Breeders of the year John and Tanya Gunther reveal their schedule for 2019

Days before the Eclipse Awards were to commence on Thursday at Gulfstream Park in Florida, Tanya Gunther is, she admits, feeling “a bit of pressure.”

The sensation has little to do with whether her father, John Gunther, would collect the Eclipse as outstanding breeder or whether Triple Crown winner Justify, the colt he bred on her advice for the mating, would be honoured as America’s Horse of the Year and three-year-old champion.imag

Rather, Tanya Gunther – a London investment banker turned passionate overseer of her father’s Glennwood Farm broodmare band in Kentucky as well as a dozen mares in Europe – is already worrying over how to continue the extraordinary breeding success that also produced 2018 St James’s Palace Stakes winner Without Parole and American Oaks heroine Competitionofideas.

“How do I beat this? It’s a tough act to follow,” says Gunther, who owns or co-owns some of the Glennwood broodmares and racehorses, including Without Parole. “I just don’t think you can plan to try to equal it. But I’ve got to do the best that I can.

“I’m always trying to breed a good racehorse and help my Dad breed a really good racehorse, and so I just try to keep my focus on that,” she adds. “There is no guarantee, but I don’t feel it’s impossible to breed a really good horse again. Neither do I feel it’s likely that we’ll breed another Classic winner in the next couple of years, but I’ll just keep my nose to the grindstone.”

Gunther says she works throughout each year poring over possible matings, and the 2019 plans she and John Gunther have designed feature their increasingly impressive band of around 30 mares in Kentucky, along with their European mares, matched to many of the world’s best stallions. A few of the mares are co-owned with family members or friends.

Among their 2019 planned matings highlights are three mares, including the dam of Grade 1 winner Mo Town, chosen to visit Justify in his initial season at Coolmore’s Ashford Stud and the decision to send Without You Babe, dam of Without Parole, back to Frankel to produce a full-sibling.

Other stallions the Gunthers will send their mares to this year include Dubawi, Kingman and Australia in Europe and American Pharoah, Curlin, Medgalia D’Oro, Into Mischief, Kitten’s Joy, Quality Road, Uncle Mo and Oscar Performance in Kentucky.

Strong support for Justify

Since the Gunthers foaled and raised Justify before selling him as a yearling for $500,000, they know him as well as anyone, and his physical qualities, racing record and mental toughness make him particularly appealing, reasons Tanya Gunther.

“With Justify, the physical package is pretty awesome," she says. "And the other thing I love to see in a stallion prospect is the will to win. If you can get that grit into your horse as well, I just think it’s one of the most essential things. It’s exciting to breed to Justify with those factors in mind."

Grazie Mille, a ten-year-old Bernardini mare whose first foal was Hollywood Derby winner Mo Town, was bred by John Gunther from his Graded stakes-winning Carson City mare Molto Vita.

Grazie Mille produced a Curlin colt in May 2018, and her now two-year-old Uncle Mo filly was sold for $875,000 to Courtlandt Farm at the Keeneland September yearling sale.

The other Glennwood mares going to Justify are Fact File, an eight-year-old by Dixie Union out of a half-sister to Empire Maker, and the recently retired Graded winner Tiger Moth, a seven-year-old homebred by Street Sense who is a half-sister to millionaire multiple Graded winner Last Gunfighter.

“I’m kind of exited about those three mares,” Gunther says. “Tiger Moth is from one of those families in which so many are runners, so it’s nice to breed a mare like that to a horse like Justify. And I quite like the physical match. She’s kind of an angular, plain brown Street Sense mare and I think the physique of Justify will suit her well.

“Grazie Mille has been throwing exceptional foals. We like the pedigree match, and I like it with Fact File, too, who has such a nice extended female family.”

Fact File’s second dam is Toussaud, who earned Broodmare of the Year honours with her four Grade 1 winners for Juddmonte Farms.

Star mare Stage Magic set for Quality Road

Without doubt, Glennwood’s premier mare is Justify’s dam, Stage Magic, the now 12-year-old daughter of Ghostzapper and John Gunther’s Grade 1-placed Pulpit mare Magical Illusion. Homebred Stage Magic, who was graded stakes-placed in her racing career, has also produced Graded winner The Lieutenant.

“She’s in foal to Quality Road and she goes to Curlin this season,” Tanya Gunther says. “I’m a very big fan of Curlin – I got on to him early, doing analysis [of his progeny]. We bred the Grade 2 winner Vino Rosso at a much lower fee [$25,000, compared to Curlin’s current $175,000], but he's a stallion that I hoped would go on up the curve.

