THANKS to his reputation for upgrading his mares, Rathbarry Stud’s Kodi Bear (Kodiac) has a bumper crop of two-year-olds to represent him in 2026, with about 130 on the ground. He has passed the 100-mark when it comes to getting juvenile winners, and six of his 13 stakes winners to date have earned their large blacktype at two.

Last year he was represented by the unbeaten Lifeplan, winner of the Group 2 Gimcrack Stakes, and he came a year after Leovanni captured the Group 2 Queen Mark Stakes at Royal Ascot. Kodi Bear’s son Go Bears Go, now in his second season at stud, won the Group 2 Railway Stakes at two and was Group 1-placed, while yet another pattern-winning two-year-old was Cowardofthecounty who landed the Group 3 Prix Francois Boutin at Deauville.

While Kodi Bear awaits his first Group 1 winner, it will surely come, and Lifeplan must be favourite to provide that breakthrough. A daughter, the listed winner Mystery Angel, was no match for Snowfall in the Oaks, but was nearly two lengths and more ahead of the other 12 runners. She was from her sire’s first crop, as was Measure Of Magic, another listed winner who ran third in Royal Ascot’s Group 1 Commonwealth Cup. The aforementioned Go Bears Go was only a length behind the winner when third in the Keeneland Phoenix Stakes.

Represents value

With some 270 mares covered in the past two seasons, at a fee of €15,000, it would appear to me that Kodi Bear’s slightly reduced price of €12,500 represents value for breeders, and it is perhaps noteworthy that his current crop of two-year-olds already includes a pair of winners, Say Squirrel at Saint-Cloud on Tuesday, and then A Bear Affair in the historic Brocklesby Stakes at Doncaster, the first juvenile event of the British racing season.

A Bear Affair is a third winner of the Brocklesby for trainer Richard Hannon in the last five stagings of the race, run appropriately this year in memory of Bill Turner who saddled six winners of the season’s curtain-raiser. Hannon saddled Persian Force in 2022, now at Tally-Ho Stud, and Norman’s Cay last year. The latter was fatally injured at Epsom on his next run in the Woodcote Stakes.

I mentioned earlier how Kodi Bear upgrades his mares, and here is another case. Now, this Rathbarry Stud-bred winner has a solid family, and was a good-looking yearling, making 68,000gns to Peter and Ross Doyle Bloodstock at last year’s Tattersalls Somerville Yearling Sale. He is the only foal out of Jeanie B, a Grade 2-placed daughter of Bated Breath (Dansili).

Mick Channon

Jeanie B started her racing career with Mick Channon, winning two of her six starts at two, over five and seven furlongs, and finishing in the first four on all her other attempts. She raced three times in Canada at three, winning once, and added a fourth win at four in the USA. She placed a number of times in graded and listed stakes raced, and was denied by a nose in the Grade 2 Royal North Stakes at Woodbine, After that Jeanie B was sold for $40,000 at Keeneland and brought to Ireland.

A half-sister to Neola (Foxwedge), a dual juvenile winner who was half a length second in the Listed Marygate Stakes at York, Jeanie B is a daughter of Effie B (Sixties Icon), another Mick Channon runner who won four times and placed a number of times in listed races at two. Effie B and her two stakes-placed daughters are the only blacktype horses of any kind in five generations of this family. Perhaps, with a little Kodi Bear magic, A Bear Affair can take it to the next level.

Maria Quiteria could prove a bargain

WHEN a winning trainer says that he had his runner about two-thirds fit, and she has just won her maiden by four and a half lengths, it is a no-brainer to nominate her as one to watch.

A first two-year-old winner for Robson de Aguiar, and winner number 12 in his fledgling career with his name on the licence, Maria Quiteria started as an odds-on favourite at Dundalk, had a stablemate in second place, and was winning the maiden which was the start of a great season in 2025 for Lady Iman, a two-time Group 3 winner. The trainer handles the filly for First Law Syndicate, and he already has plans for the winner to tackle pattern races.

Maria Quitéria [de Jesus] was a Brazilian soldier and national heroine who served in the Brazilian War of Independence two centuries ago dressed as a man. She was promoted to lieutenant and awarded the Imperial Order of the Cross. Quitéria, known as the ‘Brazilian Joan of Arc’, went on to be a legendary figure in that country. Quitéria was the first woman to serve in a military unit in Brazil.

Barronstown Stud

The equine Maria Quiteria was bred at David and Diane Nagle’s Barronstown Stud, and offered for sale as a foal, being retained at €75,000. It was not unreasonable for the breeders to expect her to make such a figure, as a half-brother by Wootton Bassett (Iffraaj) had sold in the same ring for €350,000, and a half-sister by the same stallion realised €125,000 in Arqana. However, when Maria Quiteria came back for Orby 1 last year she sold for just €25,000 to Capital Syndicate.

As an indication of how wrong the market judged the yearling filly, a couple of weeks later a half-brother to Maria Quiteria by St Mark’s Basilica (Siyouni) was purchased by Haras de Meautry, again at Goffs, for €130,000. These are four of the first five foals for Livvys Dream (Declaration Of War), and the one not mentioned was her first, Joyful Crown (Churchill). She raced four times in the USA at three, never showing a likelihood of being a winner. Perhaps that influenced the value of Maria Quiteria. Last year, Livvys Dream was covered by both St Mark’s Basilica and City Of Troy (Justify).

Livvys Dream was also bred by Barronstown, and came back into the fold after winning four times in England when trained by Charlie Hills. She is one of six winners for Briolette who raced for Diane Nagle and Sue Magnier, and was the last of 13 foals for the group-placed Cocotte (Troy), and that mare’s eighth winner. Bred and raced by Ballymacoll Stud, Cocotte was sold at the 1992 December Sale for 120,000gns, having had four fillies, and in the same year that her first colt was born.

Fortuitous purchase

This proved to be a fortuitous purchase. Cocotte’s first foal, Glowing Ardour (Dancing Brace), was already a juvenile group winner, but the colt on the ground turned out to be none other than the European champion older horse, Pilsudski (Polish Precedent). What a trailblazer he proved to be, with Group/Grade 1 wins in Britain, Ireland, Germany, the USA and Japan. After her purchase by Barronstown and the Magniers, Cocotte also produced the Japanese champion three-year-old filly Fine Motion (Danehill), and three more stakes winners.

This is also the family of Sadima (Sadler’s Wells) who brought distinction to Ballymacoll’s next door neighbours, Frank Dunne and Anne Marshall in Hamwood. Trained by John Oxx and a winner on her debut, Sadima bred two Group 1 winners, Youmzain (Sinndar) and Creachadoir (King’s Best).

Churchill (Galileo) has started his ninth northern hemisphere season at Coolmore at €15,000, his lowest fee yet. This is in spite of siring 33 stakes winners, three Group 1 winners, and that trio contains four-time Group 1 winner Blue Rose Cen, and dual Group 1 winner Vadeni, both of them also classic winners. Blue Cen Rose won the Group 1 Prix Marcel Boussac at two, and is one of eight juvenile blacktype winners for Churchill, himself a champion at that age when he beat Mehmas and Blue Point, among others, when taking the Dewhurst and National Stakes.