A YEAR and a half ago, at the Goffs Arkle Sale, the ring filled for Lot 76, the only offering in the catalogue from Sally Aston’s Goldford Stud. Described by auctioneer Andrew Nolan as “a queen”, the then three-year-old daughter of No Risk At All (My Risk) sold to Sonny Carey for €105,000. Carey was actually positioned directly behind Aston who was on the rails in the bidders’ area.
Standing with his wife, Goffs bloodstock team member Mary Kilduff, Carey told the members of the press afterwards: “The plan is to get her home, break her and tip away with her, and see how she goes. She is a beautiful filly, the full package. Hopefully she’s lucky now. She is for a client but will come back to us. Hopefully she is a long-term broodmare. She was the one we wanted, and I’m delighted to get her.”
She was later named Brosna Shine by her owner, Tony Kilduff.
This was a second major sale success that year for Sally Aston. At the Goffs UK Spring Store Sale she sold another daughter of No Risk At All for £100,000 to Ryan Mahon and Dan Skelton Racing. That filly was a daughter of Brise Vendeenne (Dom Alco), and was named Jollie Dame. At the end of November, she made her debut in a Warwick bumper, and though some way off the winner, she was second best on the day and beat 11 more home.
Change of heart
The filly at Goffs was originally catalogued for the Goffs UK Sale, but a change of heart saw her go to Ireland instead. “The fillies were both so nice that I decided I had to split them up; they couldn’t go to the same sale,” said Sally Aston.
“We don’t board for many people now, but we keep a few high-class mares for Dominic [Burke]. He has a full-sister [Baby Thyme who was placed on her only start but sadly died] and a half-sister [Baby Sage (Flemensfirth) a dual winner] to her in training, so this one was always going to be sold.
“She was born at home and has always been a lovely filly. She actually looked more like a gelding; you don’t get many fillies like that. It’s a lovely page, too.
“She has a wonderful temperament and she took it all really well. She hadn’t left the farm before the weekend, but hasn’t put a foot wrong since arriving here on Saturday night. She’s an absolute queen. She had about 60 viewings and I didn’t see a single person who didn’t like her.”
This was all happening a year after Sally’s husband Richard died in May, 2023. Speaking about Goldford’s success at sales across the Goffs group, Sally said: “It’s great, and it’s always with the girls! I’m delighted for Dominic. He’s leaving it all to me, which is lovely, because since Richard’s been gone I’ve felt a bit alone, but I’m getting used to it now.”
Sonny Carey
Brosna Shine is trained by Sonny Carey and made her debut at the Punchestown Festival in April, contesting the Goffs Defender Bumper. She was only caught and denied second place near the finish. The winner was Wonderful Everyday, highly regarded by Willie Mullins, while the runner-up Green Hint has now joined Mullins, and she won a point-to-point well on her only other start.
Now the form has been franked by Brosna Shine who turned out at the weekend at Fairyhouse and won a four-year-old fillies bumper by three lengths, with the other 15 starters strung out 16 lengths and more in arrears. The race Brosna Shine won has been taken in recent years by the likes of Liberty Dance and Brandy Love. Brosna Shine could be as good or better than them.
Brosna Shine is out of the seven-time winner Baby Shine (King’s Theatre), and while she failed to win a blacktype race for trainer Lucy Wadham, she did place in a listed bumper at Sandown, a Grade 2 hurdle race at Aintree, and a listed chase at Cheltenham. She won a point-to-point for her breeder Kevin O’Donnell.
Baby Shine now has three winners and a placed horse from her only runners, and somewhere enjoying her young life is a yearling filly by Golden Horn (Cape Cross).
This is a wonderful old family. Baby Shine’s half-sister Coolgreaney (Bob Back) was a Grade 3 chase winner at Naas and Punchestown, while their third dam bred the smart Belvederian (Deep Run).
BEATEN a neck in the Group 3 Chukyo Nisai Stakes at the end of August, against colts, Star Anise (Drefong) made amends in Sunday’s Group 1 Hanshin Juvenile Fillies, equalling the stakes record time set two years ago by Ascoli Piceno. She was Japan’s champion two-year-old filly, a title Star Anise may have clinched on Sunday.
This was the first time Star Anise raced over a mile, and was her second win in four starts. She broke her maiden in July. Star Anise races for Katsumi Yoshida and trainer Tomokazu Takano, and her target next year will be the Japanese 1000 Guineas at a mile, which is run at Hanshin in early April.
This is just the second Group 1 winner for Drefong (Gio Ponti), after the 2022 Japanese 2000 Guineas winner Geoglyph. Drefong stands at Shadai Stallion Station where next year his fee is the equivalent of about €45,000.
Victories at three in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Santa Anita from Mind Your Biscuits, and in the Grade 1 King’s Bishop Stakes at Saratoga, earned him the title of champion sprinter in the USA. The following year he added the Grade 1 Forego Stakes to his six-win tally.
Drefong’s future as a sire was always likely to be outside America. His sire Gio Ponti was champion older horse in the USA in 2009 but disappointing at stud. His tally of stakes winners stands at 16, Drefong was in his first crop, and is his sole Grade 1 winner. In fact, only one other runner by Gio Ponti even managed to place at the highest level, Gio Game running third in the Acorn Stakes at Belmont.
Drefong now has 15 stakes winners, one behind his sire. This year alone, in addition to Star Anise, his son Admire Daytona won the Group 2 UAE Derby, and he has seven other stakes winners. Last year, and still not having won a stakes race, his son Warp Speed was beaten a short head in the Group 1 Melbourne Cup.
Hibernation
The family of Star Anise went into hibernation for a few generations, but is very much alive now. Her dam, Epice Arome (Daiwa Major), won four races, and her claim to fame was relegating legendary sprinter Lord Kanaloa to second place in the Group 2 Centaur Stakes 13 years ago.
Bred by Northern Farm, Star Anise is the second stakes winner out of her dam, being preceded by Balsam Note (Maurice), a dual listed winner.
Epice Arome is some way the best of six winners, from eight runners, out of Ratafia (Cozzene). She bred the listed runner-up Alla Salute (Daiwa Major), a full-sister to Epice Arome. Star Anise’s third dam bred six winners, none of them stakes horses, but her half-brother Sakura Laurel (Rainbow Quest) was the Japanese champion older horse in 1996.