IN the feature last week on Philipp Stauffenberg, I mentioned that he had a handful of foundation mares, one of which was Fraulein Tobin.

Born in 1982, she is a daughter of J O Tobin (Never Bend) who was the champion juvenile in England in 1976, following victories in the Group 2 Champagne Stakes and Group 2 Richmond Stakes. He then continued his racing career in the USA, and at three won the Grade 1 Swaps Stakes at Hollywood Park. The following year he added the Grade 1 Californian Stakes at the same track and ended up being the joint-champion sprinter in the USA.

J O Tobin died at the age of 20 after a largely forgettable stud career. He never sired a Grade 1 winner, and 15 crops yielded just 16 stakes winners. He got a single Grade 2 winner, one Grade 3 winners, and the rest were at listed level.

Thanks to his daughter Fraulein Tobin, a winner at three, he still crops up in pedigrees of high-class winners. She was bought for 15,000gns from Heatherwold Stud as part of a dispersal of Kessley Bloodstock in 1993, carrying a filly who was subsequently unraced. Not racing was unusual, because it turned out that the mare’s first six foals all won, and included the German listed winner Fabriano (Shardari) and Germane (Distant Relative).

Germane was a yearling when Fraulein Tobin was acquired, and the latter’s sale price looked a bargain when, the following year, Germane won the Group 3 Tattersalls Rockfel Stakes. She has gone on to breed eight winners, and five stakes winners are descended from her.

Fraulein Tobin got back to normal with her next two living progeny, taking her tally of winning offspring to eight, and there followed another unraced filly, Four Roses (Darshaan). She was to breed eight winners, one of which was Four Sins (Sinndar). She was quite a rarity, as she was purchased as a yearling by His Highness the Aga Khan’s Gilltown Stud for €120,000 at Goffs.

Four Sins won the Group 2 Irish National Stud Blandford Stakes, the Group 3 Blue Wind Stakes, and then she was traded on at the age of four for a very profitable €620,000 to John McCormack and she went to Japan.

Ten winners

The final two foals from Fraulein Tobin were successful on the racecourse, and meant that she ended her breeding career with 10 winners from a dozen living offspring, and every runner she had won. They won 40 races in total.

Her final foal was thankfully a filly, Firedance (Lomitas), born when she was 19, and she gained a single win, not as you might expect in Germany, but rather in France. At stud, Firedance has continued a family tradition of breeding multiple winners.

Firedance is responsible for nine winners from 13 foals, and her best offspring helped spread the family success story further when her son Fearless Hunter (Alhaarth) won seven times in Norway, and he was victorious at Group 3 and listed level there. It is another of the winning offspring of Firedance who has taken the family’s story to a new height.

Jukebox Jury (Montjeu) is well-established now as a National Hunt stallion, but he was also a highly capable flat sire, and his first-crop daughter Frangipani was a two-year-old winner in Germany from only two starts. She is out of Firedance, and is still in the Stauffenberg ownership. Frangipani is the dam of two winners, the best of which is Fantastic Moon (Sea The Moon) who will start a new career as a stallion at Gestüt Ebbesloh in 2025 at a fee of €9,000.

Champion twice

This follows a racing career that saw Fantastic Moon win seven times, be a champion at two and three in Germany, and time will tell if he achieves further glory for his efforts this year. Fantastic Moon won the 154th Group 1 Deutsches (German) Derby last year. On his way to this impressive classic victory, he won a Group 3 Derby Trial, and afterwards won the important Arc trial, the Group 2 Prix Niel.

A pattern winner at two, Fantastic Moon this year was successful twice, his most notable success being gained in the Group 1 Grosser Preis von Baden, while he ran second to Calif in another top-level contest. Bred, raised and ultimately sold by Philipp and Marion Stauffenberg at their stud farm, Schlossgut Itlingen, Fantastic Moon became the third Group 1 winner, after Caulfield Cup winner Durston and Coronation Stakes heroine Alpine Star, sired by Lanwades Stud’s Sea The Moon, and this year’s German Oaks winner Muskoka has joined that elite group.

Fantastic Moon has well-rewarded his owners, Liberty Racing 2021, who spent €49,000 to acquire the colt at the BBAG September Yearling Sale. His earnings now stand at more than €860,000.