Moyglare Matings Include Baaeed Debut for Search For A Song

Following news that last season's Irish 1,000 Guineas winner Homeless Songs (Ire) is working up to an early seasonal debut, her owner-breeder Moyglare Stud has released the farm's mating plans for 2023, with her dam Joailliere (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) set for a return visit to Frankel (GB), the sire of her illustrious daughter. The 10-year-mare, herself a Listed winner, produced a filly foal from the first crop of St Mark's Basilica (Fr) on February 17.

She is not the only one of the Moyglare matriarchs to be heading to Juddmonte's Banstead Manor Stud. The Group 3 winner and Group 1-placed Sonaiyla (Ire) (Dark Angel {Ire}) delivered a Frankel colt last week and she will pay him a return visit, while the winning Galileo (Ire) mares Espoir d'Soleil (Ire) and Federica Sophia (Ire) are both bound for Kingman (GB). The former produced a Starspangledbanner (Aus) colt in February.

In many ways, Polished Gem (Ire) (Danehill) and her offspring have become Moyglare's signature family in recent years, and three of the celebrated mare's daughters are among the 39-strong broodmare band in Ireland, along with a number of grand-daughters. Amma Grace (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), a stakes-winning full-sister to the Group 1 winners Search For A Song (Ire) and Kyprios (Ire), is set to visit Wootton Bassett, while the recently retired Search For A Song is booked to Baaeed (GB) in his first season. Their half-sister, the Group 2 winner Sapphire (Ire) (Medicean {GB}), dam of the aforementioned Federica Sophia, is currently in foal to Palace Pier (GB) with her 2023 mating to be confirmed. Two more of Sapphire's daughters reside in the broodmare band: Acqua Di Gioia (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) will be among the first group of mares sent to Coolmore freshman Blackbeard (Ire). She foaled a filly by Space Blues (Ire) on February 21. Her half-sister, the Group 2-placed dual winner Kiss For A Jewel (Ire) (Kingman {GB}), is also Coolmore-bound and will be bred to St Mark's Basilica, having foaled a colt by Dark Angel this season.

 Blackbeard's sire No Nay Never is also being supported with the dual Group 3 winner Making Light (Ire) (Tamayuz {GB}) from the family of Irresistible Jewel (Ire), whose Group 3-winning daughter Mad About You (Ire) (Indian Ridge {Ire}) is heading to Sioux Nation. In turn, Mad About You's stakes-placed daughter, A Ma Chere (Ire) (Kodiac {GB), will visit Dark Angel.

All Our Tomorrows (Ire) (Kingman {GB}) and Liber Nauticus (Ire) (Azamour {Ire}), two mares who joined Moyglare from the dispersal of the stock of Ballymacoll Stud, will be covered by Dubawi (Ire) and Siyouni (Fr) respectively this season. All Our Tomorrows, a grand-daughter of Hellenic (GB), already has a yearling filly by Dubawi and lost her foal this year, while Liber Nauticus was not covered last year but has a yearling daughter by Sea The Stars (Ire).

In his second season at Dalham Hall Stud, Palace Pier will be sent the Moyglare duo of Lilli Milena (Ire) (Dansili {GB}) and her dam Terrific (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), the latter a sister to the Group 1 winners Jan Vermeer (Ire) and Together (Ire).

Another dual Group 3 winner, Carla Bianca (Ire) (Dansili {GB}), is currently in foal to Sea The Stars (Ire) and heading to Lope De Vega (Ire), while her Listed-placed daughter by Dubawi, Emilie Gray (Ire), has a date with Saxon Warrior (Jpn). The Deep Impact (Jpn) theme continues in the mating of the Listed-placed Titanium Sky (Ire) (Dark Angel {Ire}), who is booked for a visit to Lanwades for Study Of Man (Ire).

Florence Camille (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), a winning full-sister to the Cheshire Oaks winner Thoughts Of June (Ire), will visit Derrinstown's newcomer Minzaal (Ire) after she delivers her foal by Starspangledbanner, and Rose De Pierre (Ire), a dual Listed-winning daughter of Dubawi and the Irish St Leger runner-up Profound Beauty (Ire), is in foal to Camelot (GB) and will be covered by Sea The Stars.

The unbeaten Tocco d'Amore (Ire) (Raven's Pass), who hails from the Kilcarn Stud family of Flame Of Tara (GB), was covered last year by Caravaggio in the States, where she also has a yearling colt by Uncle Mo, and she heads to New Bay (GB).

