'She's nearly a collector's item' - Banahans delight as €480,000 New Bay filly lights up Goffs Orby

As an official starter for the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board, Joe Banahan knows a thing or two about getting out of the gates quickly. Banahan may have switched roles at Goffs on Wednesday, but the Moortown House Stud man helped day two of the Orby Sale get off to a bright start when his New Bay filly was sold to Hubie de Burgh and Craig Bernick of Glen Hill Farm for €480,000 early in the session. Coolmore’s MV Magnier filled the role of underbidder. 

The filly, who was bred by Banahan, his wife Edel and Micheal Smith, boasts one of the most lively pages in the stud book. She is out of Coco Rouge, whose two winners include the Group 3-placed You Send Me, a daughter of Starspangledbanner owned by Bernick, Cayton Park Stud and Paul Shanahan. 

There is plenty going on under the second dam too as Coco Rouge is a half-sister to Jacqueline Quest, who finished first past the post in the 2010 1,000 Guineas, only to be demoted to second after causing interference.

The star-crossed Jacqueline Quest was well on her way to blue hen status before her untimely death, with five winners and six black-type performers on her stud record. 

Her brood is headed by Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf winner Line Of Duty and the dual Listed scorer Onassis, while four-time winner Secret State was also runner-up in the Great Voltigeur Stakes. Jacqueline Quest died delivering a Wootton Bassett colt in May 2022, but her record could still improve further, not least because Jackie Oh, a Galileo sister to Line Of Duty, is entered in the Group 1 Prix de l’Opera on Sunday. 

However, Banahan noted that many of the filly’s high-performing relations hadn't even been born when he added Coco Rouge to his five-strong broodmare at just 17,000gns back in 2012. 

“We bought her in Newmarket and the only thing on the page at that stage was Jacqueline Quest, who’d just retired to stud as a disqualified Guineas winner,” he said. 

“She’s a nice big mare though, she’s very correct, walked away well and I love her sire, Shamardal. We made a few errors early on in her breeding career through no fault of our own, wanting to go to sires who then weren’t available on the day and things like that. 

“When we got to Starspangledbanner she produced a beautiful filly [You Send Me] who’s got her record up and running, and in the meantime of course Jacqueline Quest has been a phenomenal broodmare, she’s produced one good horse after another. 

"There are a lot of fillies in the pedigree too, with Onassis going to Frankel, and Aidan [O'Brien] has Jackie Oh, who runs in the Group 1 at the weekend. There's loads happening in the pedigree.” 

Joe Banahan: 'Loads happening in the pedigree'Credit: SARAH FARNSWORTH

Coco Rouge visited New Bay – whose daughter out of Falling Petals, so a full-sister to Saffron Beach, later made €1,650,000 – in 2021, when the Prix du Jockey Club-winning son of Dubawi stood at €20,000. 

Explaining how he decided on the mating with Ballylinch Stud’s rising star, Banahan said: “I’ve a friend who’s a handicapper and we chat about sires and different things, and he said to me that New Bay’s figures at the end of his first year with runners were phenomenal. He was getting a lot of seven-furlong horses rated 90 or more and he shouldn’t be doing that. 

“So he got me focused on him, then I rang John O’Connor [Ballylinch managing director] in October time and asked if there was any chance of getting into New Bay’s book. He said he was nearly full but that we could have a nomination. He’s been on an upward spiral ever since.” 

When asked if the filly’s price had matched up to expectations, Banahan’s wife Edel said: “Being realistic, the page is on fire so she’s nearly a collector’s item. I valued her myself on Saturday morning at between three and four [hundred thousand] because you just won’t be able to buy into that family.”

Her husband added: “You can dream all you want, but turning it into reality is another thing. I knew from the minute she got here she was very well accepted, everybody loved her and we had ten vets on her from good people. If she’d made €300,000 we’d have been thrilled.” 

Asked if he would be tempted to allow the New Bay filly a head start when she lines up on the track, Banahan replied: “She won’t need it! She can fall out of the stalls and she’ll still win, that’s how good we think she’s going to be.” 

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