DEREK & GAY VEITCH, Ringfort Stud
Big Mojo (Ire), 2022 c. by Mohaather out of Jm Jackson, by No Nay Never
BRED by Ringfort Stud and The Ladies, Big Mojo broke his maiden in the Group 3 Molecomb Stakes at Goodwood, before placing second in the Group 2 Flying Childers Stakes and running fourth in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint.
Big Mojo made a winning reappearance in late April, winning the Group 3 Commonwealth Cup Trial Stakes at Ascot. Less than a month later the colt was only a length and a half behind the winner in the Group 2 Sandy Lane Stakes. Big Mojo came agonisingly close to his first Group 1 success when beaten a neck in the July Cup, but the Holy Grail was achieved when he was a clear winner of the Group 1 Haydock Sprint Cup.
His listed-placed dam Jm Jackson is a full-sister to Singforthemoment who won a listed race at two. They are among six winners out of the once-raced Cadeaux Genereux mare Kawn, a 500,000gns yearling. That valuation was based on the fact that she was a half-sister to Trans Island, a Group 2 winner and Group 1 Lockinge Stakes runner-up, and to the Group 3 winner Welsh Diva, both by Selkirk.
Big Mojo is the first offspring of his dam, and he sold as a yearling for 175,000gns. He is the flag-carrier for Mohaather who beat Circus Maximus and Siskin in the Group 1 Sussex Stakes over the same trip at Goodwood, a performance that drew rave reviews, and was achieved in a faster time than that recorded by Kingman to win the same race.
TONY O’CALLAGHAN, Tally-Ho Stud
Wise Approach (Ire), 2023 c. by Mehmas out of Sagely, by Frozen Power
WHAT a journey Sagely has been on. Sold as a foal for €3,000, she was a pinhooking success when resold for €35,000. She won twice and was bought by Tally-Ho Stud for 47,000gns. She had a solid pedigree, and her third dam Saganeca was responsible for Group 1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner Sagamix. Saganeca sold to John Magnier as a 15-year-old at Keeneland for $2 million.
Sagely was mated for her first season at stud with Ardad, a horse that Tally-Ho bred and who was a smart juvenile, taking the Listed Windsor Castle Stakes at Royal Ascot before adding the Group 2 Flying Childers Stakes. He was standing his first season, and the resulting colt proved to be a smart breezer and was bought by Blandford Bloodstock for £110,000 at Goffs UK.
Named Perfect Power, he was the French champion juvenile after winning the Group 1 Prix Morny, and the champion three-year-old sprinter in Europe after landing the Group 1 Commonwealth Cup at Royal Ascot. He won twice at the highest level as a juvenile, adding the Group 1 Middle Park Stakes to his Morny victory.
Four years later, and the 1,000,000gns yearling purchase Wise Approach (Mehmas) has given Sagely her second Group 1 Middle Park Stakes winner. Like his half-brother, he too raced in the Norfolk Stakes and Prix Morny, finishing second at Royal Ascot and third in France. This past week, it could be argued that M.V, Magnier picked up a bargain, giving 480,000gns for a yearling full-sister to Wise Approach. If she is even unraced, she has huge breeding potential.
AIDAN & ANNEMARIE O’BRIEN, Whisperview Trading Ltd
Precise (Ire), 2023 f. by Starspangledbanner out of Way To My Heart, by Galileo
LIKE Ringfort and Tally-Ho Studs, Aidan and Annemarie O’Brien’s Whisperview Trading is a regular nominee for these awards, and like all the others this month, they have won the coveted Breeder of the Year award. They are back this month because of the Group 1 Moyglare Stud Stakes winner Precise.
Precise added the Group 1 to an earlier Group 3 victory at Goodwood, and she has now won three of her four starts. In doing so she became the ninth top-flight winner for Starspangledbanner. Precise joins Prix Morny winner The Wow Signal and Cheveley Park Stakes winner Millisle as juvenile Group 1 winners sired by Starspangledbanner, while multiple winners at this level are State Of Rest (four times) and California Spangle (three wins).
The Moyglare Stud Stakes winner is the third progeny of Way To My Heart to win. It was no real surprise after the Moyglare success to find that her Wootton Bassett half-brother was withdrawn from Tattersalls Book 1 this past week. Precise has the great Nureyev filly Sonic Lady as her fourth dam.
The O’Brien couple are no strangers to this family, as Annemarie gave just €25,000 for the third dam of Precise, Rainbow Quest’s daughter Lady Icarus in 2004. Four of her five winners won stakes races, two were Group 1 classic-placed, and a couple of daughters bred Group 1 performers, all by Galileo; Kingfisher (second in the Ascot Gold Cup and Irish Derby), High Definition (runner-up in the Tattersalls Gold Cup), and Innisfree, second in the Vertem Trophy.
JOHN MAGNIER, Coolmore
True Love (Ire), 2023 f. by No Nay Never out of Alluringly, by Fastnet Rock
A SURPRISE defeat in the Group 1 Keeneland Phoenix Stakes for True Love was quickly forgotten when she made her breakthrough at the highest level, winning a very good renewal of the Group 1 Cheveley Park Stakes. Her three wins now have all come in pattern races, as she took both the Group 2 Queen Mary Stakes at Royal Ascot and the Curragh’s Group 2 Railway Stakes.
True Love is a full-sister to Group 2 winner Truly Enchanting, and one of three pattern winners for her dam, a daughter of the recently deceased Fastnet Rock. The other is Group 2 winner Lily Pond. True Love further embellishes one of the best families in the stud book.
Alluringly gained her stakes win at Gowran Park, was beaten by Enable when second in the Listed Cheshire Oaks, and third to the same filly in the Group 1 Oaks.
True Love’s third dam is All Too Beautiful, the Group 1 Oaks second and Group 3 winner whose siblings include full-brothers Galileo and Black Sam Bellemy, half-brother Sea The Stars, and half-sister My Typhoon – all Group/Grade 1 winners. Their dam Urban Sea won the Group 1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.
All Too Beautiful, bought for 1,100,000gns as a foal in 2001, bred three winners, all of whom earned blacktype. Her daughter Wonder Of Wonders won the Listed Cheshire Oaks, and placed in three Group 1 races, the Oaks at Epsom, its Irish equivalent, and the Yorkshire version. Wonder Of Wonders’ half-sister Sparrow is dam of the Group 1 Cox Plate hero Sir Dragonet.