"You can’t imagine that he would do it as quickly and authoritatively as he has done – it’s been an amazing rise to stardom by that stallion. I just think, if you want to try to breed Classic winners, you have to have Curlin in your bag of stallions.”

Plans for European contingent

Looking at their mares based in Europe, Gunther says Without You Babe, a 14-year-old homebred by Lemon Drop Kid who is also the dam of Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile winner and Shadwell Farm stallion Tamarkuz, will be able to revisit Frankel early in the season. Without You Babe, who is from the extended family of Triple Crown winner Assault, produced a Dubawi colt in late May 2018.

“She’s not in foal [for 2019]. It’s disappointing not to have a foal because you get so excited about them but you try to be positive – she’ll get an early cover,” she explains.

“Of course, we’d love to have another Frankel out of that mare – or ten of them. He’s such a tremendous stallion; his record with his progeny is unbelievable. Expectations were high, but I would hazard a guess that he has surpassed even Juddmonte’s highest expectations. I just think the world of him."

As to Without Parole, he is in training and has been nominated for the $6 million Dubai Turf on March 30 at Meydan. Trainer John Gosden “will decide if we go there or not, but that’s on the radar,” Gunther says.

The Gunthers also plan to send another outstanding producer, Wildwood Flower, to Frankel. The 18-year-old daughter of Langfuhr is the dam of Florida Derby winner Materiality and Grade 2 winner My Miss Sophia; the latter, a $260,000 yearling sale by Glennwood, was resold in November at Keeneland for $4m while in foal to War Front.

Wildwood Flower has produced three consecutive foals by Galileo, including a now two-year-old filly acquired by MV Magnier at last year’s Tattersalls October Book 1 sale for 900,000gns. The mare’s most recent Galileo foal was a colt delivered last May.

Gunther says that most of her family’s European-based mares are boarded at Newsells Park Stud, although some are sent to Coolmore if being bred to stallions there, and any staying in France reside with Anna Sundstrom.

Without Parole surges home to win the St James's Palace StakesCredit: Edward Whitaker

One of the most outstanding mares John Gunther keeps in Europe is Posset, an unraced eight-year-old full-sister to champion Midday acquired from the Juddmonte consignment at the 2014 Tattersalls December mare sale for 625,000gns.

“Posset is going to Dubawi – that’s exciting,” says Tanya Gunther.

At the Tattersalls October yearling sale last year, Posset’s Galileo colt sold for 1,100,000gns to Stroud Coleman Bloodstock, acting on behalf of Godolphin. The eight-year-old Oasis Dream mare has a now three-year-old colt by Galileo, Make My Day, who the Gunthers have in training with Gosden.

Posset also has a yearling colt by Frankel and is currently in foal to Frankel.

In other European matings, the Gunthers will send two mares from their carefully cultivated families to Juddmonte’s young sire Kingman: Smart Change, a Smart Strike half-sister to Without You Babe and to Grade 1 winner and sire Stay Thirsty, and Beyond the Sea, a winner by Sea The Stars who is a half-sister to Competitionofideas.

“Kingman had just an unbelievable year with his two-year-olds, so it’s very exciting to breed to him,” Gunther says.

Another young stallion the Gunthers admire is Australia, and they are sending Group-placed runner and stakes producer Lady Aquitaine, a 14-year-old by El Prado, to Coolmore’s dual Derby winner.

“He’s made quite a nice start with his two-year-olds, and I’m expecting him to kick into even higher gear with his three-year-olds," Gunther says of the son of Galileo who is standing for €35,000.

"He’s a very good-looking stallion with a tremendous physique and from a very nice family. Hopefully, he’s one of those that ends up being a value pick."

Belief in 'very, very interesting' Mendelssohn

Back in America, the Gunthers will be supporting Coolmore’s Mendelssohn, who, like Justify, is by Scat Daddy.

“I think he is a very, very interesting new stallion on the market,” Gunther says of Mendelssohn, a half-brother to hot sire Into Mischief and multiple champion Beholder.

Dance With Another, an eight-year-old daughter of Danehill Dancer and Group 1 winner and producer Quarter Moon, will go to Mendelssohn along with 18-year-old multiple Graded winner and Grade 1-placed Bending Strings.

A $475,000 purchase in 2015 at Keeneland, Dance With Another has produced the now three-year-old Frankel colt Fox Vardy, who is in training with Martyn Meade and was an early nominee for the Investec Derby, as well as a juvenile Tapit filly and a yearling Tapit colt.

The mare, a half-sister to Group 1 winner Diamondsandrubies, was bred to Medaglia D’Oro in 2018, so the investment in her to date is an indication of how highly the Gunthers regard Mendelssohn.

Similarly, Bending Strings has a yearling Medaglia D’Oro colt and was bred back last year to American Pharoah.

