Farewell to a grande dame of the British broodmare ranks who transformed her home stud

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Here, Martin Stevens speaks to Car Colston Hall Stud manager Jonathon Smithers about mighty mare Wiener Wald – subscribers can get more great insight every Monday to Friday.

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Car Colston Hall Stud in Nottinghamshire has bid a fond farewell to its celebrated foundation mare Wiener Wald a week after her maternal grandson English Oak eased to a three-length victory in the Buckingham Palace Stakes Handicap at Royal Ascot, in a manner that suggested he will embellish his already impressive page with even more black type in future.

The daughter of Woodman, who was the grand old age of 32, is the ancestress of five top-level winners in Beauty Eternal (this year’s Hong Kong Champions Mile), Brando (Prix Maurice de Gheest), Crowded House (Futurity Trophy), Reckless Abandon (Prix Morny and Middle Park Stakes) and Ticker Tape (American Oaks and Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup).

Tribalist, another star who traces back to her in the distaff line, also looks capable of striking in Group/Grade 1 company after winning the Prix Edmond Blanc and Prix du Muguet on both his starts for Andre Fabre this season. His retained three-year-old full-sister Fair Point broke her maiden at Chester by 20 lengths last month and looks capable of better, too.

Jonathon Smithers, who manages Car Colston Hall Stud on behalf of Nicholas and Jane Forman Hardy, reported that Wiener Wald was put down on Wednesday after her health had deteriorated recently.

“Her age finally caught up with her,” he continued. “She’d been retired for nine years, alongside her daughter Argent Du Bois, and had an exceptional quality of life. It was lovely having her here and it’ll be sad not seeing her in her paddock any more.”

Wiener Wald was bred by Will Farish in Kentucky, and hailed from a deeply influential family. Her dual Grade 2-winning and multiple Grade 1-placed dam Chapel Of Dreams was no less than a Northern Dancer three-parts sister to breed-shaping sire Storm Cat, from the family of champion Royal Academy.

English Oak: emphatic Buckingham Palace Stakes Handicap winner and maternal grandson of Wiener WaldCredit: Edward Whitaker

She was bought by Frank Stronach for $175,000 from the Keeneland July Yearling Sale of 1993 and placed in training with Mike Tammaro, but failed to trouble the judge in five starts in maiden special weights at two and three. 

Placed back on the market at the Keeneland November Sale at the end of her three-year-old season, in foal for the first time to Silver Hawk, she was signed for by Alex Scrope on behalf of the Forman Hardys for $210,000.

“Nicholas and Jane spent five days looking at fillies and mares at Keeneland before picking her out,” says Smithers. “I’m told there was a mix-up during the bidding, as Japanese clients were keen to get her, but weren’t familiar with the process and were distracted while she was knocked down to Alex.”

Wiener Wald gave birth to the Silver Hawk foal, the filly who would become Argent Du Bois, in Kentucky. Argent Du Bois was sent to France to be trained by Jonathan Pease but failed to score, her best effort being a second at Dieppe.

She made up for that inauspicious display on the racecourse in the breeding shed, by producing seven winners including Brando and Ticker Tape. Another of her offspring, the Listed-placed Santa Elena, became dam of Reckless Abandon.

Ticker Tape, a daughter of Royal Applause who went from 6,500gns vendor buyback as a foal to $950,000 broodmare sale to Japan, clicked with Street Cry while at stud in America to produce the useful broodmare Royal Decree, the dam of Vintage Stakes winner War Decree and Sands Point Stakes scorer Skims, who was sold to Summer Wind Equine for $1.8 million at Keeneland last November.

West End Girl: daughter of Free Rein and Sweet Solera Stakes winnerCredit: Grossick Racing

Sant Elena meanwhile also bred French Group 3 winner Erasmo and Japanese Listed scorer Best Approach, as well Free Rein, the dam of Sweet Solera Stakes victress West End Girl and last year’s Belmont Derby third Mondego.

Argent Du Bois, something of a blue hen herself, remains in good health at the age of 28 at Car Colston Hall Stud. 

“It's going to be odd for her now that her dam and paddock mate has gone but she’ll get used to it in time,” said Smithers. “We’ll find a new companion for her.”

Wiener Wald also conceived in Kentucky her second and third offspring, the winner Woodland River (by Irish River) and placed Le Globe (by Theatrical), before she was moved to Britain. Her fourth foal, On Reflection (by Rainbow Quest), became her first black-type winner in the Grand Prix Gaston Defferre.

Wiener Wald’s fifth foal Bering Island (by Bering) finished placed in France before being sold at the end of her three-year-old season to New Zealand, where she won twice. Bering Island’s branch of the family hadn’t borne much fruit until her placed Savabeel daughter Ithacan Queen sparked with Starspangledbanner to produce top-class Hong Kong miler Beauty Eternal.

Wiener Wald’s next significant foal was Riotous Applause, by Royal Applause and so closely related to Ticker Tape. She finished third in the Cecil Frail Stakes and produced the Listed winner Invincible Warrior. In the following year Wiener Wald bred Heron Bay, a son of Hernando who took the King George V Stakes at Royal Ascot.

Wiener Wald and Argent Du Bois share a paddock at Car Colston HallCredit: Car Colston Hall Stud

Next on the scene was Vienna Affair (by Red Ransom), who didn’t manage to break her maiden but finished third and became the dam of Graded winners Daring Dancer and Hamp after her sale to the US.

Then came Crowded House (by Rainbow Quest), the only Group 1-winning foal of her own, scoring in the Racing Post Trophy and running a respectable sixth in Sea The Stars’ Derby before heading to the US, where he finished a close second to Richard’s Kid in the Pacific Classic at Del Mar.

