Rose Blossoms For Profound Moyglare Family

The Moyglare Stud principals enjoyed many a good day at the races courtesy of their game staying homebred mare Profound Beauty–so much so that the multiple group winner was kept in training up to the age of seven. An unconventionally late start to her broodmare career held the obvious consequence of fewer foals out of Profound Beauty, but the mare has rewarded her connections with a stakes-winning filly from her first foal to hit the ground, the three-for-three unbeaten Rose De Pierre (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}), who won Tuesday's Listed Platinum S. at Cork.

Moyglare's Fiona Craig explained that Profound Beauty's broodmare career was set back yet further by her failing to get in foal her first season at stud.

“We kept the mare in training until she was seven, so you're slightly on the backfoot there, and then the first time around she came up empty to Sea The Stars,” Craig said. “So she was actually nine producing this filly, but that's what happens when you race them up to that age.”

Craig described Rose De Pierre as “a bit of a first foal.” Profound Beauty herself did not run until April of her 3-year-old year, and thus it shouldn't have come as a surprise that her first foal didn't see the racetrack until May 2 of this year. What has come as a surprise to Rose De Pierre's connections, however, is that she has excelled at a mile in all three starts to date.

“She didn't run at two; she spent quite a bit of time at home in the field,” Craig noted. “But she just improved as a 3-year-old. We were a little surprised when she broke her maiden at a mile at The Curragh. We were all expecting her to need further, then she came back and won a handicap a month ago at The Curragh again. Considering her mother ran in the Melbourne Cup and was a multiple group winner over a mile-and-a-half to two miles, it's a bit of a surprise to all of us that this filly looks to be a miler.”

Craig echoed jockey Pat Smullen's post-race sentiments in saying that the team is looking to the future with the bay.

“We're really viewing her as a next-year filly and even the year after,” she said. “We've viewed her since she was a 2-year-old as a filly for next year so what she's done this year is a real plus.”

Rose De Pierre could be seen once more this year, likely at a mile or 7 1/2-furlongs, although Craig said a Group 1 test this year is unlikely.

“We'll probably give her one more run [this year] and just build her up,” Craig added. “She's still a baby; I stopped in to see her this morning and she'd eaten up her food and came out of the race really well, but she is a baby and it's all educational for her.”

Profound Beauty's 2-year-old colt Le Morne (Ire) (Henrythenavigator) is also in training with Dermot Weld, and Craig said he is likely a prospect for next year. She described him as a “big, leggy horse, and a lovely mover,” and said the mare's yearling full-brother to Rose De Pierre is a similar type.

“[Le Morne] is named after a big rock in Mauritius, and big would describe him,” Craig said. “He's been doing everything we want him to do; he's just big. I would doubt he'll run this year, but he's got a lovely length of stride on him and looks like a stayer. We'll give him the benefit of the doubt and give him time. He won't be as sharp as this filly.

Profound Beauty, now 12, has unfortunately not produced a foal the last two seasons.

“We've had bad luck the last two years; it's been very frustrating,” Craig said. “She slipped last year, and we sent her over to France this year to go to Dalakhani. She got bred once and then he was taken out of service, so she's back here now and she's not in foal. We won't take her to France again; we'll probably just find something in England for her. But it's frustrating, with her first foal being good, that we've now got two empty years and she's now 12.”

While noting the woes of having a stakes-winning, stakes-producing mare with just three foals at 12, Craig said it was hard to have regrets reflecting on the fun provided by Profound Beauty on the track. The mare won nine of her 21 outings, including three group races, and was fifth in the 2008 G1 Melbourne Cup. She finished second in the G1 Irish St Leger at age six and wrapped up her career after finishing 17th in a return trip to Melbourne in her next start.

“When you keep a mare in training until the age of seven they do tend to be 12 when their first foal wins a stakes race, but she ran fifth in the Melbourne Cup, second in the Irish Leger, she won us multiple group races and she was the best fun,” Craig reflected. “Her nickname was Big Beauty, because that's what she was. I think she was one Pat Smullen's favourites. She's a great mare to have out in the paddock now and we just need to get another foal out of her, hopefully a filly.”

As detailed in the race report, Rose De Pierre hails from a Moyglare family steeped in success. The operation purchased the filly's fourth dam, the GI Acorn S. winner Aptostar (Fappiano), for $750,000 at Fasig-Tipton's November sale in 1989. Craig explained that Aptostar was bought specifically to breed to Sadler's Wells, and while Aptostar bred two stakes producers from her two matings with the great sire, she hit the ultimate home run with her very first foal, Rose De Pierre's third dam In Anticipation, who went on to produce a pair of important stakes-producing fillies. First came Diamond Trim, Rose De Pierre's second dam who also produced the dam of dual Group 3 winner Carla Bianca (Ire) (Dansili {GB}) and the stakes-placed True Solitaire (Ire) (Oasis Dream {GB}) and Joalliere (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}). A year later came the G2 Ribblesdale S. winner Irresistible Jewel (Ire) (Danehill), who bred another Ribblesdale winner in Princess Highway (Street Cry {Ire}), as well as the G1 Irish St Leger winner Royal Diamond (Ire) (King's Best) and Group 3 winner and Classic-placed filly Mad About You (Ire) (Indian Ridge {Ire}).

In Anticipation's descendants who are currently part of, or will soon join, the Moyglare broodmare band include Profound Beauty, Majestic Silver, Carla Bianca, Joalliere, Mad About You and Princess Highway, among others.

“It all started with one mare who produced us one mare, and then we got two mares, and now we have lots,” Craig said. “We bought one mare to go to Sadler's Wells and nothing else [out of her] was much good. There's a few other daughters and various other relatives lurking around. It's a fairly productive pedigree.”

Click for the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.