TWO mares who provided connections, and a large band of racegoers, with lots of pleasure have both bid farewell to the racing scene, and this came about after the pair finished second and fourth in the Group 1 Prix Royal-Oak at ParisLongchamp.

The Group 1 winners will next spring be covered, and sometime in 2026 or 2027 we will hopefully have the pleasure of seeing their progeny grace our racecourses. Now connections have to start considering suitable sires for the pair of racing stars.

Search For A Song is a real favourite of her owner, Eva-Maria Bucher-Haefner, and no wonder. From a family that has a long history with Moyglare Stud, almost matching the time since the farm was founded, the six-year-old Search For A Song is one of three Group 1 winners from the late Polished Gem (Danehill). The latter mare had 10 foals, runners and winners, eight of them stakes winners. She was well-named for sure.

Half of the stakes winners out of Polished Gem were sired by Galileo (Sadler’s Wells), and the best of the rest is the 2022 champion stayer-elect Kyprios, successful this year in four Group 1 races, the Gold Cup at Royal Ascot, the Goodwood Cup, the Irish St Leger and the Prix du Cadran. Just over a length is all that denied Polished Gem becoming one of the very select group of mares to breed four or more top-level winners, the distance her daughter Sapphire (Medicean) was beaten by Izzy Top in the Pretty Polly Stakes at the Curragh.

Media darling

Princess Zoe (Jukebox Jury) is a year older than Search For A Song, and she is a social media darling after her ‘rags to riches’ rise to Group 1 glory. She won the Prix du Cadran two years ago. Runner-up in the Group 1 Gold Cup at Ascot, she also won the Group 3 Sagaro Stakes at the same track and a listed race at Galway.

In all, Princess Zoe won eight times, having twice been successful at three in her native Germany where she was bred at Gestüt Höny-Hof. She is the first Group 1 winner on the flat in her female family for at least four generations, and the first on the level for her Burgage Stud sire Jukebox Jury, though he is also responsible for the Grade 1 Triumph Hurdle winner Farclas and the dual Italian Grade 1 hurdle winner Stuke.

A son of Montjeu (Sadler’s Wells), Jukebox Jury was one of the best two-year-olds of his year, winning the Group 2 Royal Lodge Stakes at Ascot, defeating Cityscape, and ran second in the Group 1 Racing Post Trophy. His first Group 1 success came the next year in the Preis von Europa at Cologne, while his other victories were in the Group 2 Grand Prix de Deauville and Group 3 Rose of Lancaster Stakes at Haydock Park. He was also second to Champs Elysees in the Grade 1 Canadian International Stakes at Woodbine.

Fine style

After another Group 2 win as a four-year-old in the Jockey Club Stakes at Newmarket, Jukebox Jury ended his career in fine style the next season, dead-heating with Duncan in The Irish Field St Leger, as well as winning the Group 2 Prix Kergorlay at Deauville.

Princess Zoe is a half-sister to the Group 2 Badener Meile winner Palace Prince (Areion) who was runner-up in the Group 1 German Derby. In fact, all of his six victories were in stakes races, the others being three Group 3 events and a pair of listed races.

They are among five winners from the winning Palace Princess, a daughter of Tiger Hill (Danehill), and she had three group-winning full-siblings, notably Group 2 winning brothers Peppercorn (Big Shuffle) and Pepperstorm.

Princess Zoe’s grandam Pasca (Lagunas) bred eight winners in total, and her third dam Palmas (Neckar) won four times in the then West Germany and produced 12 winners, that dozen headed by the Group 2 Preis der Diana-German Oaks winner Padang (Ile De Bourbon).