Tip Two Win gives 'complete novice' breeder Cowley cause for celebration

Saxon Warrior's 2,000 Guineas victory may have been the result of the world's biggest breeding operation scouring the earth to bring the best bloodlines together, with the colt being by Japanese sensation Deep Impact and out of the Group 1-winning Galileo mare Maybe.

But just a length and a half behind Saxon Warrior was Tip Two Win, a horse with much more humble origins.

The Roger Teal-trained three-year-old is in fact the first horse bred by his owner Anne Cowley, who says she "never even dreamed" of breeding racehorses, never mind one as talented as Tip Two Win.

Cowley bought the dam, Freddie's Girl, for just £9,000 at the 2009 renewal of the Goffs Kempton Breeze-Up Sale, before Stef Higgins trained the daughter of More Than Ready to win three sprint handicaps.

But after arthritis curtailed Freddie's Girl's racing career, Cowley's only plan was to let the mare enjoy the rest of her days out in the paddock soaking up the sun and munching grass.

"I'm a complete novice at this breeding game," she says. "It was actually Adam Kirby, who used to ride Freddie's Girl, that put the idea into my head.

"I let her stay in the field at Seamus Durack's after her retirement, we kept her there for three years, but Adam kept saying 'when are you going to breed from her? You should send her to a good sprinter' but I told him I wasn't into all that.

"But he kept on at me so eventually I thought 'maybe there's something in this'. Seamus Durack helped me pick Dark Angel, he told me we wouldn't find a better sprint sire, but I've ended up with a miler!"

And a very good miler at that, as Tip Two Win has now won four of his eight races, including two in Qatar last winter, and has netted Cowley £297,108 in prize-money in the process.

And having seemingly been bitten by the breeding bug, Cowley now has lots to look forward to, as Freddie's Girl, who resides at Eimear Mulhern's Abbeville Stud in Ireland, also has a Mastercraftsman yearling colt and delivered a filly by The Gurkha earlier this year.

"It's weird because I've always heard that the first foal is often the weakest foal," Cowley says. "But if Tip Two Win is the weakest god knows what the Mastercraftsman is going to do! He's much bigger than Tip Two Win was when he was born.

"Freddie's Girl will be covered by Fastnet Rock in the next few days. I'm trying to go for the best, that's all I can do. I might go for Dark Angel again next year though."

Cowley also revealed her broodmare band has a US representative, having made an unexpected acquisition late last year.

"My business partner and I were in America at Christmas and we went to visit Coolmore," she says.

"We only went for a look around the stables but ended up walking out with Bow Bells! I'm easily influenced. She's a lovely horse, she only ran four times but won three races."

The daughter of Giant's Causeway has since delivered a filly by American Pharoah, and has been covered by the Triple Crown winner again this year.

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