Japan swoops for mare who went from budget buy to dam of a Classic winner in six months

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Here he speaks to Duncan McGregor of Newtown Lodge Stud about buying and selling the dam of Marhaba Ya Sanafi - subscribers can get more great insight from Martin every Monday to Friday.

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Shadai Farm principal Teruya Yoshida has purchased Danega, the dam of this year’s Poule d’Essai des Poulains winner and Prix du Jockey Club third Marhaba Ya Sanafi, in a private transaction.

The seller, Duncan McGregor of Newtown Lodge Stud in County Kildare, owned the 11-year-old daughter of Galileo for less than a year, having somehow managed to buy her for just €16,000 at the Goffs November Sale last winter.

McGregor’s association with Danega, a close relation to top-level winners Aspen Grove, Intense Focus and Skitter Scatter, has been brief but remarkably eventful.

Marhaba Ya Sanafi, described as an unraced Muhaarar two-year-old colt on Danega's page in the catalogue, was saddled by Andreas Schutz to score in a Chantilly maiden only eight days after McGregor had plucked the mare from the Godolphin draft at Goffs, and he became a Classic winner when defeating Isaac Shelby in the French 2,000 Guineas at Longchamp a little over six months later.  

Meanwhile in April the rags-to-riches Danega foaled the Hello Youmzain colt she was carrying at the time of her purchase, and shortly afterwards she visited Minzaal in his first season at Derrinstown Stud. The result of that mating will now be owned by Yoshida.

McGregor’s miraculous mare purchase made him the subject of considerable media interest in the spring and although he has now cashed her in, the story isn’t over yet as he is selling the Hello Youmzain colt at Goffs in a month’s time.

Reflecting on a whirlwind year, he says: “Within about a week of buying the mare Marhaba Ya Sanafi won his first race at Chantilly, on what was his second start, and we thought, ‘Oh good, that’s a nice update’, but we weren’t really thinking it was anything major.

“Then he popped up again in the spring and got an entry in a nice conditions race at Chantilly, and he won it, and that’s when we first thought, ‘My God, what do we have here?’ If a horse wins a couple of races like that in Ireland, you’re immediately thinking black type.

“Then of course the Classic trials came along and he ran a solid second in the Prix de Fontainebleau, which gave us a little more hope, and then they ran him in the French 2,000 Guineas and he went and won it. It was just amazing, we couldn’t quite believe it.”

With Danega’s value having skyrocketed in such a short space of time, and McGregor, 80, having wound down most of his breeding interests in recent years, he didn’t need his arm twisting when offers to purchase the mare inevitably came.  

“A few phone calls started coming in, although not that many from the bigger agents in Newmarket which I thought was surprising,” says the Scottish-born retired oil executive. 

“I was approached by an independent agent called Sean Forde here in Ireland, he came to look at the mare and got back to me with an offer.

“I thought about it for a few days, and eventually said I’ll take it. I’ve been reducing our equine interests to the point that we’ve almost had a partial dispersal, so when this cropped up it wasn’t that difficult a decision to sell. It later transpired it was to Shadai Farm.

“The mare was with Jacqueline Norris, who helped me select her with Larry Stratton, and she stayed with her at Jockey Hall Stud until the Hello Youmzain colt foal was weaned. The Japanese arranged for her to be transported to France, and I understand she’s going to visit the Arc winner Ace Impact next year.”

Danega will visit the unbeaten Arc hero Ace Impact in 2024Credit: Edward Whitaker

Forde and his noted veterinarian father Dermot, who operate as Forde Bloodstock, had earlier forged links with Japan by facilitating the Turkish Jockey Club’s purchase of Japanese champion Victoire Pisa and Grade 2 winner Kluger.

The agency has already enjoyed success with Marhaba Ya Sanafi’s family, as Dermot Forde bought Railway Stakes third Daneleta, a Danehill full-sister to Danega’s dam Danelissima, as a two-year-old out of Jim Bolger’s yard for the Comtesse Rossi. The mare would later produce Dewhurst Stakes victor Intense Focus and the dam of Moyglare Stud Stakes winner Skitter Scatter.

McGregor also had history with Danega’s pedigree as he owned her fourth dam Gradille after buying the daughter of Home Guard from Baroness Thyssen, who had earlier bred La Meilleure, the Listed-winning dam of Sholokhov and granddam of Soldier Of Fortune, from her.  

“We had the family for a long time and Gradille was always one of my wife’s favourites; she was the one who picked her out, as she thought she was so beautiful,” he says. “We’ve been without the family for a few years, so when I saw Danega in the Goffs catalogue last year it caught my eye. It was a sentimental thing, really.

“I’d broken my hip about a year before, but fortunately had a friend drive me to the sale on the preview day. I looked at the mare and got Larry and Jacqueline to inspect her too, and we all agreed she was all right.

“She went through the ring early the next day, so I went down to Goffs again and bought her and was back home within the hour. I wasn’t looking at any other mares, it was a targeted purchase, as we wanted to get back into that family specifically. We never for one moment dreamt anything like this would happen, though.”

McGregor’s only regret from his fleeting but fruitful ownership of Danega is that the mare produced a colt rather than a filly for him in the spring. Had the result of last year’s mating with Hello Youmzain been female, she would have been retained to continue the line.

It’s certainly not the end of the world, though, as McGregor can instead look forward to another nice profit when Tom Whelan’s Church View Stables offers the half-brother to a Classic winner as Lot 667 at the Goffs November Sale next month.

“Tom has been a friend of mine for many years, and is based only three miles away,” he says. “Hopefully the foal will sell well. He should, as he’s a grand, big colt. Hello Youmzain’s first yearlings have been very popular, although he’s still unproven of course. We’ll see. I just wish he’d been a filly.”  

So, once McGregor has bought and sold a Classic-winning dam and her foal in the space of less than a year, will he be returning to the premier sessions of the breeding-stock sales clutching his cheque from Japan, looking to invest in something a bit more obvious this time?

“No no no,” he shoots back with a chuckle. “Not at all! I might be in the market for one or two but I’m from Scotland. We don’t throw money away.”

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