Conditions key to Homeless Songs’ Matron hopes

Classic winner needs rain ahead of Leopardstown contest.

Ground conditions at Leopardstown will be a key factor in deciding whether Irish 1,000 Guineas heroine Homeless Songs will return to action in the Coolmore America “Justify” Matron Stakes next month.

Dermot Weld’s charge was a brilliant winner of the Curragh Classic in May and she looked set to take on Inspiral in the Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot.

But fast ground ultimately ruled the Frankel filly out of the showpiece meeting – and having also sidestepped the Falmouth at Newmarket, she is now being kept fresh for an autumn campaign.

Owner-breeders Moyglare Stud Farm hope that will start on Irish Champions Weekend at Leopardstown on September 10, but remain wary about running on her on a quick surface.

“We are slightly waiting on rain at Leopardstown. Everybody wants her to run and we all want her to run, but the drainage at Leopardstown means it can dry out so much,” said Moyglare’s Fiona Craig.

“The plan at the moment for her is to run her in the Matron Stakes. She’s fine and was absolutely ready to run at Ascot, but the ground was too quick.

“There’s lots of races for her in the autumn and the rain has to come eventually. I think as she gets older she might get more tolerant of better ground, as would we, but she would have given 110 per cent at Ascot and we probably wouldn’t have had her for the rest of the year.

“We hope to see her in September, but it would be slightly weather dependent and Leopardstown watering dependent.”

Homeless Songs has been one of the stars of a memorable campaign so far for Moyglare, with Gold Cup and Goodwood Cup hero Kyprios also carrying their familiar colours to big-race success.

Fiona Craig (left) with Homeless Songs at the Curragh
Fiona Craig (left) with Homeless Songs at the Curragh (Brian Lawless/PA)

Craig is pleased to see the powerful owner-breeders back in the big time following a relatively fallow few seasons.

She added: “It’s been very quiet few years, but do you know what we figured out? If you put them in a field and give them grass, it very often makes the horses.

“We probably didn’t have a lot of good horses and didn’t have that many fillies, and fillies are always what we tend to do well with.

“It’s 60 years of Moyglare Stud this year and it’s 50 continual years of sponsorship of the Moyglare Stud Stakes. I think for her (Eva Maria Bucher-Haefner) it’s just gratifying to know that the stud her father (Walter Haefner) bought in 1962 is still able to produce good horses.”

As recently as Tuesday, the Jessica Harrington-trained Trevaunance provided Moyglare with a Group Three winner in France when landing the Prix de Psyche on the Prix Rothschild undercard.

Another filly set to sport the Moyglare silks at Pattern level is Just Beautiful, who won at Listed and Group Three level for Ivan Furtado last term before changing hands for 625,000 guineas in November.

Now in Ireland with Paddy Twomey, the daughter of Pride Of Dubai hold several big-race entries.

“Just Beautiful is coming along. I think she’ll run in the autumn and probably through next year,” said Craig.

“We’ve just given her time, but she is good and has a good pedigree, especially with the half-sister McKulick winning a Grade One in America this year.

“Ivan did a brilliant job with her, but I think when she went down to Tipperary she went on to a completely different surface and she just had a couple of splints and things.”

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