American Pharoah and Good Magic in favour

While the Gunthers typically try to direct their mares to proven sires, they are supporting a number of young stallions this season, including American Pharoah, whose first crop will race this year, and Good Magic, the champion son of Curlin who will stand his initial season for $35,000 at Hill ‘n’ Dale Farms.

As former owners of Magical Flash, the Miswaki mare who produced Good Magic’s dam, Glinda The Good, the Gunthers bred Glinda The Good’s half-sisters Take The Ribbon, by Chester House, and Inside Passage, by Tiznow, and fortunately retained them for breeding.

Good Magic: new recruit to Hill 'n' Dale Farms is receiving strong support from the GunthersCredit: Jesse Holmes / EquiSport Photos

Take The Ribbon, who produced a Frankel filly last year while in France, is booked to American Pharoah, while Inside Passage will visit his fellow Ashford resident Uncle Mo. Another Glennwood mare going to Uncle Mo will be Molto Vita.

Since the Gunthers hold both Curlin and the family of Magical Flash – which extends back to Irish champion filly Linaria – in high regard, they will likely support Good Magic with several mares.

Lemon Gin, an eight-year-old mare by First Samurai out of Without You Babe and thus a half-sister to Without Parole and Tamarkuz, has been “married” to Speightstown, sire of Tamarkuz, for the last four breeding seasons but will go to Good Magic this year, Gunther says.

“She’s got black type with her first foal [the stakes-placed four-year-old Super Saver filly Best of Me], so she’s off to a good start,” Gunther says of Lemon Gin, whose 2018 Speightstown filly was sold as a weanling for $500,000 to Shadwell at Keeneland in November.

“We like Good Magic – I think he's a very interesting young stallion. This is a family that throws a lot of try into their offspring and I'm a really big fan of guts and determination,” she says.

Competitionofideas clan being cultivated

Another female family currently being developed by John Gunther is the one that produced Competitionofideas. That Grade 1-winning filly’s dam, the 13-year-old Medaglia D’Oro mare Devil By Design, was co-bred by John Gunther and then acquired outright for $160,000 at Keeneland in 2006.

Devil By Design, who has a War Front yearling colt, will be bred to Curlin for the second consecutive season, Tanya Gunther says while praising the quality of the foals the mare produces.

Competitionofideas, by Speightstown, was a $325,000 yearling while Devil By Design’s next foal, a Speightstown colt, sold for $900,000 as a yearling to Shadwell.

Meanwhile, Devil by Design’s first foal, the unraced Fastnet Rock mare Big Raven, has stayed with the Gunthers and will be bred to Into Mischief this year after visiting Speightstown in 2018 for her first mating.

“Now that there is a big update in the pedigree [with Competitionofideas], it’s less stress-inducing going to a big stallion like Into Mischief,” Gunther says of the Spendthrift Farm sire who stands for $150,000.

Elite stallions all the way

Among the other prominent matings the Gunthers have planned for 2019 is the breeding of Always On My Mind, a winning Congrats mare out of Without You Babe who raced for John Gunther through much of last year, to Quality Road.

Mythical Bride, an 11-year-old Street Cry mare who delivered Vino Rosso as her second foal and who is in foal with a full-sibling by Curlin, will go back to Medaglia D’Oro.

While Vino Rosso prepares to add to his $842,500 earnings with a four-year-old campaign, Mythical Bride has a yearling Uncle Mo colt and a now two-year-old colt by Pioneerof The Nile who was purchased by MV Magnier for $575,000 at Keeneland in 2018.

Inspired by the pedigree of European Horse of the Year Roaring Lion, who is by Kitten’s Joy out of a Street Sense mare, the Gunthers plan to send their homebred Street Sense mare Street Rumor to Kitten’s Joy this season.

“She’s out of a Sadler’s Wells mare [Sobinka], so you’ve got a couple of angles there for turf. Kitten’s Joy obviously had an exceptional year again – many years in a row, actually," Gunther says. "Commercially, he’s starting to show some improvement as well. People are starting to respect him in the market."

With that in mind, the Gunthers have invested in Kitten’s Joy’s multiple Grade 1-winning son Oscar Performance, and the mares they are sending to him include Street Rumor’s half-sister, French stakes-placed Havana Moon, by Malibu Moon.

Overall, Tanya Gunther says she could never put a number on the hours she and her father devote to planning matings, but breeding exceptional racehorses like Justify and Without Parole is the ultimate reward, as well as motivation.

“There is some sense of validation with our programme, when all the hard work has resulted in something good," she reflects. "You feel like you’re doing something right – and hopefully you can figure out what that is and keep doing it."

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