Merry Fox Stud on a Mission to Find the Next Cursory Glance

[Wandering Eyes]

It might seem a bit late in the year to be talking mating plans, but last week's call to Gary Hadden turned out to be a very timely one indeed, with the man at the helm of Craig Bennett's Merry Fox Stud having not one but two significant developments to report.

Tragically, the first such update regarding Bennett's beloved Cursory Glance was of the worst possible kind. The daughter of Distorted Humour, who won the G3 Albany Stakes and G1 Moyglare Stud Stakes in a career spanning just four starts as a juvenile, sadly died late in April due to complications when foaling.

She is survived by a Lope De Vega colt foal and leaves behind some wonderful memories for the whole team at Merry Fox Stud, having provided Bennett with one of the greatest days of his near-20 years in the sport when winning at Royal Ascot.

“In terms of special moments, I know that would be right up there for Craig,” said Hadden. “Any person who makes a big investment into the horse industry, they want to experience the emotion of winning at the biggest meetings and competing at the highest level. Those memories are locked in for Craig and it was just a great family occasion. He was there with his wife and his mother, who has unfortunately passed away since then. He didn't have any expectation to win and it was just one of those once-in-a-lifetime moments to cross the winning line first at one of the biggest meetings in the world.”

He added, “Craig is still enjoying the game. It's been nearly 20 years now and he's still in it. There are a lot of people who have come and gone in that time. It was very sad to lose Cursory Glance because she was right at the top of the tree, but he's very resilient and the mission now is to breed another one as good.”

Bennett will be aided in that quest by the recent acquisition of another illustrious name in Zero Gravity, the dam of last year's G1 British Champion Fillies and Mares Stakes heroine Kalpana. The daughter of Dansili was led out unsold at 575,000gns when offered by Whatton Manor Stud at the Tattersalls December Mares Sale, but she has since joined the clutch of mares owned by Bennett in partnership with Newsells Park Stud.

“She was a private purchase by Craig and Newsells a couple of weeks ago,” said Hadden. “To get the dam of a Group 1 winner to add to the portfolio, we thought it was a good bit of business. She's a proven mare, so a lot of the hard work has been done. Kalpana is already a Group 1 winner and she's a filly who could progress again this year.

“It's a good Juddmonte family–I think her full-sister [Shared Account] has produced another Group 3 winner [Better Together] this year. It can be hard to get into these families and the idea will be to try and get a daughter at some stage.”

Hadden went on to reveal that Zero Gravity will visit Night Of Thunder as he ran through the mating plans for a stud which is said to have “grown quite considerably” over the last few years.

“When all the foals were born this year, we had maybe 84 horses between everything in training, mares, yearlings and foals–I think Craig was quite taken aback by that,” Hadden added, before identifying a handful of horses in training to look out for when they sport Bennett's familiar yellow and orange silks in 2025.

He continued, “We hope there's a nice filly with Paddy Twomey called No Alibi. She was second first-time-out at the Curragh and we're hoping she can win her maiden and go on to better things. She's a half-sister to [G3 Round Tower Stakes winner] Treasure Trove.

“We've got a good filly in America with Graham Motion called Five Towns, who is a Listed winner and has been Group-placed over there. She's actually going to run on the Kentucky Derby undercard [finished a close-up fourth in the GII Churchill Distaff Turf Mile Stakes].

“We also have a nice horse who won first-time-out for William Haggas called First Principle. We were all very impressed with how he won at Kempton and the acceleration he showed. He's a horse we're looking forward to.”

 

That was lovely

Taking turn of foot from Kingman colt First Principle @kemptonparkrace pic.twitter.com/b7bIeSqYcw

— Racing TV (@RacingTV) December 4, 2024

 

Merry Fox Stud Mares

Voodoo Queen (Frankel–Cursory Glance, by Distorted Humour). To be bred to Too Darn Hot

This Listed winner is one of two black-type performers out of Cursory Glance, along with fellow Listed scorer Tinker Toy.

She is unfortunately the only daughter of Cursory Glance that we have. We were hoping to send Cursory Glance back to Lope De Vega again to try and get a filly, but she's left behind a nice colt foal who survived.

