WHEN Kevin Molloy and Paddy Kelly arrived at Tattersalls in the autumn of 2013 for Book 1 of the October Yearling Sale, the pair had every confidence that the latest offspring of Molloy’s smart producer, Mohican Princess, was as good a prospect as anything on the sales ground.

That may yet prove to be the case, particularly if the bay, now known as Eastern Express, can make his mark in Sunday’s HK$18 million Group 1 BMW Hong Kong Derby over 10 furlongs at Sha Tin, but at Tattersalls two and a half years ago, the sceptics outnumbered the believers.

“He was always physically magnificent, a lovely yearling,” said Molloy, who breeds from a handful of mares and raises pedigree cattle at his base outside Dublin.

Kelly, who prepares Molloy’s stock for sale and consigned the youngster under his Ballybin Stud banner, concurred: “I had him with me for six weeks or so to get him ready for the sale - I remember him well. The mare has been fantastic; she gets good lookers and good winners and he was definitely the standout looker at Tattersalls. Himself and Ivawood were stationed opposite one another and they were both just magnificent horses.”

Ivawood would fetch 220,000gns in the ring, notch a Group 2 win and a narrow Group 1 second as a juvenile in 2014, and place third in two classics the season after. The bidding for Molloy’s Mohican Princess colt stalled below the reserve. He exited the arena unsold.

FINE SPECIMEN

“We probably over-reserved him,” said Molloy of the late foal with the long plain head so typical of his sire, Fastnet Rock. “Afterwards, Anthony Stroud bought him for 150,000gns - I don’t like to take the colts home. We actually thought he’d make more money because he was out of the box non-stop. Physically he’s a fine specimen but he doesn’t have a great head and that would have knocked the price down.”

That was the last either man saw or heard of the bay for some time.

The mare Mohican Princess was no good as a racehorse. Bred by Robert Cowell’s Bottisham Heath Stud, she competed once, in July 1999. The race selected for her was a 10-furlong Epsom maiden and, at odds of 16/1, she finished 26 lengths fourth of five. But the Shirley Heights mare still had more than a little going for her.

Her talented dam, the Dancing Brave mare Mohican Girl, ran third behind Ruby Tiger in the Group 2 Nassau Stakes and numbered the Group 1 Yorkshire Oaks winners Untold and Sally Brown among her half-siblings. Mohican Princess arrived at Tattersalls in December, 2001 in foal to Inchinor. Molloy snapped her up for 35,000gns.

“She was physically attractive, I liked the Shirley Heights and the Dancing Brave in her pedigree, and her dam was a pretty useful racehorse,” he said. “She was a four-year-old then and her first foal was Satchem who turned out to win Group 3 and listed races from six furlongs to a mile.”

Molloy sold Satchem as a foal and got 42,000gns for him. Mohican Princess, now 20 and currently at Coolmore for a covering to Australia, has since proved her worth. Including the Fastnet Rock youngster, Molloy has earned six-figure sums for five of the mare’s produce, sold at Tattersalls and at Goffs, the highest-priced of all being a Galileo filly, knocked down for 350,000gns as a foal at Tattersalls in December, 2014 (she was sold on to China Horse Club for 400,000gns the following October).

GOOD FAMILY

“I got lucky with this mare and I’m building up on that family now, they’re all very correct, very genuine and they’re all clean-winded, so that gives a small breeder a chance. She produces stayers but she also passes on speed – we saw that with the first foal we had,” said Molloy, 20 years a breeder.

“She’s produced some nice performers: Eye Of The Storm lost an eye but he’s a good horse and he’s won a Group 3; Oui Say Oui was second in the Group 2 Debutante Stakes; then there’s Curbyourenthusiasm by Mastercraftsmen, he won a nice race at Doncaster last year and I expect will get blacktype this year; and she has a nice Galileo two-year-old with Ralph Beckett, that’s with the China Horse Club.

“She also has a daughter that I have here, a lovely yearling by Camelot, and I’ve kept her Galileo daughter, Livia Galilei, who has two lovely fillies by Fastnet Rock – I’ll keep one – one of them is a two-year-old in training with Jim Bolger.”

Molloy keeps close tabs on the family but, after Stroud’s successful post-sale approach, Mohican Princess’s Fastnet Rock colt dropped off the grid.

Larry Yung’s silks are purple, embellished with gold stars on body and cap and three gold hoops on each sleeve. The veteran owner already has two Hong Kong Derby trophies to cherish thanks to Oriental Express (1997) and Olympic Express (2002). It came as something of a surprise to Molloy when he learned Mohican Princess’s “lost” son, now a gelding, was sporting those colours around Sha Tin.

“We lost track of him and it was Coolmore that told me he was in Hong Kong,” said the breeder. “He looks like he’s been given time, he didn’t run as a two year-old, and that will have helped him.”

EXCITING PROSPECT

Molloy has been keeping a close watch on the horse he bred, and has been using the internet to keep tabs on progress. “I’ve watched recordings of his races on the Hong Kong Jockey Club website. He ran really well last time and he’s an exciting prospect for the Derby, but he’ll have to step up again on Sunday,” he said.

Eastern Express has done nothing but step up all season. Given time to develop, the Irish-bred has built a head of steam this term, rising from a season-opening rating of 60 to his current mark of 86 in only four months.

It would be no surprise to see the gelding power ahead of his four-year-old peers on Sunday and claim bragging rights as the hottest young star in town, and that would be in spite of the fact he won’t celebrate his actual fourth birthday until June 6th.

If Mohican Princess’s boy does win Hong Kong’s number one local feature - a race with a history that traces back to 1873, the world’s second richest Derby, no less – it would not only add a significant laurel to his family’s achievements but, two and a half years down the line, would substantiate the pre-Tattersalls confidence of Molloy and Kelly. Better late than never, as they say.