BRED by Liz Stack, The Wow Signal (Starspangledbanner) had all the credentials to become a successful sire – apart from the fact that he was sub fertile.
In that regard, he started his stud career in a similar fashion to his sire, though Starspangledbanner later overcame his initial problems.
The Wow Signal spent a season at Swettenham Stud in Australia, a time that resulted in 12 offspring. That dozen included How Womantic, a Group 3 winning filly. He then spent two seasons at Haras de Bouquetat, under the Al Shaqab banner, and sired eight and seven foals respectively in two crops.
Having had more than his fair share of trials and tribulations, he then succumbed as a six-year-old following a battle with laminitis, a fight he lost in March, 2018. Had he survived, and his fertility had improved, he could well have established himself as a sire of note. Each of his three crops between both hemispheres produced a stakes winner, and his 11% stakes winners to foals ratio is noteworthy.
He won three of his four starts at two, his only season to race, and built on his success in the Group 2 Coventry Stakes at Royal Ascot by travelling to France where he added the Group 1 Prix Morny, an effort that earned him the title of champion juvenile colt in France. He had been sold as a yearling for just €13,000 at Tattersalls Ireland, before Lynn Lodge Stud sold him to John Quinn’s son Sean for £50,000 at the Ascot Breeze Up Sale.
The death of The Wow Signal occurred a fortnight before the Anabaa (Danzig) mare Marechale gave birth to a bay filly by the stallion, and she was later named Coeursamba.
Familiar name
That name will be familiar now as the filly rewarded the €400,000 spent on her at the Arqana Arc Sale last year by Haras de Saubouas by causing an upset and beating the 1000 Guineas heroine Mother Earth in the French equivalent, the Group 1 Poule d’Essai des Pouliches. This was her first stakes win, though she had been group-placed at two and she now carries the colours of Abdullah bin Fahad Al Attiyah.
Her sale price last October was exactly 10 times the figure she brought when purchased by Jean Claude Rouget in the Arqana v2 Yearling Sale in 2019. Even then she had shown a profit, having been pinhooked from a foal where she cost €24,000, three times her sires covering fee. She is the outstanding runner in four generations of her family, though her dam line is a solid one, occasionally throwing up a listed winner or group-placed performer.
Her fourth dam Pink Pearl (Val De Loir) won a couple of minor races in France, but she was placed in both the Group 1 Prix Saint-Alary and the Prix Vermeille. Couersamba was bred by the Mestrallet family and she comes from a family nurtured by the Head family at Haras du Quesnay.
Indeed, the Head family bred and raced Marechale, and her career got off to a most promising start when, on her only run at two, in December, she was runner-up over nine and a half furlongs at Deauville. Sadly it was downhill after that and she never finished closer than fourth (once) in 15 subsequent outings, eventually being claimed.
Sent to stud, she has had six foals, four runners and all have won. The performances of her early offspring would not have foretold that she would become a classic-producer for sure. Her only colt is her current two-year-old, Senza Malocchio (Olympic Glory).
She is also dam of Comme Une Grande (Alexandros), winner of one of her 35 starts, the stakes-placed, seven-time winner Lady Sidney (Mr Sidney), the winner La Grande Zame (Zambezi Sun), the unraced Twelveoclock (Sinndar), and the weekend’s classic winner.
Stack connection
The Wow Signal was the first Group 1 winner for his sire Starspangledbanner (Choisir), and from the stallion’s first crop. He has been joined on that podium now by Millisle. The weekend past has thrown up another connection between the Stack family and the Coolmore stallion Starspangledbanner. The champion sprinter in both Europe and Australia is the sire of Hermana Estrella.
Bred at Mark and Aisling Gittins’ Castlefarm Stud, the breeders of Shalaa, Hermana Estrella was snapped up for a mere 2,500gns as a foal at Newmarket, and then she traded on for £42,000 as a yearling when purchased by de Burgh Bloodstock and Fozzy Stack.
Racing for David Keoghan, in the colours carried to Group 2 Royal Ascot success by Lolly For Dolly, Hermana Estrella took the unusual step of making her debut in, and winning, a Group 3 race.
The six-furlong Coolmore Stud Irish EBF Fillies Sprint Stakes has been won in recent years by Sky Lantern and Alpha Centauri, and is a race that richly deserves its Group 3 status.
The performance of Hermana Estrella on her debut was in stark contrast to that of her full-sister Kurino Heidi who made a single start last year in Japan, finishing last of the 15 runners in a maiden.
No-brainer
Mating the dam of the weekend’s Group 3 winner, the unraced The Last Sister (Lord Shanakill), with Starspangledbanner made great sense. The Last Sister is a half-sister to Lady Springbank, a daughter of the stallion’s sire Choisir (Danehill Dancer). She was saddled by Paul Deegan for Mark Gittens to land the Group 3 C L Weld Park Stakes at two and add the Group 3 Leopardstown 1000 Guineas Trial Stakes the following year.
Lady Springbank was the best of the six winners from Serera (Kendor), twice a winner in her native Germany. Her dam was classic-placed there.
Hermana Estrella is the eighth group winner and 16th stakes winner for Starspangledbanner, winner of both the Group 1 Caulfield Guineas and Oakleigh Plate in Australia, and successful 11 years ago in the Group 1 Golden Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot and the July Cup at Newmarket. His fee this year and last is €22,500, a shade less than its peak in 2015.