Voodoo Queen is quite a big mare, so physically we thought she'd go well with Too Darn Hot. He has the promising Cathedral out of a Frankel mare.

Willow View (Lemon Drop Kid–Time Control, by Sadler's Wells). To be bred to City Of Troy

A half-sister to Cursory Glance, she is the dam of the GI Turf Classic Stakes winner Digital Age and the G3 Prix la Rochette scorer Acer Alley.

We usually like to use proven stallions because, first and foremost, Craig wants to try to breed a racehorse and you get the most accurate information following trends and stallions who have already had runners. But City Of Troy was such a fantastic racehorse that we kind of took exception to the rule to try and fit him in. Physically, we thought he would suit Willow View.

Acer Alley (Siyouni–Willow View, by Lemon Drop Kid). To be bred to Night of Thunder

Night Of Thunder has worked very well with Siyouni mares. Fairy Godmother was bred on that cross and there's been plenty of success with Dubawi and his sons when crossed with Siyouni mares. We thought it would be a good match and physically he would complement her.

Pichola Dance (Distorted Humour–Liffey Dancer, by Sadler's Wells). To be bred to Lope De Vega

The dam of the aforementioned Treasure Trove and No Alibi, she herself was Listed-placed at two.

She has a nice colt foal on the ground by Lope De Vega. It's another Group 1-winning cross and Lope De Vega looks a very strong, emerging broodmare sire. We'd like to repeat the mating with a view to trying to get a filly. The evidence of the foal suggests the two complement each other, physically.

Treasure Trove (Siyouni–Pichola Dance, by Distorted Humour). To be bred to Justify

She's in the States and she's already had a lovely filly foal by Justify. As she's out there we thought we'd try it again and she's already been scanned in foal. Whenever we really believe in a mating, we'll try it two or three times because you don't always get the good one first. She'll probably come home next year.

 

Timed to perfection!

Ice-cool Billy Lee gets Treasure Trove motoring late on to land the Group 3 Heider Family Stables Round Tower Stakes @curraghrace by a whisker for Paddy Twomey! pic.twitter.com/Y65niFGK8S

— Racing TV (@RacingTV) August 27, 2022

 

Yellow Band (Dalakhani–My Dark Rosaleen, by Sadler's Wells). To be bred to Lope De Vega

A full-sister to Bennett's G1 Grosser Preis von Berlin winner Second Step, she is the dam of the French Listed winner Eternal Dance.

She's a quality mare and the Lope De Vega cross has worked out a treat–there's been six stakes winners on that cross. Physically, she probably needs a stronger horse so it lined up well. She has a nice yearling by him and we like that one enough that we thought we'd try it again.

Eternal Dance (Dubawi–Yellow Band, by Dalakhani). To be bred to Frankel

She has a nice filly foal on the ground by Frankel and she's going back to him again. She's a young, stakes-winning mare and not too big. She's short-coupled and quite typical of Dubawi. Frankel can impart a little bit more size and scope, and I think that's the reason why Dubawi and Frankel have worked together so consistently.

Guilty Twelve (Giant's Causeway–Arkadina, by Danehill). To be bred to Blame

Successful in the GIII Robert G. Dick Memorial Stakes, she is the dam of the aforementioned Five Towns and First Principle, as well as the Grade III-placed Three Priests.

She's definitely breeding racehorses and she has a nice colt foal by Blame on the ground. We're always thinking of the next generation and of the younger broodmare sires Blame is really up there. His statistics are phenomenal considering he's never been that expensive himself. We want to develop the family some more and hopefully she will oblige this time and give us a filly.

Gumriyah (Shamardal–Yummy Mummy, by Montjeu). To be bred to Sea The Stars

A winning half-sister to the 1,000 Guineas heroine Legatissimo, she produced the G3 Hampton Court Stakes runner-up Exoplanet from a previous visit to Sea The Stars.

We were doing our homework on the mare when she came up at the December Sale and we knew Roger [Varian, trainer] thought a lot of Exoplanet. Unfortunately, he just had a couple of soundness issues and then he was traded for not very much money. We thought that's probably the last we've heard of him, so we were pleasantly surprised when he finished a good second at Kempton recently after being off for so long. We were very encouraged by that and hopefully he can go on and become a full stakes winner. That might be a bonus we weren't expecting and, if we could get a filly this time, that would be brilliant.

