IT will come as no surprise that Mosa Mine (Exceed And Excel) is currently at Castlehyde Stud where she is visiting the outstanding northern and southern hemisphere Group 1-winning sprinter Starspangledbanner (Choisir).

The 20-year-old, who commands a €60,000 fee this season, the highest of his career, will have few, if any, better mares to cover this year.

Mosa Mine is owned by Kelly Thomas of Maywood Stud in Wales, and this Carmarthenshire-based farm is celebrating its 20th anniversary year in great style. Kelly was overjoyed in the immediate aftermath of the Group 1 Tattersalls Irish 2000 Guineas on Saturday, won by Mosa Mine’s son Gstaad (Starspangledbanner). “This is a pinch me moment” she admitted, enjoying the win with husband Huw and two of their children.

In the short time that I had to speak with her, we got on to the topic of the success enjoyed by older mares when it comes to producing Group 1 winners.

Many believe that a mare’s ability to get high-class winners diminishes greatly as they age, but Mosa Mine’s pair of top-level winners, Vandeek (Havana Grey) and Gstaad, were foaled when she was 14 and 16. She currently has a foal, her first since Sunday’s classic winner, by Wootton Bassett (Iffraaj), and what a valuable filly she is.

Some encouragement

As to whether that filly on the ground could really become a third Group 1 winner in time for Mosa Mine, I offered Kelly some encouragement. I told her that of the 11 mares who are on record as the dams of four or more Group/Grade 1 flat winners, eight had at least one at the age of 15 or older. In fact, two of the three mares who are responsible for five top-level winners are Chaldee (three of her five Group 1 winners were bred when she was 15, 17 and 22), and Eight Carat (three of her five were bred when she was 16, 17 and 18).

For the record, the remaining six on this list are Dahlia (produced one of hers at 18 and a Group 2 winner later), Darara who produced her last two at 22 and 24, another Aga Khan mare Ebaziya who foaled Estimate at 20, Fall Aspen (produced one at 16 and a Group 2 winner at 19), current ‘blue hen’ In Clover produced her most recent at 19, while Urban Sea had Sea The Stars at 17 and Born To Sea three years later.

With a serious upgrade in terms of quality of sire Mosa Mine visited, you would not bet against the Wootton Bassett being another racing star.

The story of Mosa Mine, bred by Thomas and sold as a yearling for £9,000, is well told, and the breeder bought her back for £800 as a four-year-old. In a story of hope for small breeders, Mosa Mine had four living offspring in her first eight years at stud, another who died after birth, and she had three years with no foal. The four foals all won, in England, Sweden and Switzerland. This is not the background you might think would lead to becoming a dual Group 1 producer.

Missed years

After two missed years. Mosa Mine had Vandeek, winner at two of the Group 1 Middle Park Stakes and Prix Morny, and now a Cheveley Park Stud sire. He covered more than 160 mares last year in his first season at stud.

Next is Gstaad who was placed second in three European Group 1 races at two, and perhaps was not accorded due recognition by some for his victory in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf. With yet another runner-up finish in a Group 1, the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket, it was only just that Gstaad should gain his success in the Irish equivalent.

The Wootton Bassett filly foal out of Mosa Mine is just her third daughter. Thankfully, her first foal, Lady Kheleyf (Kheleyf), is back in the broodmare band at Maywood Stud, repatriated from Sweden where she won five times up to the age of seven, having been successful as a juvenile in England. The other daughter, Doncaster Rosa (Alhebayeb), a winner at three in Switzerland, cost Tally-Ho Stud 90,000gns in 2023.

THE regard I have for Annemarie O’Brien as a spotter of talent in pedigrees has been expressed many times, and mostly achieved from mares that she and Aidan have acquired for relatively small money. Few transactions will match the bargain IR£12,000 she and her late father Joe Crowley paid for the dam of Rock Of Gibraltar, but there have been many others.

In 2004, Annemarie paid €25,000 for the unraced Lady Icarus (Rainbow Quest), part of the annual cull of mares by Darley, and a then seven-year-old daughter of the brilliant Sonic Lady (Nureyev), who 40 years ago was rated the best three-year-old filly in Europe. The filly being carried by Lady Icarus was the subsequent listed winner and group-placed Mystical Lady (Halling). This was the first of four stakes winners for Lady Icarus, and her son Furner’s Green (Dylan Thomas) was placed in the Group 1 Poule d’Essai des Poulains-French 2000 Guineas.

It seemed for years that Group 1 success was going to elude this family. Lady Icarus’s stakes-winning daughter Palace (Fastnet Rock) bred two colts who were second at the highest-level, the full-brothers High Definition (Galileo) and Innisfree. The story continued with Mystical Lady at stud when her Galileo (Sadler’s Wells) son Kingfisher was beaten by one other in both the Group 1 Irish Derby and Ascot Gold Cup.

Well, the Group 1-winning drought has been well and truly reversed, thanks to a placed daughter of Mystical Lady, Way To My Heart (Galileo). With two winners under her belt, the filly No Way It’s Today (Showcasing) who won six times in the USA at four and five, and her half-brother Kodiaction (Kodiac), successful four times in Sweden, Way To My Heart has jumped to another level with her third winner, daughter Precise (Starspangledbanner).

Precise has won five of her seven starts, adding the Group 1 Tattersalls Irish 1000 Guineas to wins last year in both the Group 1 Moyglare Stud Stakes and Fillies’ Mile. She was rated joint-best filly at two in Europe.

Outstanding achievement

What an outstanding achievement for Starspangledbanner to sire both Irish classic winners at the weekend, and what a credit too to connections who persevered with him when his stud career got off to a disappointing start.

He retired to Coolmore in 2011 and sired the Group 1 Prix Morny winner The Wow Signal in his first crop. After one more season in Ireland, and after a fruitless return to the track, he remained in Australia where he was at Rosemont Stud, and did not return to Tipperary until 2015, a result of his first crop success.

Starspangledbanner’s first crop was nothing short of sensational, with a quarter of them winning a stakes race. In addition to The Wow Signal, he sired Group 2 Queen Mary Stakes winner Anthem Alexander. Having been initially adjudged to be sub-fertile, he has thrived after careful management and will potentially be represented by some 149 two-year-olds this year. It is certain that he will add significantly to his current tally of 10 Group 1 winners, a list that includes State Of Rest.