Crowded House was retired to stud in Australia, where Rainbow Quest’s son Quest For Fame had fared well as a stallion, and sired a handful of smart winners there. 

Wiener Wald’s next produce Forest Crown, a full-sister to Riotous Applause, was retained by Car Colston Hall Stud and was twice Listed-placed. She has produced another flourishing offshoot of the family, as dam of Winter Derby winner Forest Of Dean, Listed scorer State Occasion, Prix de Sandringham runner-up Golden Crown and Listed-placed Rionach. English Oak, her latest runner, will surely also gain black type judging by his dazzling display at Royal Ascot last week.

Woodland Scene, the result of Wiener Wald’s mating with the largely forgettable sire Act One in 2008, didn’t run but produced Firth of Clyde Stakes winner Nazanin by the hit-and-miss Declaration Of War. Wiener Wald can probably take a large slice of the credit for that filly’s talent. 

Wiener Wald’s final two female progeny, Wiener Valkyrie (by Shamardal) and Fair Daughter (by Nathaniel), both also promise to be fine broodmares. 

Wiener Valkyrie, second in both the Dick Hern Fillies’ Stakes at Haydock at 100-1 and the Athenia Stakes at Belmont Park at 66-1, is dam of highly rated Listed third Declared Interest (also by Declaration Of War) and smart multiple scorer Fresh Hope.

Tribalist: high-class miler is keeping the family's name in the spotlightCredit: Racing Post / Scott Burton

Fair Daughter, who was unraced, has come up with the top-notch Tribalist and exciting Fair Point as two of her first three offspring, so is potentially a very important producer.

Wiener Wald produced nine winners in total, five of them with black type, and is the ancestress of 37 stakes horses across all the major racing jurisdictions around the world.

Not bad for a mare who didn’t manage to win and didn’t cost the earth, in the parallel world of high-level breeding. Furthermore, unlike some other blue hens, she wasn’t assisted in laying down roots so quickly by producing an abundance of daughters early in her paddocks career: three of her first four foals were colts.

“Wiener Wald has had stakes horses in every continent, and they just keep coming,” says Smithers. “The family doesn’t tend to be large in size, and the majority of them aren’t big walkers either, but the one thing they do have is lots of heart and determination. They take no messing.

“The fillies especially have a steely determination. Wiener Wald had it in spades. It took a bucket of feed and two or three people to catch her. She was always first in line at the feed bowl too. She didn’t need to chase the others away – they just knew.

“She retained that great character and presence, and was still floating across the paddock, up until very recently. Her body was always going to give up before she did.”

State Occasion: smart performer is the latest member of the family to retire to studCredit: Alan Crowhurst

He adds, with a crack in his voice: “Yes, it’s truly incredible what she’s done.”

Just how truly incredible Wiener Wald was is reflected in the fact that all but one of the 12 mares now owned by Car Colston Hall Stud are descended from her.

“We won’t see her any more but we’ll feel her,” says Smithers. “Forest Crown is in foal to Paddington, Wiener Valkyrie is in foal to Ghaiyyath and Fair Daughter is in foal to Wootton Bassett. Wiener Valkyrie’s daughter Fresh Hope is in foal to Mehmas and Forest Crown’s daughter Considered Opinion is in foal to Chaldean.

“Another daughter of Forest Crown, State Occasion, is in foal to Night Of Thunder. She was a bit unlucky not to be Group 1-placed in the Prix de de l’Opera last year, as she ran on well to finish fifth. She was retired after running in the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf on the same day that Fair Point made an encouraging debut, so it was fitting that as one high-class filly from the family went out, another came in.

“Fair Point was supposed to run at Royal Ascot after winning so well at Chester but the ground went against her. We’re looking at Listed races at Carlisle and Chester as her next target if she gets the right conditions.”

The smart Farhh full-sister to Tribalist will likely be a highly exciting addition to the Car Colston Hall Stud broodmare band in future. 

Continuing the run-down of her relations already enjoying the lush pastures on the East Midlands farm, Smithers says: “Elena’s Gift, a winning Frankel half-sister to Reckless Abandon, is in foal to Zarak. Another half-sister by Dansili, Free Rein, was sadly empty to Kingman, but her daughter Free Will went to Kodiac. Wild Abandon, another half-sister to Reckless Abandon by Kingman, is in foal to Sioux Nation.”

Closing Bell, a daughter of Siyouni and Wiener Valkyrie owned by the Forman Hardys, has a particularly exciting yearling on the ground, for her breeders and bloodstock buffs alike.

The filly is by the late German champion sire Soldier Hollow, another Group 1 winner bred by Car Colston Hall Stud from a different family.

“It was the first time we used Soldier Hollow,” reports Smithers. “We were desperate to send one out to Germany but were just waiting for a filly from the Wiener Wald family to come along with the right physique and pedigree.

“Closing Bell fitted the bill and naturally we’re delighted to have got a filly from the mating. She’s likely to be retained and race in the Car Colston Hall Stud silks. The dam is back in foal to Territories now.”

For the record, Car Colston Hall Stud’s only mare not descended from Wiener Wald is Artistic Rebellion, an unraced daughter of Zoffany and the Listed-winning Selkirk mare Miss Ivanhoe. She is in foal to Nathaniel.

Building such a powerful and prolific family from a single mare represents a brilliant feat of breeding, comparable with Meon Valley Stud mining myriad Pattern winners from the families of two of its three original filly purchases, One In A Million and Reprocolor, or Kirsten Rausing becoming more or less self-sufficient by carefully cultivating the same judiciously chosen bloodlines for decades.

“We all adored her, and we owe her so much,” sums up Smithers. “She was a privilege to look after.”

What more can be said about the wonderful Wiener Wald? Only that it’s also a privilege to write about a true blue hen like her.

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