Marsha filly by Frankel set for first run for Ballydoyle at the Curragh

Our resident bloodstock experts profile the well-bred eyecatchers and expensive purchases set to grace the track.

TEA ROSE

ARC American Racing Channel Irish EBF Fillies Juvenile Race (2.50 Curragh, Saturday)

What's the story?

With Frankel as her sire and Marsha her dam, to say that Tea Rose has illustrious parents is putting it very mildly.

The Aidan O’Brien-trained filly, a Coomore homebred, has her first run in the fillies’ race over seven furlongs at the Curragh on Saturday.

Only two of her rivals have any experience, and they include her stablemate Ballet Slippers, by Dubawi out of Magical and so not surprisingly subject of her own Marking Your Card last month ahead of her debut at the Curragh, where she finished third.

How's she bred?

Marsha was a magical mare for the Elite Racing Club, winning the Prix de l’Abbaye and Nunthorpe Stakes while in the care of Sir Mark Prescott, and the daughter of Acclamation was not done making the headlines on the track as she subsequently sold for 6,000,000gns to MV Magnier at the 2017 Tattersalls December Mare Sale, still the highest price for a thoroughbred sold at public auction in Europe.

Frankel: sire of Tea RoseCredit: Edward Whitaker

Her first foal, Tender Kiss, by Galileo, ran just once for O’Brien and the Coolmore partners, at Leopardstown in April 2023.

This is her second foal, while there is also a full-brother to Tea Rose, a yearling of 2024.

Marsha was a half-sister to Group 3 winner Judicial, the pair being out of Marlinka, a Listed winner from the family of Soviet Song, a five-time Group 1 winner for the Elite Racing Club and James Fanshawe.

Who does she face?

Perhaps the most interesting of her rivals is another Coolmore homebred with big-name parents, Falling Snow, by Justify and out of Winter, the dual Guineas heroine of 2017. She is with Donnacha O’Brien.

Justify is also sire of another Coolmore homebred, this one with Willie Browne. Just Before is out of the Sadler’s Wells mare Gagnoa, a dual Group 3 winner and Group 1-placed and who has produced seven winners, most notably Group 3 scorers Ancient Rome and Etoile. One of the former’s strikes at that level came in the richly endowed Mint Millions Stakes at Kentucky Downs last September.

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