'There is still progression in her' - patient Lavery delighted by a corking homebred success

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While Martin Stevens is taking a well-earned breather, Aisling Crowe is in the plate and here speaks to the multi-talented Sheila Lavery about a true homebred success with Moracana at Cork on Friday.

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"Thrilled is the only word that can describe it," replies Sheila Lavery when asked to explain how she felt after the success of Moracana in the Listed Noblesse Stakes at Cork on Friday.

The Summerhill trainer has been responsible for a pair of Guineas-placed horses in the last four years, a record that reflects both her talent and eye for a horse, but the seeds for Friday's success were sown before Lavery embarked on her training career in 2012, for Moracana is a second-generation homebred for the accomplished event rider.

Now five, the daughter of Elzaam won the Petingo Handicap at Leopardstown on Irish Champions Weekend last year, which was the first major success Lavery had had with the family since she purchased Moracana's second dam, Non Ultra, from Eddie O'Leary at the Tattersalls July Sale in 2003.

By Peintre Celebre and out of a St Jovite mare, she cost 9,000gns in Newmarket two months after she had won over a mile at Nottingham for Brian Meehan in the colours of her breeder Gigginstown House Stud. 

Sheila Lavery: "I think he’s the real deal but he’ll be a lot greener than the others"Credit: Caroline Norris

The following spring she was sent to Rathbarry Stud's new recruit, Acclamation, and the resulting foal was sold to Gill Richardson at Book 2 for 12,000gns. Tamara Moon won twice at two for Mick Channon but it was as a broodmare that she was most successful.

"Tamara Moon was the first foal I bred out of Non Ultra and she produced a Group 3 winner in Chilworth Icon, who won the Woodcote Stakes and the Premio Primi Passi," says Lavery. "It's not a family that I made money on and then when I started to train they were a fantastic family to have. They are racehorses, not sales horses."

The veracity of those words is evident in Non Ultra's stud record as she is the dam of eight foals, six of them winners. It's an achievement any breeder would be pleased to recount, but Lavery can add that she has trained three of them to earn their stripes on the track, with another of Non Ultra's daughters also playing a significant role in her training career.

Lady Ultra was Lavery's first two-year-old runner as a trainer and the Dandy Man filly achieved another milestone as the first juvenile winner for her owner, breeder and trainer when successful in a nursery at the Curragh in September 2013.

Ultra Cool: dam of Moracana and four-time winnerCredit: CAROLINE NORRIS

Non Ultra's 2007 foal, Ultra Cool, was retained by Lavery but trained by Ado McGuinness as she had yet to take out her licence. By One Cool Cat, she won four times and was placed on five further occasions before she was retired to join her mother as a broodmare.

"Unfortunately Ultra Cool only ever had two foals but both of them won - her first was Mr Ormsby, who was by Haatef and won twice and was placed 11 times," says Lavery, who also trained Mr Ormsby.

"I owned Moracana as a two-year-old and she was a bit backward, which some of the family can be, and I was able to give her a break and the time she needed. She didn't do anything as a two-year-old."

Racing in the colours of Sue Chadwick, Moracana made her debut in late August of 2021 over a mile at Navan, where she finished second. She got off the mark on her third start, in a Leopardstown maiden over ten furlongs.

Building on those foundations, Moracana made a winning seasonal reappearance at Leopardstown, while her Irish Champions Weekend victory came on just her third run of the season.

Moracana: "There is still progression in her and I'd love her to go on and win more"Credit: Patrick McCann

Moracana's exertions on her first run of this year have set yet another benchmark for her relatives, and it was a race that Lavery had been eagerly anticipating, having gained valuable insight on the filly's final two runs of 2022.

"I was really looking forward to running her because when we ran her at Naas last October we weren't quite sure what went wrong and it wasn't until we ran her again the following month on soft ground that we realised she really didn't want it soft like that, so I was really looking forward to running her on Friday," she says.

Adding further black type to Moracana's page is the aim for Lavery with the Elzaam mare, but how to get there may require her to rethink some plans.

"I had kind of pencilled in Gowran (May 3) but that would leave less than two weeks between races and I knew I had her as fit as I could have her without her having a run,” she says. “I thought she would need the run so I’m going to have to sit down and look at the programme. There is still progression in her and I'd love her to go on and win more."

As a breeder, pre-trainer and trainer, Lavery has worked with all of Non Ultra's offspring in one capacity or another and continues to keep the line going with that second generation, resulting in success but also acquiring a knowledge of the family and their characteristics.

She explains: "It's nice, especially when you know the family, you know their little quirks. You can see family traits in some of them and you do see that in some horses from families. I have Viztoria's family and, even though they are all by different sires, they are all similar in their own way.”

Lavery purchased the Group 2 Park Stakes and Group 3 Athasi Stakes winner by Oratorio as a weanling from Airlie Stud and put her in training when she failed to find a buyer as a yearling at Book 2. Eddie Lynam prepared her for her stakes successes, but Lavery trains all of her offspring of racing age.

She says: "I have three in training. Her first foal Markievicz, by Dandy Man, won at the Curragh last year and I have a very nice Lope De Vega who has run only once, he's called Torivega and I'm looking forward to him. 

“He just needed a bit of time, and I’m lucky that I’m training for someone like John [Lavery, her brother and owner of Torivega] as he doesn't force you to run them, if they need time, you can take that time."

Time is something that Lavery affords her horses, and the next member of the family to represent Chinook Farm is one who holds much significance.

"I still have Lady Ultra and am breeding from her, so at least I have some of the family," she says. "She has a two-year-old colt by Gustav Klimt who is her first living produce, and she has a Kodi Bear weanling."

"They’re not big and bulky, they don't look forward and I think of all of them, apart from Chilworth Icon who won the Woodcote, Lady Ultra was the first two-year-old winner in the branch of the family that I had, and the market doesn't want that. They don't come out as a big, robust family but they are racehorses."

What do you think?

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Pedigree pick

Yarmouth, or Newmarket-on-Sea as it’s sometimes referred to, stages a maiden and a novice stakes on Tuesday afternoon, with the latter (3.15) arguably appealing most from a pedigree buff’s point of view.

The mile contest includes two debutant three-year-old colts from the Gosden yard. One is Qatar Racing’s Savanna King, from the only crop left by Roaring Lion, a colt out of Listed winner An Ghalanta and therefore a half-brother to six winners, notably the stakes-placed Bletchley and Listed winner Time Scale.

The other, Ziryab, was a 525,000gns purchase by Juddmonte at Tattersalls October Book 2. A son of Kingman, he is out of Listed winner Reem and a full-brother to King Leonidas, who three years earlier had topped Book 2 at 750,000gns.

It was John Gosden himself who was the frustrated underbidder as Juddmonte won the battle for him at Park Paddocks. The colt was bred by Sheikh Mohammed bin Khalifa Al Maktoum under the Essafinaat banner, and consigned to Book 2 by Hazelwood Bloodstock.

Juddmonte’s Simon Mockridge, in explaining the purchase, said: “I think Adrian O'Brien and his team have done an excellent job. He could have been a Book 1 horse but they've brought him to Book 2 and he's a standout here." 

Will he be a standout performer on the track? We’ll know a little more on Tuesday afternoon.

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