Wigan Discusses 2015 Mating Plans

With the calendar officially turned over to spring, foaling season is well underway and breeding plans are being executed, too. Theories abound as to the best methods for selecting for future champions, and James Wigan, who manages some of the most high-class mares on the planet through his London Thoroughbred Services, spoke with the TDN about the mating plans for some of his more high-profile cases, and how those decisions came about. 
Wigan works with highly successful transatlantic owner/breeder George Strawbridge, whose list of 2015 mares includes In Clover (GB) (Inchinor {GB}), the dam of a pair of stakes winners including last year’s G1 Prix de l’Opera heroineWe Are (Ire) (Dansili {GB}). 

Wigan noted that being by Inchinor makes In Clover rather straightforward to mate, as an outcross to many stallions. 

“She herself is a very good-looking mare,” he said. “I tend to be a bit unadventurous in going for proven stallions. We were looking for a proven stallion and she’s gone back to Dansili, which is really obvious because of We Are.” 

We Are made headlines last year for unusual reasons. She displayed immense talent, going undefeated through her first three starts culminating in a win in the G1 Prix Saint-Alary in May. It was later found that she had elevated levels of testosterone in her latter two races; the cause determined to be an ovarian tumor she later had removed. We Are was stripped from those victories, however, including the Saint-Alary, and went from Group 1 winner back to maiden winner. She quickly made amends, however, winning the Prix de l’Opera in her second start off a layoff in October. 

“We Are stays in training this year, and all being well I think she’ll go on to greater things this year,” Wigan said, adding that the Freddy Head trainee would likely kick off her season in the G1 Prix Ganay May 3. 

“It’s a very big ask, but I think Freddy Head’s intention is to start her in the Prix Ganay, which will mean taking on the colts, but being a Group 1 winner there aren’t an awful lot of opportunities early on,” Wigan noted. “So we’ll see how things go and maybe she’ll come to Royal Ascot.” 

Wigan bought We Are’s second dam, Bellarida (Fr) (Bellypha {GB}), out of training, and said that knowing the families helps greatly in planning matings. 

“That’s one of the nicest things about doing matings for owner/breeders–you can follow the horses when they’re in training and know what their problems and attitudes are,” he said. “On the whole, we’re not looking to be particularly commercial–we’re just going for the proven horses, and the ones we think will suit on pedigree, conformation and very much on character. If you get something that has a temperament problem, we want to try to breed to the calmest influence we can. I find the latest pedigree programs immensely useful in finding crosses that have worked and more particularly those that have not worked” 

Another family Wigan knows well if that of Moonlight Cloud (GB) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}), Strawbridge’s seven-time Group 1-winning sprinter/miler. Moonlight Cloud has produced her first foal this year at Coolmore in Ireland, a colt by Galileo, and she visits the champion sire again this year. 

“I’m going to look at [the Galileo colt] in Ireland shortly, but I’ve seen videos of him at Coolmore and he looks the part,” Wigan said. “He’s a good walking little fellow and he has a bit of charisma about him, so we’ll keep our fingers crossed for him.” 

“Once again, it’s just a question of breeding to the best available for her–she’s more than justified it,” he continued. “I don’t think there would be much dispute that Galileo is the best sire in the world at the moment– Mr. Strawbridge would probably have felt it insulting to the filly to have gone elsewhere.” 

Wigan purchased Moonlight Cloud’s dam, Ventura (Ire) (Spectrum {Ire}) for 500,000gns at Tattersalls December in 2001. She was sold for 58,000gns at the same sale eight years later, and visited the ring again just a year further on from that, fetching 260,000. Offered another year later in 2011, just months after Moonlight Cloud had won her first Group 1, Ventura was purchased by Coolmore for 900,000gns. 

Moonlight Cloud has a stakes-winning half-brother by Galileo, “but he needed a bit of a trip,” Wigan explained, “and so that might have put one against sending someone from the same family back to Galileo, but Moonlight Cloud was a very different horse–she had so much speed that it didn’t seem to be a worry. She is a lovely, quality, medium-sized mare.” 

Another of Wigan’s clients is the highly successful owner/breeder Lady Rothschild, whose broodmare band includes Magnificent Style (Silver Hawk), the dam of seven stakes winners including dual Group 1 winner Nathaniel (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), G1 Irish Oaks heroine Great Heavens (GB) (Galileo {Ire}) and G1 Fillies’ Mile winner and $10.5 million broodmare Playful Act (Ire) (Sadler’s Wells). Thus, it should not be a shock that Magnificent Style has stuck with the Sadler’s Wells/Galileo line, having been bred already to Galileo’s champion first-season sire son New Approach (Ire), a resident of Darley’s Dalham Hall Stud. Wigan explained that Magnificent Style had come up empty to Galileo the last two years and, due to her age, he opted not to ship her to Ireland. 

“She’s quite an old girl now–she’s 22, but she looks absolutely fantastic,” he said. “We obviously wanted to repeat the Galileo cross that produced Nathaniel, but equally I was keen not to travel her at her age and keep her close to hand, so she’s at the National Stud, where she’s boarding while visiting New Approach. It will give us the same cross, but without having to travel her.” 

Magnificent Style has a 2-year-old filly by Fastnet Rock (Aus) named Rocksavage (Ire) who will go into training with John Gosden this year. 

Great Heavens is also now a member of Lady Rothschild’s broodmare band, and she visits Dansili this year after a producing a Dubawi colt Mar. 11. 

“Dubawi is to my mind one of the best stallions around,” Wigan said. “They have a great will to win, and it’s a cross that has worked well–it’s the same cross that produced last year’s G1 2000 Guineas winner Night of Thunder. That family stay very well, and Dubawi gives a lot of speed.” 

Lady Rothschild’s GI Beverly D. S. and GI Diana S. winner Angara (GB) (Alzao) is in foal to Nathaniel, who was also campaigned by Lady Rothschild. Nathaniel was Europe’s second-leading first-season sire by weanling average at last year’s breeding stock sales–behind only Frankel (GB) (Galileo {Ire}) and well clear of Excelebration (Ire) (Exceed and Excel {Aus}). 

“A bit of sentiment probably crept in there, but [Nathaniel] should suit her well,” Wigan said. “He’s a nice, big, strong horse, and she’s a neat, strong, low-to-the-ground mare and has lots of speed. She needs a big, strong horse and I think he’ll give her the size and scope she needs. And Nathaniel’s foals sold extremely well last year–he looks the part.” 

Wigan noted that Dolma (Fr) (Marchand De Sable), who produced Lady Rothschild’s 2014 G1 Pretty Polly S. winner Thistle Bird (GB) (Selkirk), will visit champion first-season sire Lope De Vega (Ire) (Shamardal) this year. 
“She is a small, quality, rather lightly made mare but was enormously tough and courageous as a racehorse,” he explained. “Lope de Vega is a fine, big, slightly old- fashioned type; a little bit in the mold of Selkirk by whom she produced last year’s Group 1 winner Thistle Bird. In addition, Giant’s Causeway on Nureyev has worked–Maid’s Causeway, Niagara Crossing, etc. Thistle Bird herself goes to the tried and tested Dansili, my favorite of the English stallions.” 

Wigan noted that his own Dank (GB) (Dansili {GB}), winner of the 2013 GI Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf and GI Beverly D. S., will visit Galileo (Ire) for her first covering this year. 

“She visits Galileo for her first covering,” he said. “Like Mr. Strawbridge with Moonlight Cloud I felt I owed it to her. She’s a fine, big, well-made mare and the Galileo-Danehill cross works very well.”