A mare in a million whose Irish Oaks anniversary could be marked by a very fitting winner

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Here, two decades on from Ouija Board's Classic summer, Martin Stevens speaks to Peter Stanley of New England Stud, which boarded her for his brother the Earl of Derby – subscribers can get more great insight every Monday to Friday.

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Apologies, Enable. Sorry, Snow Fairy. Mea culpa, Minding. I cherish a deep admiration for all of you as outstanding winners of the Oaks in the new millennium, but you will never rule my heart like Ouija Board did.

There was just something about the mare, who completed the Anglo-Irish Oaks double 20 years ago this weekend when she was eased down by Kieren Fallon to score at the Curragh by a length from impressive Ribblesdale Stakes winner Punctilious. 

Perhaps it was her sheer class, often lethal finishing kick and bold campaigns, which resulted in seven top-level victories on three continents between the ages of three and five. The haul included two triumphs over colts, first in the Hong Kong Vase and then in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes, and a famous double in the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf.

Perhaps it was because she looked good even in defeat. Dylan Thomas had to summon all his strength to overhaul her in the Irish Champion Stakes, and beat her by only a neck, while Deep Impact had just two and a half lengths in hand when demoting her to third in the Japan Cup. 

She probably should have won the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe too, as she flew from the clouds after meeting trouble in running at Longchamp at three but couldn’t quite reel in Bago and Cherry Mix.  

Perhaps it was her bravery, demonstrated most memorably when she put her head in front at the crucial moment in a tremendous battle with Alexander Goldrun in the final furlong of the Nassau Stakes, one that was more thrilling than even Grundy versus Bustino in the King George.

Or perhaps it was the rich history with which she was imbued: the black silks of her owner-breeder the 19th Earl of Derby, worn with a single white button under the collar as a lucky charm since Tommy Weston accidentally pulled a piece of neck cloth through his buttonhole before riding the 17th Earl of Derby’s colt Sansovino to victory in the 1924 Derby; and the touching tale of her third dam Samanda’s life being spared after she crashed through a fence, leaving her blind and requiring her foals to wear a bell on their head collar.

For breeding buffs, Ouija Board’s legend grew again in retirement. She was the dam of five winners, including the brilliant Derby, Irish Derby and Juddmonte International hero Australia, Coronation Cup runner-up Frontiersman and Australian Group 3 scorer Voodoo Prince.

Australia and Frontiersman, who stand on either side of the Irish Sea, are ensuring that Ouija Board’s influence is still felt two decades after her racecourse exploits and a year and a half since she died aged 21.

Australia, by Galileo and so the only Derby winner to boast parents who both finished first past the post in Epsom Classics, has just completed his tenth covering season at Coolmore.

He has carved a niche for himself as a solid middle-market option for imparting class over a mile and further, with 62 black-type performers to his name led by Group/Grade 1 winners Broome, Galileo Chrome, Mare Australis, Ocean Road and Order Of Australia.

Fittingly, Australia is the source of Port Fairy, a leading contender for tomorrow’s Irish Oaks on the 20th anniversary of his dam’s success in the race. If the Ribblesdale winner were to prevail, she would make the sire’s reduced covering fee of €17,500 look even more of a bargain. 

Port Fairy and Ryan Moore (left) beat Lava Stream in the Ribblesdale StakesCredit: Edward Whitaker

Australia has also come to the fore as a broodmare sire of great promise in recent weeks. His daughters have produced this season’s unbeaten Group 3 winner Lazzat (by Territories) and Poule d’Essai des Poulains runner-up Dancing Gemini (by Camelot), and they were in red-hot form on Saturday when Ancient Truth (by Dubawi) landed the Superlative Stakes and Al Shabab Storm (by Advertise) took the City Plate Stakes.

Frontiersman, a son of Dubawi who almost had the measure of Highland Reel in the Coronation Cup only to hang left as he made his run and throw away his chance of winning, has fulfilled a bargain-basement dual-purpose role at Overbury Stud. It was only this year, his sixth in the breeding shed, that his fee reached as high as £2,000.

He has made a sneakily good start with his few early runners, not least with Asian Daze, who was sold to Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott for £200,000 at the Goffs London Sale last month on the back of finishing second in the Listed Kooyonga Stakes for Johnny Murtagh.

She was the game winner of a trappy fillies’ handicap at Newmarket on Saturday on her first start for Jane Chapple-Hyam, and now heads down under to join her purchasers.

Waterhouse should appreciate Frontiersman’s pedigree. Almah, the granddam of her father Tommy Smith’s hall of famer Kingston Town, was a full-sister to Ouija Board’s third dam Samanda, the siblings being by the 17th Earl of Derby’s great stayer and champion sire Alycidon.

Ouija Board really was the whole package, then: a charismatic champion on the track who also became an influential broodmare. 

