EVA-MARIA BUCHER-HAEFNER, Moyglare Stud Farm

Kyprios (Ire), 2018 c. by Galileo out of Polished Gem, by Danehill

“WELL done Polished Gem,” was the immediate reaction as Fiona Craig represented Eva-Maria Bucher-Haefner in the winners’ enclosure following Royal Ascot’s exciting Group 1 Gold Cup.

Victory for the Aidan O’Brien-trained Kyprios then meant that Polished Gem became one of those rare beings, the dam of three Group 1 winners.

In July he added the Group 1 Goodwood Cup to make it win number six from eight starts, and he was also successful in the Group 3 Saval Beg Stakes and Listed Vintage Crop Stakes.

Kyprios is one of eight blacktype winners for Polished Gem, a daughter of the classic winner Trusted Partner. A winner at two, and an own-sister to Grade 1 Matriarch Stakes winner Dress To Thrill, Polished Gem has an impeccable record as a broodmare; her 10 foals are all winners. She is one of 13 named foals out of Trusted Partner, a dozen of which ran and all but one, who was placed, were successful.

Polished Gem has crossed well with Galileo and another son of Sadler’s Wells, High Chaparral. Kyprios is a full-brother to the dual Group 1 winner Search For A Song and two other stakes winners, and a sibling to a Royal Ascot winner, Free Eagle, who won the Group 1 Prince of Wales’s Stakes.

What a special year it is as Moyglare Stud celebrates 60 years since its founding by Walter Haefner.

JOHN MAGNIER, Coolmore

Magical Lagoon (Ire), 2019 f. by Galileo out of Night Lagoon, by Lagunas

MAGICAL Lagoon, on just her fifth start, added the Group 2 Ribblesdale Stakes at Royal Ascot to her win at two in the Group 3 Flame Of Tara Stakes. Back at the Curragh in July she went one better, notching up her first Group 1 success in the Juddmonte Irish Oaks.

Magical Lagoon races for Zhang Yuesheng, a great supporter of Irish racing and Irish-breds. He acquired Magical Lagoon for 305,000gns in Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale, and how lucky it was that Michael Donohue from BBA (Ireland) went that extra bid!

Coolmore bred Magical Lagoon, and it is interesting that they used the services of BBA (Ireland) back in 2014 to purchase Magical Lagoon’s dam Night Lagoon at Fasig-Tipton for $1.7 million. Her appeal then was that she was a Group 3 winning half-sister to Novellist who the previous year won the Group 1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes. He was also a Group 1 winner in France, Germany and Italy.

In all, Night Lagoon is the dam of 12 winners, a number by Galileo, and three of them were stakes placed. This is a family that for years has been notable for the many winners bred by successive dams.

Night Lagoon is one of eight winners from the German listed winner Nenuphar, she is one of 12 winners from Narola, while Magical Lagoon’s winning fourth dam had eight winners.

TOM GAFFNEY, Churchtown House Stud

Alcohol Free (Ire), 2018 f. by No Nay Never out of Plying, by Hard Spun

TOM Gaffney sold a daughter of No Nay Never as a foal to Jeff Smith’s Littleton Stud in Goffs for €40,000. She recently pushed her earnings past the £1.5 million mark, has won Tom and his wife Marie a Connolly’s Red Mills/The Irish Field Breeder of the Month Award, and she is now a four-time Group 1 winner, and one of the most talented mares in training.

Last month she added the Group 1 Darley July Cup to previous wins in the Group 1 Juddmonte Cheveley Park Stakes at two, and the Group 1 Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot and Group 1 Qatar Sussex Stakes at Goodwood as a three-year-old.

Martin Cooney in Jossesstown Farm in Tipperary purchased Plying for €21,000 (she cost $200,000 as a yearling) two days after Alcohol Free sold as a foal. Having almost doubled his money with the sale of the Starspangledbanner filly she was carrying, he sold the next offspring, a colt by Dandy Man, for €80,000, and last November sold Plying, in foal to Lope De Vega, to Yulong Investments for €825,000.

Alcohol Free is one of two stakes winners from the three-time winner Plying, the other being French listed winner Alexander James. Plying is out of Nasaieb who was stakes-placed at two, her only season to race. At stud she had 10 foals, and all but one of them winners.

WILLIAM QUINN

Hewick (Ire), 2015 g. by Virtual out of Ballyburn Rose, by Oscar

SUCCESSFUL in the Grade 3 bet365 Gold Cup at Sandown, Hewick continued his ascent up the chasing ranks with a comprehensive win in the Grade A Tote Galway Plate. When the gelding won in Britain, trainer Shark Hanlon made the great quote that “a good cow would cost as much.”

The seven-year-old cost Rachel O’Neill, Hanlon’s partner, a mere €850 at Goresbridge as a two-year-old. Hewick is out of the unraced Ballyburn Rose who also sold twice at Goresbridge, for €300 as a foal and €1,400 four years ago. Hewick was bred by William Quinn, owner of Ballyburn Stud in Castledermot, Co Kildare.

Ballyburn Rose is a daughter of the three-time hurdle winning Montelimar mare Bramble Fair, and she in turn is one of two successful offspring from the unraced Deep Run mare Gold Label. That mare was the only offspring of her unraced dam Bardicate not to race, but she bred a couple of winners and is third dam of the Grade 1 winner Martello Tower.

Bardicate was a twin but she produced a dozen foals at stud, all but one of which raced. Nine of these won on the racecourse and were headed by Deep Bramble and Polyfemus. The former was a Grade 1 winner of the Ericsson Chase, while Polyfemus gained his biggest win in the Listed Mandarin Chase at Newbury. Two daughters of Bardicate bred blacktype winners over jumps.