Breeding Plans: Moyglare Stud

And so the cycle starts afresh. Even as Free Eagle (Ire) (High Chaparral {Ire}) retires, the stud that raised him is finalizing the matings that will extend his own family tree and, with any luck, sustain its broader traditions of excellence on and off the track. True, his final start proved a huge anti-climax for Dermot Weld, his trainer, and the team at Moyglare Stud. Sent off favorite for the G1 Longines Hong Kong Cup earlier this month, Free Eagle dropped right out to finish last–a shadow of the horse that toughed things out so pluckily in the G1 Prince of Wales's S. at Royal Ascot in June. But while no obvious explanation at first suggested itself for so tame an effort, it was a different story as soon as he returned to Ireland.

“He was a very sick horse for a week after he got back,” Moyglare's Fiona Craig explained. “I'd say he must have been incubating it going into the race, and that the stress of that brought it on.”

Free Eagle has responded well to treatment, however, and will now be transferred to his new home at the Irish National Stud, where he starts with a fee of €20,000.

“It's a shame they weren't able to have him there a bit earlier,” Craig said. “But I know quite a few people have been in to see him at Rosewell, and seen what a bonny horse he is. I think they're happy with the response they've been getting: all the shares are sold, and I believe plenty of people are planning to use both nominations themselves.”

The Haefner family's long-serving breeding advisor is recommending a couple of their own mares to support the young stallion, both She's Our Mark (GB) (Ishiguru) and I'm Yours (GB) (Invincible Spirit{Ire}) being stakes winners.

“But of course he couldn't be entertained as a possibility for probably a third of our broodmare band,” Craig said. “Because so many of them are related to him.”

That is just an extreme version of the perennial challenge facing the Haefner stud: how to maintain diversity in a gene pool saturated, especially in Ireland, by such dominant sirelines as Sadler's Wells and Danehill.

“It's an absolute nightmare, and getting worse all the time,” Craig said candidly. “That's why some of our matings will sometimes seem a bit odd: you find yourself with no choice sometimes but to fling a mare at something a bit random. If you get a filly, after all, one day you'll need to be able to breed them to something. People are frantically looking for an outcross. That's why losing Scat Daddy (Johannesburg) the other day was such a disaster for Coolmore; and that's also why Dark Angel (Ire) (Acclamation {GB}) is getting so many mares even at 60 grand.”

The search for balance has prompted Moyglare to invest in fresh blood–notably Discreet Marq (Discreet Cat), a GI Del Mar Oaks winner bought for $2.4 million at Fasig-Tipton's Kentucky sale in November 2014. Out of a Marquetry mare, her first partner will be Galileo (Ire) (Sadler's Wells {Ire}).

“She gives us Storm Cat on top of Mr Prospector,” Craig explained. “She has tons of speed in her pedigree and was a top-class racemare at seven furlongs to a mile. Most of our mares don't have loads of speed, and obviously Storm Cat works very well back into Galileo.”

Much the same logic applied, in 2012, to the acquisition of Switch (Quiet American) at the equivalent sale for $4.3 million. Having so far produced a Galileo filly and Dansili (GB) (Danehill) colt, she is due to Galileo in May and then returns to Coolmore's champion. Then there is Es Que (GB) (Inchinor {GB}), bought privately in foal to Galileo, a complete outcross as the daughter of a Bering (GB) (Arctic Tern) mare. Having delivered her “lovely chestnut filly” by Galileo, she is now in foal to Oasis Dream (GB) (Green Desert) and next scheduled to visit Invincible Spirit (Ire) (Green Desert). Even Terrific (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), another recent acquisition, was singled out for her freedom from Danehill. In foal to War Front (Danzig), she will duly be able to visit Dansili for her new owners.

“You don't buy a mare like that without having a plan in place already,” Craig said. “And she was bought very much with that mating in mind.”

But the quest for equilibrium, at Moyglare, is not merely genetic. The idea, after all, is to breed runners–not yearlings with commercial pedigrees.

“The physical match is vital,” Craig confirmed. “Many of these mares were with us as foals. We knew what their dams looked like, often their great-grandmothers as well. It doesn't always work, but there are traits we know to expect. With young mares, you do need to see the foal before you can finally commit them to a stallion. Until you see the foal, you're working blind: it might be an elephant, or it might be a dainty little thing.”