Golden Sheen (Frankel–Yellow Band, by Dalakhani). To be bred to Kingman
Flamenco Fan (Dark Angel–Annabelle's Charm, by Indian Ridge). To be bred to Night Of Thunder
Whispering Palms (Oasis Dream–Annabelle's Charm, by Indian Ridge). To be bred to No Nay Never
Pecking Order (Fastnet Rock–Shemaya, by Darshaan). To be bred to Gleneagles
Dancing Breeze (New Approach–Posterity, by Indian Ridge). To be bred to Mehmas
Kindred Spirit (Invincible Spirit–Pontenuovo, by Green Tune). To be bred to No Nay Never
Passing Parade (Cape Cross–Model Queen, by Kingmambo). To be bred to Siyouni

 

Mares Owned in Partnership with Newsells Park Stud

Shambolic (Shamardal–Comic, by Be My Chief). To be rested

The dam of the G1 Moyglare Stud Stakes winner Ylang Ylang, she was also responsible for a Siyouni filly who sold last year for 3,700,000gns at Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale.

She'd just got a bit late on us and we decided to give her a break for a year. I think from a veterinary point of view you'd like to keep these mares going every year, because sometimes it's hard to get them started again when you pull stumps. But she's a lovely mare to have and she's still very young. She was quite a significant purchase [800,000gns] at the time, but she's produced a Group 1 winner and she's had some exceptional commercial results. It's looking money well spent at this stage.

 

Aljazzi and Shambolic this morning after a packet of well earned polos! pic.twitter.com/0IEcjLi2BV

— Newsells Park Stud (@newsellspark) October 11, 2024

 

Legerete (Rahy–Sea Hill, by Seattle Slew). To be bred to Nathaniel

Successful in the G2 Prix de Malleret, she is the dam of four black-type performers, including Derby entry Damysus.

Although we don't own him, Damysus is another horse that we're looking forward to following this year. I think the Gosdens have said that he's going to improve loads for that run at Sandown and he might be heading to the Dante to keep the Derby dream alive. If he's not at that level, he should go on and be a stakes performer of some nature. He's an exciting horse.

We had contemplated retiring the mare, but I suppose when you get a fresh update like that, the temptation is to try once more. She has a nice colt foal by Nathaniel on the ground and hopefully we can get a filly this time. Nathaniel is one of these emerging broodmares sires who has done very well so far. With that pedigree, fillies are always going to be very desirable.

Mea Domina (Pivotal–Regina Mundi, by Montjeu). To be bred to Frankel

A Listed winner when trained in France, she also filled the runner-up spot in the G3 Gladness Stakes for Paddy Twomey.

We're not trying to reinvent the wheel. She's a young, stakes-winning Pivotal mare and the obvious thing is to try Frankel. She has a nice first foal by him and she's going back to him again in keeping with the policy that if we like a mating and really believe in it, we'll try it multiple times to make sure we give it the best chance of working.

Via Manzoni (Monsun–Via Milano, by Singspiel). To be bred to Sea The Stars

The dam of Listed winner Integrant, she herself was third in the G3 Prix Vanteuax as a three-year-old.

She has a Sea The Stars yearling colt and we're hoping if we go back again she might throw a filly. Sea The Stars fillies are like gold dust. They're incredibly hard to buy and we're hoping to gather as many Sea The Stars fillies as we can before it's too late. He offers a bit of size and substance and it works very well on paper–it's a fantastic cross. If we could get a filly, it would be job done.

Luminate (Lawman–Kalandara, by Rainbow Quest). To be bred to Lope De Vega

Trained in France by Freddy Head, she was a dual Group 3 scorer with wins in the Prix de Conde at two and Prix Penelope at three.

We've got a nice Lope De Vega filly out of her and we were quite taken by that. Again, it's a proven cross, with Lope De Vega and Lawman mares. Physically, she has lots of quality and can take a stronger horse. It's another one that matches up on pedigree and physical.

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