NEW Year’s Eve was a good day for the connections of Goodyearforroses, but it could have been even better. The Irish-bred daughter of Azamour landed the Listed Robert J Frankel Stakes at Santa Anita, but the race was downgraded from Grade 3 status after it was transferred from the turf to the dirt. This is the normal practice in the USA when races are moved due to a change in weather conditions.

The race was run and won on the eve of Goodyearforroses turning five and this was her second stakes victory. Earlier last year she captured the Flaming Page Stakes at Woodbine in Canada and she was placed there also in the Grade 3 Maple Leaf Stakes.

Goodyearforroses started her racing career in England and she won on her debut in the colours of her breeders, The Hornets. This was at Leicester when the Rae Guest-trained filly claimed the scalps of Redstart (a subsequent Group 3 winner) and Star Of Seville, later a Group 1 winner, over seven furlongs. She won at odds of 33/1, nine years after her dam Guilia, also trained by Guest, was a 50/1 winner on her debut at two over seven furlongs at Thirsk.

Two unplaced runs in listed races at three followed for Goodyearforroses before she left England and headed to Canada to continue her racing career. She is the winner of four races since that move and is a mare on the upgrade. She has earned almost $200,000 in her career to date.

Goodyearforroses is the best of four winning offspring from the Galileo mare Guilia. After landing her maiden at long odds at two, Guilia started her three-year-old season with a runner-up finish, beaten a head, in a listed race at Newbury and then was pitched in at the deep end, making her third career start in the Group 1 Epsom Oaks, finishing fifth behind Alexandrova. She ran a further eight times over two seasons, always in blacktype races, but it was not until her final start that she was placed again.

Bred by Newsells Park Stud, Guilia has been sold on four occasions during her lifetime. She was consigned through Voute Sales as a yearling in 2004 and sold to Emma O’Gorman for 20,000gns. She reappeared five months later in a breeze-up sale at Newmarket and doubled in value, selling to Matthews Breeding and Racing.

As a four-year-old she was back again at Tattersalls and this time Charlie Gordon-Watson signed the docket for her at 87,000gns. Her most recent appearance was at the December Sale in 2015 when, carrying to Zoffany, she sold to BBA Ireland for 50,000gns. The foal she was carrying was a colt, her sixth offspring, and last year she visited Holy Roman Emperor. Guilia is now owned by Donoughmore Bloodstock.

Guilia has four winners and a placed runner from her first five foals and they also include the stakes-placed Oratorio gelding God’s Speed. Guilia is a daughter of and the best of four winners produced by the group-placed Lesgor, a daughter of Irish River. The best of the others was Business As Usual, a multiple winner in Hong Kong.

Lesgor was a daughter of Let’s Sgor, a New Zealand-bred daughter of Creag-An-Sgor who won the Group 1 Middle Park Stakes and was one of the best juveniles in a year which was headed by El Gran Senor. A son of Captain James, Creag-An-Sgor also won the Richmond Stakes and Greenham Stakes and was runner-up in the Sussex Stakes.

Sent to stud in New Zealand initially, he later transferred to Australia where he stood for a brief time before his death in 2003. Let’s Sgor was easily his best progeny and she was the champion three-year-old filly in New Zealand in 1990, her six victories including the Group 1 Champion Stakes and New Zealand Oaks.