The renowned Racing Post cover girl who excelled on the track and left a lasting influence on the breed

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On this occasion, Martin Stevens looks back the career of the Racing Post's first covergirl – subscribers can get more great insight every Monday to Friday.

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It’s been a reliable staple of racing and breeding quizzes for many years now; a question that every self-respecting turf aficionado should be able to answer without any hesitation: which horse was pictured on the front page of the first edition of the Racing Post on Tuesday, April 15, 1986?

If you’ve been keeping up with the paper’s reporting on its 40th anniversary this week, you should definitely know who that cover star was now.

It was, of course, Sonic Lady. Or, rather, Super Sonic Lady, as Sir Michael Stoute’s charge was billed in the headline to the story, which detailed how she would be attempting to live up to her sky-high reputation in the Nell Gwyn Stakes at Newmarket that day.

The bold decision of the Racing Post’s initial editorial team to devote most of such an important front page to a once-raced three-year-old filly was rewarded when she made all the running for an emphatic three-length victory on the Rowley Mile under Walter Swinburn in the afternoon. 

Mind you, Sonic Lady had already been given the ‘super’ epithet in the preceding year, before she had even set foot on a racecourse. She was the subject of rave reviews for her work on the gallops and had been backed into second favourite for the 1,000 Guineas on the strength of those alone.

Her early renown was no doubt enhanced by the fact that she was an attractive, rangy bay from the second crop of Nureyev and out of Falmouth Stakes winner Stumped, who in turn was the best progeny of the classy handicapper Owen Anthony. She had been bought from her breeder J Allan Mactier’s Ponca Hills Farm by Sheikh Mohammed's team for $500,000 at the Fasig-Tipton July Yearling Sale of 1984.

Sonic Lady made her eagerly awaited debut in the Blue Seal Stakes at Ascot in September 1985, her appearance in the race generating even more excitement than her stable companion Untold’s triumph in the Fillies’ Mile on the preceding day. She did nothing to quieten the chatter about her, careering to a seven-length success from the more experienced Warm Welcome, with jockey Brian Rouse barely having to resort to the whip.

The result prompted Timeform to purr in its Racehorses of 1985 annual at the end of the season: “Talking horses often stutter when they reach the racecourse, but not Sonic Lady, whose performance on her only outing was eloquence itself.”

The organisation was so impressed by the filly that it was prepared to forgive her for hanging from the middle of the track to the far rail, ascribing her waywardness to inexperience. But it turned out to be an early warning sign of the temperament issues that sometimes compromised her brilliance.

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Sonic Lady didn’t run again at two, hence there was so much excitement surrounding her return at three in the Nell Gwyn Stakes 40 years ago today. Her dominant display in a race that had produced the last two winners of the 1,000 Guineas, in Pebbles and Oh So Sharp, ensured that she was the choice of Swinburn for the Classic, ahead of Stoute’s Fred Darling Stakes winner Maysoon, and that she was sent off 6-4 favourite to maintain her unbeaten record.

It wasn’t to be, though. Sonic Lady was too headstrong, and raced too keenly in the early stages of the race, meaning she had nothing left in the tank to repel the late challenges of the eventual winner, Midway Lady, and runner-up, Maysoon. The fact that she didn’t crumple into a heap, and was eventually beaten only three-quarters of a length and a short head into third, speaks to her immense talent.

Stoute took action to mend the filly’s behavioral issues by modifying her training regime and fitting her with a different bit in her bridle as well as a rubber noseband for her next race in the Irish 1,000 Guineas. The tweaks worked, as she settled better and cruised into contention to win by two lengths from Lake Champlain and Asteroid Field at the Curragh.

Sonic Lady, with her new tack, confirmed herself the best three-year-old of her sex over a mile by easily accounting for Embla and Someone Special in the Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot and trouncing her peers Dusty Dollar and Argon Laser in the Falmouth Stakes at Newmarket, emulating her dam’s success in the race six years earlier.

Sonic Lady took on colts for the first time in the Sussex Stakes at Glorious Goodwood and was even more authoritative in victory, if anything. She travelled sweetly at the rear of the small field and swept past her rivals to win comfortably by one and a half lengths from Scottish Reel, with Pennine Walk another half a length back in third.

Sonic Lady’s bad habits returned on her next outing in the Prix du Moulin at Longchamp, as she threw her head in the air and gave Swinburn a hard time in the early stages of the race. She pulled herself into the front rank turning for home and took the lead sooner than her rider might have wanted, and yet she stuck on well and held off the unexposed three-year-old colt Thrill Show to win. Again, it surely said something about the depth of her innate ability that she was able to beat high-quality opponents in spite of running so freely.

