First Foal Out of Champion Lady Eli Set for Naas Debut
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Photo: Keeneland Photo
HMS Endeavour in the back walking ring at the 2020 Keeneland September Sale
Aidan O'Brien and the Coolmore partners will unleash the first foal out of the brilliant American champion mare Lady Eli in the Irish Stallion Farms EBF Maiden for 2-year-olds at Naas July 21.
HMS Endeavour is by War Front and was bred by Hill 'n' Dale Equine Holdings before failing to sell at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale for $385,000.
Lady Eli, a daughter of Divine Park and the Saint Ballado mare Sacre Coeur, was herself bred by Runnymede Farm and Catesby Clay and sold to Bradley Thoroughbreds for $160,000 at Keeneland September.
She was then bought for $160,000 by Jay Hanley at the following spring's Keeneland April 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale. Lady Eli went on to notch five wins at the top level for Chad Brown and Sheep Pond Partners and earn $2.9 million over four seasons while overcoming laminitis and being sidelined for more than a year.
Her triumphs included a 2 3/4-length success in the 2014 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf (G1T), an equally comprehensive strike in the Belmont Oaks Invitational (G1T) the following year, and the 2017 Diana Stakes (G1T). She also finished a narrow second to Queen's Trust in the 2016 Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf (G1T).
The now 9-year-old then made a hefty $4.2 million at the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale when selling to John Sikura and Hill 'n' Dale while carrying HMS Endeavour.
Lady Eli in the ring at the 2018 Keeneland November Sale
Among HMS Endeavour's seven rivals in the six-furlong contest includes I Am Joking, a 140,000 guineas (US$202,150) Tattersalls Craven Breeze-Up purchase by Practical Joke and from the family of American grade 1 winner Octave and the once-raced Ulysses colt Gwan So, a grandson of Shadwell Stud Cheveley Park (G1) heroine Regal Rose.