EVA-MARIA BUCHER-HAEFNER, Moyglare Stud Farm

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

NOMINATED for a Breeder of the Month award in both June (Ascot Gold Cup) and July (Goodwood Cup), Kyprios is back again after his victory in the Group 1 Irish St Leger in September.

If that was not enough, on Arc weekend this month he won his fourth Group 1 in succession with his demolition of the field in the Prix du Cadran, in spite of taking the long way home!

Bred at Moyglare Stud and racing for a group that also includes Sue Magnier and partners, these wins for the Aidan O’Brien-trained Kyprios mean that Polished Gem is one of those rare beings, the dam of three Group 1 winners.

Kyprios is now the winner of eight of his 10 starts and his latest success pushed his winnings over £1 million.

Kyprios is one of eight blacktype winners for Polished Gem, a daughter of the classic winner Trusted Partner. 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 herself is one of 13 named foals out of Trusted Partner, a dozen of which ran, and all but one are winners.

Kyprios is a full-brother to the dual Group 1 winner Search For A Song and a sibling to Free Eagle who won the Group 1 Prince of Wales’s Stakes. What a special year as Moyglare celebrates 60 years since its founding by Walter Haefner.

GAY AND DEREK VEITCH, Ringfort Stud

Minzaal (Ire), 2018 c. by Mehmas out of Pardoven, by Clodovil

MINZAAL finally did what he has promised to do since he was a juvenile, and win at the top table. Bred at Ringfort Stud in Co Offaly, he was sold as a foal for 85,000gns, and resold the following year to Shadwell Estate for 140,000gns.

He is from the first crop of his sire, a crop that also includes Supremacy who won the Group 1 Middle Park Stakes, and Going Global who was successful in the Grade 1 Del Mar Oaks.

Sadly, Minzaal will not race again but her will make a fascinating stallion for the 2023 season. As a juvenile Minzaal won the Group 2 Gimcrack Stakes at York on his third start, before running behind Supremacy, with Lucky Vega dividing them, in the Group 1 Middle Park Stakes.

Minzaal is the best of the winners from the unraced Pardoven who is back in foal to Mehmas. She was bred by Derek Veitch in partnership, from a Sadler’s Wells mare he bought for what now looks to be a bargain 38,000gns. That mare was Dancing Prize, placed on three of her four starts for Sir Michael Stoute and racing in the colours of her breeders, Cheveley Park Stud. On her penultimate start she was beaten less than two lengths into third place in a listed Oaks trial at Lingfield.

Six of the 10 winners out of Dancing Prize were bred at Ringfort, as were two of the mare’s quartet of blacktype earners.

HH THE AGA KHAN

Tahiyra (Ire), 2020 f. by Siyouni out of Tarana, by Cape Cross

THERE was a special moment, a breath-taking one really, when Tahiyra swept to victory in the Group 1 Moyglare Stud Stakes on just her second start. Princess Zahra Aga Khan was at the Curragh to welcome back a special filly, bred by her father, to the winners’ enclosure.

The filly won by more than two lengths from the then unbeaten Meditate, the best juvenile filly we have seen from Ballydoyle this year, and she was four and a half lengths and more ahead of the rest. Few broodmares are able to claim to be multiple Group or Grade 1 producers. Now we have one more to add to that venerable circle, Tarana, who has also produced the brilliant Tarnawa as her first foal, and her third foal is the Moyglare winner.

Tahiyra is one of seven Group/Grade 1 winners sired by Siyouni who stands at the Aga Khan’s Haras be Bonneval in France. The others are Ervedya, an Aga Khan-bred three-time Group 1 winner who captured the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches-French 1000 Guineas, Coronation Stakes and Prix Saint-Alary, Laurens who won six Group 1 races, the Group 1 Prix du Jockey Club-French Derby, Prix Ganay and Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner Sottsass, Etoile, Dream And Do and St Mark’s Basilica who won two French classics among his five successes at the highest level.

Tarnawa had a brilliant 2020, adding the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Turf to victories in the Group 1 Prix Vermeille and Prix de l’Opera.

SHEIKH MOHAMMED, Godolphin

Mysterious Night (Ire), 2020 c. by Dark Angel out of Mistrusting, by Shamardal, Modern Games (Ire), 2019 c. by Dubawi out of Modern Ideals, by New Approach, and Rebel’s Romance (Ire), 2018 g. by Dubawi out of Minidress, by Street Cry

NEVER before in the history of the Connolly’s Red Mills/The Irish Field Breeder of the Month competition has a breeder been shortlisted for a prize for breeding three individual Group/Grade 1 winners in their sole name in a single month. Now it has happened.

In an eight-day period Mysterious Night and Modern Games travelled to Woodbine in Canada and annexed a pair of Grade 1 races for the trainer and jockey combination of Charlie Appleby and William Buick, and then they joined up again to score in a Group 1 in Cologne with Rebel’s Romance, the four-year-old winning his second race at the highest level in that country, and bringing his career tally to eight wins in 11 starts.

Mysterious Night, a two-year-old full-brother to dual US Grade 1 winner Althiqa, landed the Grade 1 Pattison Summer Stakes at Woodbine, and repaid yet again the investment made by Sheikh Mohammed in the Group 1 Middle Park Stakes winner back in 2015. Mistrusting won four of her seven starts including the Listed Boadicea Stakes at Newmarket on her final appearance.

Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup and Group 1 French 2000 Guineas winner Modern Games bounced back to winning form when winning the Grade 1 Woodbine Mile, his sixth win in 11 starts. His winnings stand at €1.75 million.