Sir Michael Stoute with a statue of Sonic Lady at his Freemason Lodge StablesCredit: Edward Whitaker

Sonic Lady was given an autumn break and freshened up for the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Santa Anita in November. She raced prominently and held the lead on the home turn, but she was swallowed up in the straight, eventually finishing a close seventh behind Last Tycoon.

She was kept in training with the same race her main objective for 1987, when it would be held in California again, this time at Hollywood Park.

Sonic Lady was unfortunate in her four-year-old campaign in two respects: first, she suffered a bruised foot that disrupted the early part of her season; and, second, an even more brilliant filly had emerged from the third crop of Nureyev, in the stately figure of Miesque.

In her seasonal bow in the Queen Anne Stakes, in which she was carrying a little condition, she eased into the lead at the furlong pole but weakened to finish third behind Then Again and Water Cay, and on her next outing she successfully defended her title in the Falmouth Stakes, but only narrowly, as she paid for having tanked into the lead too soon in a slowly-run, small-field race.

Sonic Lady finished a distant third behind Milligram and Miesque in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at Ascot and filled the same position behind a majestic Miesque and Show Dancer in her second stab at the Breeders’ Cup Mile, before she joined Sheikh Mohammed’s broodmare band. She retired with a record of eight wins, six in races that are categorised as Group 1 today, from 13 starts. She finished outside the money only once. 

The fact that she accomplished all that in spite of her unruly streak is testament to the bountifulness of her own natural gifts, and to the patience and resourcefulness of Stoute and Swinburn, her regular pilot, in harnessing them over the course of three seasons.

Was she Super Sonic Lady at stud as well, though? The answer is no, she wasn’t immediately, but she is looking more and more like it with the passing of time. As is the case for similarly high-class but headstrong racemares, it took a few generations for her kinks to be ironed out.

Sonic Lady’s first produce, a 1989-foaled Blushing Groom colt named Hazaam, looked a potential star when he won his first three starts in minor company at three, brought along steadily in typical Stoute fashion, and after a couple of placings he won the Supreme Stakes at Goodwood at the end of that season. He started favourite for the Lockinge at four, but could finish only sixth behind Swing Low, before he ran third to Alflora in the Queen Anne.

Hazaam was a little below top-class, lacking pace when it mattered, and it is perhaps telling that Stoute tried him in a visor on one of his last starts in Britain, before he raced in Dubai. He was given a chance at stud in Florida, where he sired a handful of stakes winners and the Italian 1,000 Guineas runner-up Sweetsoutherngirl, and later stood in Thailand.

Sonic Lady’s second offspring, another Blushing Groom colt foaled in 1990 and named Sharman, was a similarly solid if unspectacular Pattern scorer, taking the Prix de la Jonchere at Chantilly and finishing second in the Prix Quincey at Deauville for Andre Fabre, and later becoming a hard-knocking multiple winner in America.

Cosmonaut, a Mr Prospector colt who was the third foal of the mare and was unraced, fulfilled a budget stallion role in Britain and delivered one or two useful sorts, including the Listed-placed filly Russian Rhapsody and smart jumpers Mr Cospector and Researcher. He popped up as the damsire of Caspian Caviar Gold Cup winner Niceonefrankie a decade or so ago.

Sonic Lady made it five male progeny out of five with Soyuz, an unraced gelding by Nashwan born in 1992, and Mudallel, a Listed winner in Dubai and sire in Saudi Arabia by Machiavellian who arrived a year later. 

Her final two offspring before her death in 1996 were fillies: Lady Icarus, a 1995-foaled daughter of Rainbow Quest, and Soninke, a 1996-foaled daughter of Machiavellian. Both were unraced and sold by Darley in what, with the benefit of hindsight, was a misstep.

In fairness, the first five foals bred by Sheikh Mohammed’s operation from Lady Icarus comprised three horses who never made it to the track and two who failed to win, so it is understandable that they let go of the mare for just €25,000 at the Goffs November Sale of 2004.

Nobody could have predicted how high Lady Icarus would soar for her purchaser, Annemarie O’Brien. The Halling filly she was carrying through the ring at Kildare Paddocks turned out to be the Dundalk Listed winner Mystical Lady, and her following three progeny were the black-type scorers Lady Lupus (by High Chaparral), Furner’s Green (by Dylan Thomas) and Palace (by Fastnet Rock). Her next, and final, foal was the Lincoln winner Bravery (by Galileo).