Grade I Stars Head American Team

Moyglare Stud has nine mares in Kentucky led by Celestine (Scat Daddy), who won the G1 Just A Game S. among her three graded stakes victories, and Switch (Quiet American), victrix of the G1 Santa Monica S. and GI La Brea S. at Santa Anita. Celestine foaled a Curlin filly on February 24 and will be covered next by Gun Runner, while Switch has an Uncle Mo colt at foot and is booked to Not This Time.

Each of Coolmore's Triple Crown winners, American Pharoah and Justify, has a brace of Moyglare mares heading their way: Grade III-placed My Arch Enemy (Arch) and Listed winner Lia Marina (Uncle Mo) for the former and Sola Luna (Ire) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}) and Gioia Stella (Medaglia d'Oro) for the latter. Another daughter of Arch, the GIII La Prevoyante S. winner Beautiful Lover, is booked to Uncle Mo.

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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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Classic Winner Set for Navan Return

Moyglare Stud Farm's 2020 G1 Irish St Leger heroine Search For A Song (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), who won last term's G3 Loughbrown S. in one of six starts since that Classic highlight, makes an early seasonal debut in Saturday's 14-furlong Listed Vintage Crop S. at Navan. Not seen before May in three prior campaign openings, she faces nine rivals for her debut at the Co. Meath venue, headed by 2020 G1 Prix du Cadran heroine Princess Zoe (Ger) (Jukebox Jury {Ire}). Earlier on the seven-race card, nine 3-year-old fillies will head postward for the 10-furlong Listed Irish Stallion Farms EBF Salsabil S., a Classic trial won in 2019 by subsequent G1 Epsom Oaks runner-up Pink Dogwood (Ire) (Camelot {GB}). Contenders include Aidan O'Brien nominee G3 Weld Park S. victrix Concert Hall (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}), one of three representing Ballydoyle, who ran fourth in the G1 Moyglare Stud S. and sixth in the G1 Fillies' Mile last term. Stakes action commences with the Listed Committed S. for the 3-year-old speedsters. Top of the pile in this straight dash is Juddmonte's Listed Blenheim S. winner Straight Answer (GB) (Kodiac {GB}), who makes his seasonal return coming off a last-of-eight finish in October's G1 Dewhurst S. at Newmarket.

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Stradivarius Will Try To Regain His Crown In British Champions Long Distance Cup

The world's top rated stayer, Stradivarius stands out among the 15 entries still in the mix for the £300,000 (approximately US$350,000) QIPCO British Champions Long Distance Cup on Saturday, Oct. 17.

The exceptional 6-year-old, bred and owned by Bjorn Nielsen, won the Qatar Goodwood Cup for a record fourth time at Goodwood in July, having landed the Gold Cup at Royal Ascot for the third time the previous month.

Trained by John Gosden, Stradivarius has won a record 13 races that fall under the QIPCO British Champions Series umbrella, including the QIPCO British Champions Long Distance Cup in 2018. He has run 13 times over two miles or further and been beaten just twice – when a length third to Order Of St George as a 3-year-old in the 2017 QIPCO British Champions Long Distance Cup and when pipped a nose by Kew Gardens in last year's riveting renewal.

The opposition to Stradivarius is headed by two-time Comer Group International Irish St Leger winner Search For A Song. She will be having her first run over two miles but has hinted she will stay and her trainer, Dermot Weld, has been responsible for two previous Long Distance Cup winners in Rite Of Passage (2012) and Forgotten Rules (2014).

Andrew Balding has two possible challengers in Spanish Mission, fluent winner of the Doncaster Cup on his latest start, and the mud-loving Morando, whose exploits last season included an eight-length drubbing of Kew Gardens in the Boodles Diamond Ormonde Stakes at Chester.

Balding said: “Spanish Mission was very impressive in the Doncaster Cup last time but I would have thought he would be effective from a mile and a half to an extended two miles. He's a horse who historically has not wanted the ground too soft, so that's a concern for him. If the ground got pretty testing, we'd have to think twice about running him.

“Morando, on the other hand, loves it when the mud is flying. It would be a new venture going two miles with him but the way he's shaped in his races in the last two seasons suggests that two miles is well within his compass now and he goes well at Ascot.”

Fujaira Prince, trained by Roger Varian, was returning from a year off when an emphatic winner of the Copper Horse Handicap at Royal Ascot in June and followed up in the Sky Bet Ebor at York two months later. He chased home Search For A Song in the Irish St Leger last time out.

Aidan O'Brien has won the race three times with Fame And Glory (2011), Order Of St George (2017) and Kew Gardens (2019). This time he could be represented by Sovereign, winner of last year's Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby; Broome, who was a close fourth in last year's Investec Derby; and Dawn Patrol, third in this year's Irish Derby.

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