'To win in Ireland meant everything to him, being a low-key Italian breeder'

In a world where so often the big guns rule the roost, the smaller breeder can still make a sizeable impact. In the case of Renzo Forni, the breeder of Park Express Stakes winner Epona Plays, it has been an adventure nothing short of thrilling.

Having purchased the daughter of Australia's dam, New Plays, for just €10,000 from Jockey Hall Stud at the Goffs November Foals Sale in 2008, Forni's dreams to race his own horses in Ireland have been more than fulfilled.

His daughter, Raffaella, explains: "My dad Renzo came into the horse world thanks to some friends who rode near Lake Maggiore in Italy and hunted in Ireland every year, where they had whiskey and Guinness at the pub.

"Ireland really strengthened his passion for horses, and the circumstances gave him the opportunity to breed and race, so he decided to buy a mare in Ireland to breed and race in Italy. However, he missed the competition so much and eventually came back to Ireland."

Having met and befriended a number of people in the Irish bloodstock world, Forni then set about buying his foundation broodmare. A filly by Eclipse and Irish Champion Stakes winner Oratorio would prove to be a gamechanger.

His daughter continues: "In 2008 he bought a filly by Oratorio who was unraced due to an injury. She was named New Plays and then moved to Ireland for her broodmare career, where she produced a Zoffany filly named Dolce Strega.

"My dad decided to race her in Ireland, even though a local agent said it was not worth trying to race in Ireland. He said, 'We have the greater breeders, horses and trainers'. But my dad replied, 'There are no risks for me, in Italy I’m always the last one and I cannot do any worse'.

"So he decided to give it a go with Willie McCreery - who was suggested to him by several people - and he sent him Dolce Strega. She and Epona Plays have given my father so much happiness. To win in Ireland meant everything to him, being a low-key Italian breeder."

Dolce Strega's Tipperary maiden win in August 2015 was just the start, as she went on to Group 3 success the following year in the Athasi Stakes, while Epona Plays has now gone one better in posting two Group 3 successes, following up her victory in the Denny Cordell Lavarack & Lanwades Stud Fillies Stakes at Gowran Park in September with her strike at Naas last month in what was the first Group race in Ireland this year.

New Plays' second produce, the stakes-placed Canford Cliffs filly Bumbasina, was sold to Astute Bloodstock for 75,000gns at the Tattersalls July Sale three years ago, but there are hopefully many more chapters to come courtesy of Epona Plays.

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