouazé will accept the award on behalf of the family.

The Niarchos family breeds and races Thoroughbreds around the world and has done so with great success for decades. More than 125 Group or Grade 1 winners have been bred and/or campaigned under their banner, and they have been long-time supporters of the Breeders' Cup.

The late Stavros Niarchos served as a Greek naval officer in World War II and made his fortune in the shipping business. He first became involved with Thoroughbred racing in the 1950s, took a break, and returned in full force in the 1970s. His first major winner was Pipe of Peace, who won the 1956 Middle Park Stakes.

At the 1978 Keeneland July sale, Niarchos paid the second-highest amount ever, at the time, for a yearling colt. Named Nureyev, he went on to be an extremely influential sire. Among Nureyev's most well-known progeny is Miesque, who raced as a homebred for the Niarchos family and was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame of the United States in 1999.

Miesque, who won the Breeders' Cup Mile in both 1987 and 1988, was a champion in England, France, and the United States during her racing career. As a broodmare, she went on to produce elite runner and stallion Kingmambo as well as three-time Group 1 winner East Of The Moon. A multiple Group 1 winner in Europe, Kingmambo became one of the leading stallions in Kentucky, siring classic winners and champions in North America, Europe, and Japan. East Of The Moon, meanwhile, is the granddam of three Group 1-winning sisters in Alpha Centauri, Alpine Star, and Discoveries.

Niarchos was the leading owner in France in 1983 and 1984 as well as the leading breeder in 1989, 1993, and 1994. His daughter Maria took over the family's Thoroughbred business after his death in 1996, and Alan Cooper serves as the family's racing manager.

The Niarchos family has won seven Breeders' Cup races with six homebred colts and fillies. Six of those victories have come in the Breeders' Cup Mile (G1): Miesque (1987, 1988), Spinning World (1997), Domedriver (2002), Six Perfections (2003), and Karakontie (2014). Additionally, Main Sequence won the Longines Breeders' Cup Turf (G1) in 2014. The six Mile winners were trained in Europe, while Main Sequence began his career in Europe before being transferred to the United States. This record as an owner-breeder at the Breeders' Cup makes the Niarchos family one of the event's most successful participants.

A sampling of other notable international wins for the family as owner or breeder also includes Bago (2004 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe), Divine Proportions (2005 Prix de Diane), Light Shift (2007 English Oaks), Ulysses (2017 Eclipse Stakes and International Stakes, son of Light Shift), Alpha Centauri (2018 Irish Horse of the Year), Study of Man (2018 Prix du Jockey Club), War of Will (2019 Preakness Stakes), and Circus Maximus (2019 St James's Palace Stakes and 2020 Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot).

Representatives from both Longines and the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities (IFHA), as well as the Breeders' Cup and The Jockey Club, will be in California to celebrate the Niarchos family. As the Official Partner and Official Watch of the IFHA, Swiss watchmaker Longines and the IFHA conjointly created the Award of Merit in 2013. Longines is also an Official Partner, the Official Timekeeper, and the Official Watch of the Breeders' Cup, as well as the title sponsor for the Breeders' Cup Classic, Turf, and Distaff.

Previous winners of this award include John Messara, the owner and chairman of Arrowfield Stud in Australia; the Magnier family and trainer Aidan O'Brien, the driving forces behind Coolmore and the Ballydoyle Racing Stable in Ireland; Yutaka Take, legendary Japanese jockey; the Romanet family, long renowned leaders in both the French and international world of horseracing; Jim Bolger, leading Irish trainer, owner and breeder; Alec Head, past champion trainer and patriarch of prominent stud farm Haras du Quesnay; Seth Hancock of historic Claiborne Farm in America; and the late Marcel Zarour Atanacio, former chairman of the South American organization for the promotion of Thoroughbreds (OSAF).

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Niarchos Family To Receive International Award Of Merit

The Niarchos Family will be honoured with the Longines and IFHA International Award of Merit for 2021. The award recognises distinguished horsemen and horsewomen for lifelong contributions to Thoroughbred racing, with previous winners including the Magnier Family and Aidan O'Brien; the Romanet Family, Jim Bolger, Alec Head and Seth Hancock.

The late Stavros Niarchos, a Greek naval officer in World War II who made his fortune in the shipping business, first became involved with Thoroughbred racing in the 1950s before taking a break and returning with a major commitment in the 1970s. The Niarchos Family has bred and/or raced 125 Grade and Group 1 winners around the globe.

One of the Niarchos Family's first notable horses was Nureyev, who they purchased at the 1978 Keeneland July Sale. Nureyev went on to be a highly influential sire, and among his best progeny was the Niarchos Family's homebred Miesque, a champion in England, the U.S. and France, a dual GI Breeders' Cup Mile winner, Hall of Famer and influential broodmare, her progeny perhaps highlighted by the Group 1-winning sire Kingmambo. Miesque's influence is still felt today through numerous branches, including the one that has produced Group 1-winning sisters Alpha Centauri (Ire) (Mastercraftsman {Ire}), Alpine Star (Ire) (Sea The Moon {Ger}) and Discoveries (Ire) (Mastercraftsman {Ire}) for the Niarchos Family.

Stavros Niarchos was leading owner in France in 1983 and 1984, and leading breeder in 1989, 1993 and 1994. Niarchos died in 1996, at which point his daughter Maria Niarchos-Gouaze took over the family's Thoroughbred business.

The Niarchos Family has been strong supporters of the Breeders' Cup since the meeting's inception and has won seven Breeders' Cup races with six homebreds: Miesque, Spinning World, Domedriver (Ire), Six Perfections (Fr), Karakontie (Jpn) and Main Sequence. The Niarchos Family will be honoured during a ceremony on Nov. 5 in Del Mar during the Breeders' Cup, where Niarchos-Gouaze will accept the Award of Merit on behalf of the family.

Other prominent horses raced by the Niarchos Family include Bago (Fr), Divine Proportions, Light Shift, Ulysses (Ire), Alpha Centauri (Ire), Study Of Man (Jpn) and Circus Maximus (Ire). They also bred War Of Will, the 2019 GI Preakness S. winner.

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