Former trainer Joanna Morgan dancing to a different but still successful beat

The sun is shining on Portlester Stud and Joanna Morgan is in an effervescent mood to match, her enthusiasm as bright as the summer sun.

Goodwood has indeed been glorious for the pioneering jockey and trainer, with the apple of her eye Sir Dancealot winning his second successive Group 2 Lennox Stakes, adding to victories by two of her yearling class of 2018 in the preceding days.

Now a five-year-old, Sir Dancealot was one of the first yearlings she bought after handing in her trainer’s licence in early 2015, finishing with a winning foray to St Moritz’s frozen lake. From the first crop of Sir Prancealot, Morgan purchased the bay for €30,000 at the Goffs’ Sportsmans’ Yearling Sale and, so far, he has won the Group 2 Hungerford Stakes, Group 3 Criterion Stakes and finished fourth in the 2018 July Cup.

Fire still burning

Morgan’s passion for racing and her admiration for the horse animate her features as she speaks of the David Elsworth-trained gelding.

“He's a good horse, a Group 1 horse, I love him dearly and I think he'll win the Foret if he gets his ground," she says.

"Unfortunately for that lad, and it was the same with a very good horse I used to have, One Won One, he's a seven-furlong horse. One Won One was 7lb worse at a mile and 7lb worse at six furlongs.

"I’ll go over to the Arc meeting because he’ll run in the Foret and with a bit of luck this year he'll win. The ground had gone on him last year and he was drawn very wide but he ran a good race [to be fifth to One Master].

"If you get everything right for a horse like that, he'll win. It’s unfortunate there aren’t any more Group 1s over seven furlongs."

Sir Dancealot illustrates clearly Morgan’s approach to star-spotting embryonic racehorses. Operating without infinite resources, she looks to where value can be found, and it is the individual foal or yearling who catches her eye, not the page or stallion.

Sir Dancealot beats Hey Gaman in the Lennox StakesCredit: Edward Whitaker

“I love an individual and Sir Dancealot was an absolute model, he was huge, I’d say he was 17 hands as a two-year-old," she recalls. "Of course everyone was backing off him because he was so big but I often trained big two-year-olds and it didn’t stop them.

"If you look at those American horses of Aidan’s walking around the parade ring, they are massive horses; it doesn’t really stop them and it doesn’t mean they are more immature than other horses if they've been fed and cared for properly their whole lives.

“I sent Sir Dancealot over to David’s and they said he wouldn’t be a two-year-old, but I said he won’t grow an inch, I knew him and knew he wouldn’t, and he didn’t. He just got broader and wider, he is an absolute model now. You would stop to look at him.”

Humble beginnings

From the first crop of Sir Prancealot, the gelding’s immediate family didn’t fire the imagination as his dam Majesty’s Dancer was unplaced in her racing career and had produced just one winner, Freddy’s Dancer, by the time Sir Prancealot came along.

What she did have going for her was her sire Danehill Dancer, who also sired Morgan’s final Irish Group winner, Obama Rule. One of Morgan’s tenets is the forgiveness of pedigree if the broodmare sire is good enough, and the former Coolmore resident certainly met that criteria.

Morgan elaborates on the reasoning behind that, saying: “A lot of it is in the damline and I would forgive a dam if she was by a good broodmare sire.

"You like them to be able to walk the walk, you can forgive a pedigree. As Jack Doyle used to say, you can’t train a page. Now if I had the money I would take a chance on a small filly with a page. If they have everything they make the money and when you don’t have that kind of money to spend, you have to forgive something.

"You know they can gallop if they can walk. I often bought horses out of the horses-in-training sales and you’d know if they were balanced in their walk they would be able to jump.”

Morgan is not in thrall to the fashion of the sales ring and some of her best horses as a trainer were by stallions that didn’t reach the heights as sires.

The team behind One Won One pictured at Nad Al Sheba in 2001 - Morgan is centre, next to jockey Johnny MurtaghCredit: MSI Caroline Norris 50% NO PRIVA

Group 3 Phoenix Sprint Stakes winner One Won One was by the unheralded Naevus, talented dual-purpose performer Dbest was a son of Woodborough, while the talented Portant Fella, winner of 15 races, was a son of St James’s Palace Stakes runner-up Greensmith.

Two of her yearlings of 2018 also put smiles on Morgan’s face, with Mums Tipple, a son of Footstepsinthesand, winning first time out for Richard Hannon at Ascot last month, and Hamish Macbeth successful on his second start at Newmarket the same day.

Mums Tipple shares his sire with Roca Tumu, Morgan’s Britannia Handicap hero, and Hamish Macbeth, like Sir Dancealot, has Danehill Dancer as his damsire.

Mums Tipple (Oisin Murphy) holds on gamely at AscotCredit: Edward Whitaker

This year Morgan consigns just three yearlings, all making the short journey to Fairyhouse for the Tattersalls Ireland September Yearling Sale. First through the ring will be Lot 260, the second foal out of a winning Royal Applause half-sister to Listed winner Party Boss and the Triumph Hurdle and Fighting Fifth Hurdle winner Countrywide Flame.

Her page has received a timely boost, Morgan explaining: “I have a nice filly by Exceed And Excel whose Night Of Thunder brother Wonderwork won first time out at Thirsk on Saturday for Karl Burke.”

Lot 534 is a daughter of Declaration Of War and a half-sister to two winners, but it is her dam line which caught Morgan’s eye at Goffs last November.

Her dam Wild Idle is an unraced Seeking The Gold daughter of US champion two-year-old filly Storm Song, whose triumphs include the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies and Grizette Stakes. She is also the second dam of Gold Cup and Irish St Leger winner Order Of St George.

“The Declaration Of War filly I gave only five grand for at Goffs, her second dam was a champion in America and she is a gorgeous filly,” says Morgan.

Bargain buy

The final member of the trio is Lot 639, a filly from the first crop of Group 1 Racing Post Trophy winner Marcel, another bargain buy for Morgan.

The bay is the first foal out of Jersey Cream, a daughter of Iffraaj who won twice on the all-weather for Andi Brown. Jersey Cream is a half-sister to the ill-fated Grade 1-winning chaser Kempes and to the dam of Italian Listed winner Lucky Serena. Her fourth dam is the Pretty Polly Stakes winner and Irish Oaks second Fleur Royale, who is ancestress of Meeznah, Oiseau Rare, Witchcraft, Steel Princess and Sarah Lynx.

“Then there's the Marcel filly I bought for just €1,000; she's a pure belter, I'm not joking, you wouldn’t get her in this door, she's a miller," continues Morgan.

"She's a really lovely filly who goes back to a McGrath pedigree and you see these pedigrees coming back again. I don’t think Marcel was very well promoted, and people sort of write off stallions before they even start now.”

Trading horses is what brought Morgan into the training ranks and she has resisted the lure of taking out her licence again. With two horses in training, the temptation is there, but she is content to source winners for others to train, enjoying the success that has come her way.

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