Mornington Glory’s success in the Moir Stakes not only created history as the first Group 1 win for his trainer, but also puts his dam Crowned Glory into rare territory.
The immortal American superstar Secretariat has long been the poster boy for the virtues of breeding from older mares. He was the 15th foal from his dam Somethingroyal, who was 18 when he was foaled.
Moir Stakes winner Mornington Glory has no comparison to a horse such as Secretariat, apart from the fact that they both defy history as Group 1-winning sons of older mares.
Crowned Glory was 21 when Mornington Glory was foaled and he was her 11th and final foal. Comprehensive data on the age of Group 1-producing broodmares is not widely available, but to produce one after the age of 20 is considered extremely rare. Previous research has indicated only 1.4 per cent of Australian broodmares aged 20 or older produce a black-type winner.
Interestingly, a study conducted in Japan and released in 2022 concluded that it is likely the age of the broodmare does not biologically impact the performance of their progeny, but the lower racing performances are more likely to be impacted because as mares age they are mated to lower-quality sires.
Before we delve further into Mornington Glory’s damline, it is worth acknowledging that he is the first Australian-bred Group 1 winner for his sire Shalaa, who began his career at Arrowfield but is now based at Blue Gum Farm.
Mornington Glory’s female pedigree feels like it belongs to a previous era. He is the first Group 1 winner in Australia to feature Danehill as a broodmare sire since Funstar won the 2019 Flight Stakes. His granddam, Significant Moment, was foaled in 1990 and is a half-sister to Zabeel.
But to characterise Mornington Glory as a late breeding career outlier would prove a disservice to Crowned Glory’s impact as a broodmare at Gooree Park Stud.
You may recall Crowned Glory herself was hailed as the winner of the 2000 Golden Slipper, before being run down by Belle De Jour in one of the most remarkable wins in the history of Australia’s greatest two-year-old race.
Co-incidentally, her own seven-start career in the black and red Gooree colours for Lee Freedman began with a Mornington glory, winning a maiden at that Victorian track in February 2000. Her other win would come in a Flemington Group 3 race the following month.
It would take some time for Crowned Glory’s breeding career to get going, missing her first year while her next four foals featured three winners, but nothing of note.
Her 2007 Encosta De Lago colt Needs Further would be the first to show his dam’s racetrack ability, winning three of his five starts, including a Group 3 Carbine Club Stakes in the Gooree colours for Gai Waterhouse.
Hallowed Crown, by Street Sense, then emerged as a genuine star for Gooree, giving James Cummings his first Group 1 winner in partnership with his legendary grandfather Bart, when he won the 2014 Golden Rose, and then followed that up with the Randwick Guineas.
Both Hallowed Crown, who began his career at Darley but now resides at Twin Hills, and Needs Further, who has spent all but one of stud years at Armidale Stud in Tasmania, went on to become Group 1-producing stallions.
The list of mares which have multiple Group 1-producing sons in Australia is not a long one.
Essaouira, the dam of Astern and Tassort, was the only one we could find with two active Group 1-producing sons in Australia.
Listen Here, the dam of Deep Field and Shooting To Win, and Accessories, whose has Group 1-producing sons Helmet, Epaulette and Bullbars, are others of note in recent times.
Further back, mares of this profile include such blue hen luminaries as Shantha’s Choice, Cotehele House and Eight Carat.
Globally, influential broodmares to fit in this category include Fairy Bridge, the dam of Sadler’s Wells and Fairy King, Urban Sea, who produced both Galileo and Sea The Stars (who incidentally was foaled when Urban Sea was 17), Weekend Surprise, the dam of A P Indy and Honor Grades, and Cesario, the dam of Japanese pair Epiphaneia and Leontes.
The list of dams with multiple Group 1 winners on the track to their name is more extensive. Ones that come to mind in recent times are Baggy Green and her dam Starspangled, St Therese, Helsinge, Parfore and New Zealand-based Bagalollies, as well as those mentioned above.
Crowned Glory’s own granddam Lady Giselle also belongs to this category thanks to Zabeel and his half-brother Baryshnikov. There are now 17 individual stakes winners from the 193 thoroughbreds descended from that unraced mare, who was imported to Ra Ora Stud in New Zealand in the 1980s and then arrived in Australia in 1989.
Crowned Glory now belongs to both the above categories thanks to Mornington Glory, who was the last horse sold in the 2020 Gooree dispersal.
But as a gelding, Mornington Glory won’t be adding to that record. Given there was not a single filly among her 11 foals, Crowned Glory’s genetic legacy remains with Hallowed Crown and Needs Further.
Stakes-producing sire descendants of Lady Giselle