If there is one small regret about her otherwise exemplary career, it is that she produced just the one filly from five living foals before she experienced reproductive issues. That daughter – Filia Regina, a 2010-foaled full-sister to Australia – has in turn bred four winners, some of them useful but none with black type in spite of being fathered by expensive sires.

Peter Stanley, who boarded Ouija Board for his brother the Earl of Derby at Stanley House Stud in Newmarket, unsurprisingly doesn’t hold that against the mare of a lifetime for his family.

“She was, unusually, an amazing racemare and an amazing broodmare, which insinuates that she would leave a big legacy, but unfortunately she left just the one daughter,” he says. “I always said to my brother, ‘Wouldn’t it be lovely if you could have five or six daughters from her, as then you’d have created a whole stud farm’, but it just wasn’t to be.

Ouija Board is clear of Punctilious and Hazarista at the Curragh as she completes the Oaks doubleCredit: Caroline Norris

“But one can never be sad when you’re lucky enough to race a mare who is as good as she was, and then comes out and breeds you a Derby winner. It was, overwhelmingly, a happy set of circumstances.

“Ouija Board was such a beautiful, elegant and feminine filly, unlike some of those good racemares who can be a little masculine, that I always felt she was going to be capable of being a very good broodmare, and she really was a very good broodmare. The sole disappointment is certainly not her lack of success, it’s just that she had only one daughter.”

Giving an update on Filia Regina, he adds: “She hasn’t excelled as a broodmare, for all that she has produced plenty of winners. She was a very big filly herself and breeds quite big foals, so we’ve been trying to reduce the size – hence we sent her to Dubawi three times and Invincible Spirit once.

“We did all we could to shrink them, but we haven’t been terribly successful with that, or with breeding a black-type horse from her. However, we’re full of hope that we can skip a generation and something will still happen, as obviously it’s a family that’s given us so much pleasure for so many years.

“We’re breeding from Persepone, a daughter of hers by Dubawi, and she has a very nice Cable Bay yearling filly.”

Stanley has been following the progress of Ouija Board’s stallion sons with relish. He has supported Australia with his brother’s small broodmare band, and although they have been left with none of his daughters, he admits “it would be lovely to have one, and we might easily go out and buy one”.

“Australia has such a wonderful pedigree, it’s not really surprising that he’s showing himself to be heading in the direction of being an important broodmare sire,” he reasons.

Frontiersman hasn’t been used on the Earl of Derby’s broodmares yet, but Stanley doesn’t entirely rule out it happening in future. As it goes, he has been given another reason to be fond of the quietly useful sire.

Peter Stanley: "It was, overwhelmingly, a happy set of circumstances"Credit: Laura Green

“Gai Waterhouse is a very dear friend, and so Asian Daze’s victory on Saturday gave us particular pleasure,” he says. “My wife Frances collected the prize on behalf of Gai and we’re going to the Melbourne Cup with Gai this year as very old friends, so it’s lovely that the filly should be by Frontiersman.

“Interestingly, Frontiersman is not a big horse and is in the mould of Dubawi, and Asian Daze very much takes after Frontiersman.”

Stanley would hardly ever forget Ouija Board, but he is reminded of her nearly every day anyway, as a lifesize bronze in her image graces the main yard of Stanley House Stud. It hasn’t escaped his attention that two decades have now elapsed since her Classic heroics either.

“My main memory of those times is thinking what extraordinary good fortune it was to be associated with such a wonderful filly with such a wonderful character,” he says. “Ed Dunlop did the most magnificent job with her. Not many fillies take on the colts and beat them on a regular basis, but she did.

“She was so genuine and had the most marvellously big, honest ears and a lovely outlook. She was no softie, though. She had a bit of je ne sais quoi. 

“She fulfilled a lifelong dream of breeding and racing a great horse but she did more than that, by producing a Derby winner too. She brought the whole family and so many other people so much joy. 

“It’s amazing to see the affection in which she is held by people from all over the world – Japanese, Australians, Americans – when they come to the stud, even now. She touched so many lives, and we’re just fortunate that she touched our lives more than others.”

I’m sure Stanley and his family won’t be the only ones thinking of Ouija Board on the 20th anniversary of her Irish Oaks victory; especially if her paternal granddaughter Port Fairy manages to win this year’s race.

Nor do you have to have any vested interest to hope that such a special mare’s bequest to the breed is enlarged through Australia and Frontiersman’s exploits as stallions, and the fragile female thread through Filia Regina being reinforced by Persepone.

Ouija Board wins the Breeders Cup Filly & Mare Turf at Lone Star Park

As it happens, Ouija Board has never lacked fans. Don’t forget Ling Tsui was so enamoured with the filly in her racing pomp that she resolved to send her Arc heroine Urban Sea to her sire Cape Cross, the result being Sea The Stars.

What a legacy. Who doesn't love her?

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