A case in point is the talented, Unaccompanied (Ire) (Danehill Dancer {Ire}), now in Kentucky and expecting her first foal by Distorted Humor (Forty Niner). She will proceed to Elusive Quality (Gone West). Unaccompanied is one of 10 mares–out of a total of 40 to be bred in 2016–tracing to Talking Picture (Speak John), the champion American 2-year-old filly of 1973. Others include Talking Picture's grand-daughter Polished Gem (Ire) (Danehill), the dam of Free Eagle, who is due to Galileo in April and provisionally set to return to him thereafter. Sapphire (Ire) (Medicean {GB}), Polished Gem's first foal and herself a

Group 2 winner, is heading the same way once delivering her foal by Kingman (GB) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}).

Another granddaughter of Talking Picture is Utterly Heaven (Ire) (Danehill), whose son, Forgotten Rules (Ire) (Nayef), was third in the G1 Gold Cup at Royal Ascot last summer. Utterly Heaven is due to Dubawi (Ire) (Dubai Millennium {GB}) and then has a date with Raven's Pass (Elusive Quality).

The second American bedrock of Moyglare was Grenzen (Grenfall), whose daughters produced international stars Media Puzzle (Theatrical {Ire}), Refuse To Bend (Ire) (Sadler's Wells) and Go And Go (GB) (Be My Guest). Her line is represented, among others, by Society Hostess (Seeking The Gold).

“She's one fast mare we have had,” Craig noted. “A very good racemare, beaten a nose in a Group 1, and she started off with quite a nice Henrythenavigator (Ire) (Kingmambo) who was stakes-placed before unfortunately fracturing a leg, and has a Frankel (GB) (Galileo {Ire}) yearling just gone into training.”

Currently in foal to Sea The Stars (Ire) (Cape Cross {Ire}), Society Hostess will visit Fastnet Rock (Aus) (Danehill).

Another Moyglare matriarch, In Anticipation (Ire) (Sadler's Wells), meanwhile, remains very ably represented by her daughter Irresistible Jewel (Ire) (Danehill). Herself a winner of the G2 Ribblesdale S., Irresistible Jewel produced Princess Highway (Street Cry {Ire}) to win the same race by six lengths in 2012, and has two other group winners besides.

“Irresistible Jewel looks like a middleweight hunter, with a plain old head,” Craig said. “But she has produced three very good horses. It would be nice if the Dubawi foal she is carrying turns out to be a filly, and the idea is to send her back to him afterwards.”

Princess Highway, for her part, is in foal to Medaglio d'Oro (El Prado {Ire}) in Kentucky, and next returns to War Front, sire of her first daughter. Her half-sister, Mad About You (Ire) (Indian Ridge {GB}), also has a glamorous booking in the form of Oasis Dream (GB) (Green Desert).

Majestic Silver (Ire) (Linamix {Fr}) is another granddaughter of In Anticipation quickly developing a strong profile.

“She was mad as a hatter, and unraced as a result,” Craig recalled. “But she was also the most superb athlete, who just floated over the ground, and a half-sister to a Group 1-placed mare in Profound Beauty (Ire) (Danehill). Everyone said get rid of her, but I thought that if we could get her movement, you'd get a racehorse.”

Sure enough, Carla Bianca (Ire) (Dansili {GB}) is a dual group winner for Weld and now hunting American black-type with Christophe Clement; Joailliere (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) won her debut by seven lengths this spring before getting jarred up in the

G1 Irish 1000 Guineas, and also stays in training; and True Solitaire (Ire) (Oasis Dream {GB}) was beaten a short head in the G2 Beresford S. in September. Majestic Silver, due to deliver a sibling to Carla Bianca in February, is then pencilled in for Sea The Stars. As for Profound Beauty, she goes to Dalakhani (Ire) (Darshaan {GB}).

Having expanded to 160 at its numerical peak, Moyglare now has 117 horses divided between its racing and breeding rosters and the intention is eventually to get that number down to around 100. One who has now served her time is Lady Luck (Ire) (Kris {GB}), the dam of Casual Conquest (Ire) (Hernando {Fr}). Having failed to get in foal, and rising 20, she has been retired. Needless to say, she will be looked after as she deserves, with two daughters on the stud ready to take over the baton: another new start, another cycle.

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