Mystical Lady and Palace in particular excelled at stud for O’Brien and her family’s Whisperview Trading breeding enterprise. Mystical Lady produced five winners including Irish Derby and Gold Cup second Kingfisher (by Galileo), while Palace was the dam of two Group 2 winners and Group 1 runners-up by Galileo, in Innisfree and High Definition.

Better yet, Whisperview Trading bred from Way To My Heart, a placed full-sister to Kingfisher, last year’s European champion two-year-old filly Precise (by Starspangledbanner). Precise is favourite for the 1,000 Guineas next month: it will be fascinating to see whether she can go two places better than her fourth dam Sonic Lady managed when she was so well fancied for the Classic 40 years ago.

Precise is a descendant of Sonic LadyCredit: Edward Whitaker

Lady Icarus’s half-sister Soninke was meanwhile sold to Northern Farm in Japan in 2001, when she was in foal for the first time, to Cape Cross. She subsequently produced eight winners in Asia, including the black-type scorers Not Alone (by Agnes Tachyon), Renforcer (by Symboli Kris S) and Northern River (by Agnes Tachyon). 

Soninke did even better as a maternal granddam. Acoustics, the Cape Cross filly she was carrying when she arrived at Northern Farm, was unraced but became the dam of Japanese Derby hero and champion three-year-old colt Logi Universe (by Neo Universe). Clarksdale, an unraced King Kamehameha half-sister to Logi Universe, produced last year’s NHK Mile Cup victor Panja Tower (by Tower Of London).

Luminous Point, a multiple winning Agnes Tachyon full-sister to Not Alone and Northern River, is the dam of Grade 2 winner Jeune Ecole (by Kurofune) and maternal granddam of the outstanding champion Songline (by Kizuna), whose haul of three top-level successes included two renewals of the prestigious Yasuda Kinen. 

Soninke’s other standout daughter in the breeding shed has been Reizend, a place-getter by Special Week. Reizend is responsible for five winners, all with black type, led by that magnificent globe-trotter Deirdre (by Harbinger), who struck at the highest level at home in Japan, in the Shuka Sho, and in Britain, in the Nassau Stakes, and also finished placed in the Champion Stakes, Hong Kong Cup and Dubai Turf.

Trovatore – a son of Rey De Oro and Charmant, an Empire Maker half-sister to Deirdre – took the Grade 3 Tokyo Shimbun Hai in February. He is one of six winners in Japan descended from Soninke already this year, in an indication of how quickly this family has unfolded.

A curious twist in the tale of Sonic Lady, who went from Racing Post cover girl to champion racemare and influential ancestress, is that her tail-female line was not officially recognised as thoroughbred until only 14 years before she was foaled, as it went back to a half-bred mare of dubious origin in the mid 19th century.

It is known as the Verdict family in honour of Sonic Lady’s seventh dam, who, despite having a pedigree that was deemed to be tainted on both sides, won the 1924 Coronation Cup and produced the Oaks and Gold Cup heroine Quashed, Jersey Stakes winner and 2,000 Guineas and Derby third Thankerton and Ribblesdale Stakes scorer Versicle.

The Verdict family kept producing horses who beat their supposed superiors in big races, including Versicle’s great-granddaughter (and Sonic Lady’s third dam) Lucasland, who landed the July Cup and Diadem Stakes, and Lucasland’s half-brother So Blessed, who also won the July Cup among a clutch of top sprint races.

Finally, in 1969, in the aftermath of Lucasland and So Blessed both being crowned champion sprinter, Weatherbys admitted their dam Lavant into the General Stud Book, as she fulfilled the second premise for entry, in that she could “show such performances of her immediate family on the turf as to warrant the belief in the purity of her blood”. Attraction is another all-time great from this upstart family.

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Pedigree pick

Star Of Hope, making her debut for Charlie Appleby and Godolphin, stands out in the mile maiden for three-year-old fillies at Newmarket today (4.45).

She is a Dark Angel full-sister to champion miler Charyn and Mill Reef Stakes winner Wings Of War, out of Futoon, a Listed-placed daughter of Kodiac from the fast family of Darkanna, Galeota, Justineo, Logo Hunter and the unbeaten exciting prospect Westport.

Star Of Hope was, unsurprisingly considering her connections and breeding, an expensive acquisition. She cost 2,900,000gns at Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale.