Mawj's 1,000 Guineas triumph another feather in the cap for Darley's blossoming broodmare Modern Ideals

Modern Ideals looks to hold claims to being one of the finest broodmares of recent times as her daughter Mawj added to her growing legacy with a tough success in the 1,000 Guineas at Newmarket on Sunday. 

The daughter of Darley's exceptional dual-hemisphere stalwart Exceed And Excel - for whom this was a first British Classic winner - is a Godolphin-bred through and through when it comes to her distaff line too. She is the fifth foal out of Modern Ideals, a Darley-bred daughter of New Approach who did not set the world alight on the track but is very much making up for that in her paddocks career. 

The first foal from Modern Ideals, who was beaten in two starts in France at three and four in the maroon silks of Sheikh Mohammed, was the placed Pivotal filly Cartesienne. She was provided with her first winner when Shamardal mare Feminism struck in a Dundalk maiden for Michael Halford in December 2020. 

She subsequently sold to Jill Lamb and Newsells Park Stud for €370,000 at the 2021 Goffs November Sale, just days after her Dubawi half-brother Modern Games' success in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf. 

Modern Games: Classic winner and dual Breeders' Cup hero is a half-brother to MawjCredit: Edward Whitaker

Modern Games added further lustre to his dam's record when adding the French 2,000 Guineas and Breeders' Cup Mile to his CV in 2022. The four-year-old, who remains in training this year, will no doubt prove a fine addition to Darley's stallion ranks in the future. 

Modern Ideals has produced three black-type winners. In addition to Classic scorers Modern Games and Mawj is the Shamardal gelding Modern News, a stakes scorer at Windsor last May for Charlie Appleby.

Mawj was an impressive debut winner at Newmarket last May and followed up a fine second to Meditate in the Albany Stakes with a gritty win in the Duchess of Cambridge Stakes over Lezoo, to whom she was then third in the Cheveley Park Stakes on her final outing at two. 

Mawj won both her starts at Meydan earlier this year for Saeed bin Suroor, including an eight-and-a-half-length score in the Jumeirah Fillies Guineas. 

Modern Ideals, a half-sister to Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere winner Ultra and fellow French Group scorer Synopsis, has an unnamed two-year-old filly by the late Mastercraftsman. 

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