Spring arrivals: Group 1-winning mares and their latest foals

With champion Australian mare Winx due to foal in the near future, we take a look at a host of other Group 1-winning mares who have already had foals this spring.

It's the time of year when champion mares, such as In Her Time, become mums. (Photo: Yulong Stud).

The arrival of Winx’s foal is highly anticipated by racing fans in Australia and around the world, especially after she sadly lost her first foal during a complicated birth the first time around in 2020. Having been given a year off and then served by Pierro on October 17 last year, Winx is due to foal any day now at her post-racing home at Coolmore Australia.

Australia’s other 21st century queen of the turf, Black Caviar, did not get in foal last year, missing to both Extreme Choice and I Am Invincible on later covers. 2022 will be the first year since she went to stud that she hasn’t delivered a foal.

Among the high-profile mares to have already foaled this spring is New Zealand champion and 14-time Group 1 winner Melody Belle, who delivered her first foal this spring, producing a chestnut Written Tycoon filly on August 16.

⚜️She has arrived! Last night 14-time G1 winner Melody Belle gave birth to a gorgeous Written Tycoon filly 🥰

“We are absolutely thrilled with the first foal of Melody Belle. You could not get a better first foal. A super job by the mare.” – Sam Fairgray. pic.twitter.com/49hKT37dDS

— Yulong Investments (@YulongInvestme1) August 21, 2022

It was an ideal start to her breeding career for Yulong, which paid $2.6 million for her after her racing days.

Dual Group 1 winner In Her Time cost Yulong $2.2 million last year and having produced an I Am Invincible colt with her first foal in 2021, visited Yulong resident Written Tycoon. The result was a brown colt delivered on August 18 this year.

Pippie, a winner of both the Oakleigh Plate and the Moir Stakes, was a $1.8 million purchase by Cressfield at the same Chairman’s Sale. She was sent for her first appointment with Snitzel, and on September 10, a chestnut filly very much in the image of her mother was born.

The top-price at the 2021 Chairman’s Sale came for another G1 Oakleigh Plate winner, Celebrity Queen, who cost Tom Magnier $2.5 million with the intention to send her to Wootton Bassett. That mating produced a colt, who arrived back in August.

Other Group 1 winners to have produced first Australian crop foals to Wootton Bassett this spring have been Invincibella (colt), Avantage (filly). La Bella Diosa (filly). Mizzy (filly), Nakeeta Jane (colt), Qafila (filly), Sunlight (colt) and Faint Perfume (filly).

The filly out of 2009 VRC Oaks winner Faint Perfume arrived at Lime Country Thoroughbreds for her New Zealand breeders at Jamieson Park in late September.

At Gilgai Farm, triple Group 1-winning mare Jameka recently produced her fourth foal, a filly from the first Australian crop of Darley’s four-time Group 1 winner Ghaiyyath.

Loving Gaby, a dual Group 1 winner on the track, produced her second foal for her owners at Phoenix Thoroughbreds in August, a filly by Snitzel to go with her now yearling filly by Pierata.

Jennifer Eccles, the New Zealand Oaks winner, had her first foal at Kia Ora Stud this year, producing a colt by resident stallion Farnan, while at Bhima Thoroughbreds, the first foal from G1 Australasian Oaks winner Toffee Tongue, a colt, arrived early in the spring. He is from another first-season stallion, King’s Legacy.

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