It's All In The Breeding

By John Berry

The achievement of 1988 Breeders' Cup Distaff winner Personal Ensign (Private Account) in breeding a Breeders' Cup winner in My Flag (Easy Goer) who herself went on to breed a Breeders' Cup winner Storm Flag Flying (Storm Cat) is always going to be hard to beat. However, Miss Finland (Aus) (Redoutes's Choice {Aus}) is shaping up very well. She was Australia's champion 3-year-old filly in 2006/'07 when she won the G1 Thousand Guineas at Caulfield in 2006 and now she has bred this year's G1 Thousand Guineas heroine Stay With Me (Aus) (Street Cry {Ire}). Like Personal Ensign, Miss Finland was an outstanding racehorse. Trained for Arrowfield Stud principal John Messara by David Hayes, she was dominant at ages two and three, and then very good at four. As a juvenile she was beaten by her stablemate Nadeem (Aus) (Redoute's Choice {Aus}) in Melbourne's principal 2-year-old race, the G1 Blue Diamond S. at Caulfield, before putting matters right in the biggest race for juveniles in the land, the G1 Golden Slipper at Rosehill in Sydney. As a 3-year-old she won the G1 Thousand Guineas and G1 Victoria Oaks in Melbourne in the spring before snaring two more Group One races in Sydney in the autumn; while at four she continued to excel, including when beating subsequent Royal Ascot winner Haradasun (Aus) (Fusaichi Pegasus) in the G2 Memsie S. at Caulfield.

Arrowfield patriarch Redoute's Choice (Aus) (Danehill) is now established as arguably the pre-eminent stallion in Australia, and Miss Finland (like the aforementioned Nadeem a member of his third crop) was one of the horses who cemented his reputation. Now she is cementing her own reputation by proving as distinguished a broodmare as she was a racehorse.

It was not, though, just from Redoute's Choice that Miss Finland got her merit. She comes from one of the best families in the stud book, descending from the great English broodmare Absurdity, a daughter of Melton who was born in 1903.

The fortune of the Joel brothers, Jack and Solly, came from diamond mines in South Africa, pioneered by their uncle Barney Barnato. The brothers developed their studs in England in the early years of the 20th century, and Jack Joel's mare Absurdity proved crucial to the family's success. Absurdity's offspring included 1911 Middle Park Stakes winner Absurd (who went on to be a multiple champion sire in New Zealand), Jest (winner of the 1,000 Guineas and Oaks in 1913) and Black Jester, winner of the St Leger in 1914. Jest then bred Mr Joel's 1921 Derby winner Humorist.

During subsequent decades the winners kept coming from this family. Absurdity's great-granddaughter Picture Play won the 1,000 Guineas for Jack Joel in 1944, while the family yielded the Classic winners Royal Palace (winner of the Derby in 1967) and Fairy Footsteps (who took the G1 1,000 Guineas in 1981) for Mr Joel's son Jim. Another good winner for Jim Joel from the same family was the Mill Reef filly Lady Moon, a great-great-granddaughter of Picture Play. In his dotage, Jim Joel took the decision to disperse his stud. Consequently his stock went to Tattersalls' December Sale in 1986, where Sheikh Mohammed bought many of them. Lady Moon, in foal to Kris (GB) (Sharpen Up {GB}), was one of the Sheikh's purchases, and she repaid her price many times over, not least thanks to the unborn foal she was carrying at the time, Moon Cactus (GB).

Moon Cactus' finest hour on the track came when she finished second in the G1 Prix de Diane in 1990, filling the quinella for daughters of Kris trained by Henry Cecil. She was beaten only by her stablemate and paternal half-sister Rafha (GB) who is now best known as dam of the top-class sires Invincible Spirit (Ire) (Green Desert) and Kodiac (GB) (Danehill). Even greater glory was to follow, though; Moon Cactus' first foal was Sheikh Mohammed's home-bred 1995 Oaks winner Moonshell (Ire) (Sadler's Wells). In 1999 Moonshell foaled a Woodman (Mr Prospector) filly called Forest Pearl who found her way to Australia under the ownership of Sheikh Mohammed's brother Sheikh Maktoum al Maktoum, whose Gainsborough Stud bred Miss Finland thanks to her mating in 2002 with Redoute's Choice.

Miss Finland's daughter Stay With Me is currently one of two high-class Australian 3-year-olds descending from Absurdity. The other is G3 San Domenico S. winner Japonisme (Aus) (Choisir {Aus}). In the northern hemisphere the family is doing equally well. Esoterique (Ire) (Danehill Dancer {Ire}) flew its flag by taking the G1 Sun Chariot S. at Newmarket earlier this month, while Kodi Bear (Ire) (Kodiac {GB}) should have a good chance of crediting it with yet another Group One success in the Queen Elizabeth II S. at Ascot next weekend.

The credit for Stay With Me's success should not, of course, go entirely to Miss Finland. The filly's sire Street Cry is obviously a massive influence, and her merit is yet another reason to rue the passing of the Darley stalwart who died last year. Thanks to champions such as Zenyatta and Street Sense, Street Cry proved himself an outstanding stallion. His results Down Under have been similarly impressive, courtesy of the likes of Shocking (Aus), Whobegotyou (Aus) and 2013 G1 Caulfield Guineas winner Long John (Aus). Now Stay With Me has added her name to the long list of his top-class progeny.