Breeder Bought Dam of Coronation Contender for a Song

Ronnie Boland thinks he must have found a four-leaf clover or encountered a pair of magpies on his way to the sales in the winter of 2019, as he was granted extraordinarily good fortune when he got there. 

First, at the Goffs November Foal Sale, he gave €22,000 (US$24,313) for a Footstepsinthesand  filly whose half sister Even So  would win the Irish Oaks (G1) in the following year, and then, just a fortnight later at the Tattersalls December Mares Sale, he paid 16,000 guineas ($21,691) for the listed-placed Barathea mare Hidden Brief , who would become the dam of June 2 Coronation Cup (G1) leading hope Emily Upjohn , already a group 1 winner and Oaks runner-up.

"It's just luck, really," said the unfailingly modest Boland, who runs Piercetown Stud in Kilcock, County Meath, Ireland, with his wife, Elaine. "To tell the truth, we go to the sales with five or six lots that we like on pedigree picked out of the catalog, and just follow them into the ring. 

"Whichever one falls into our budget first we tend to buy. In the case of Hidden Brief, we'd followed a few before her that week and she just happened to come along at the right time and the right money." 

Boland bats away any suggestion that he's a bit of a shrewd for buying two direct relations to group 1-winning fillies for such little money and in such a short space of time, and I accept that he could never have known those purchases would have worked out quite so well. But I won't have it that it all happened entirely by chance. 

Just look at the profiles of those two buys: the Footstepsinthesand filly was already a half sister to six winners out of Breeze Hill, a placed Danehill half sister to one Epsom Classic winner in Dr Devious, and the dam of another in Dancing Rain ; and Hidden Brief is a half sister to group winners Hazarista and Hazariya , the dam of Derby winner Harzand  from a solid Aga Khan Studs family that has also since come up with Irish Derby (G1), and St. Leger (G1) winner Hurricane Lane , who takes on his close relation Emily Upjohn Friday at Epsom. 

Boland might not be a clairvoyant, but he is clearly a connoisseur of prestigious pedigrees. 

"I suppose I do like a good back family, especially those that keep producing top-class horses, and the catalog page can only fit the achievements of the first two dams on it," he said.

"I always think you stand a good chance with a mare from those families, and that was the case with Hidden Brief. I also liked that she's by Barathea, who's a good broodmare sire, and that she had a Dark Angel  and a Sea The Stars  to run for her, and that she had that bit of black type herself. 

"She was just getting on a bit in years, without having produced anything that had shown her own talent yet, but I often find there's a bit of value in those mares. 

"It was a similar case with the half sister to Even So, although we already knew that filly was half-decent when we bought her. The dam hadn't produced a black-type horse up to that point, but it's a family that keeps coming up with goods: not just Dr Devious and Dancing Rain, but Maybe  and Saxon Warrior  as well."

Since those fateful few days at the sales 3 1/2 years ago, the half sister to Even So was named Evidently So and placed in training with Ger Lyons, who sent her out to finish second at Dundalk last November. She has since been retired to Piercetown Stud, and is in foal to Sea The Stars for her maiden cover. 

Hidden Brief, meanwhile, sadly lost the Aclaim  foal she was carrying at the time of purchase, but later produced a Cappella Sansevero  filly and then failed to get in foal to King of Change . She delivered a filly from the first crop of crack sprinter Starman  in recent weeks, and is back in foal to Emily Upjohn's sire, Sea The Stars. 

The Cappella Sansevero filly, now 2, has been retained and given the appropriate name of Hidden Jewel. She will also be a resident of Glenburnie Stables. 

"She's with Ger but she's back home on a break at the minute," said Boland. "We're very happy with her, and she'll go back in training in a month or six weeks. We'll race her ourselves and hopefully hang on to her to breed from in the future." 

Cappella Sansevero was a talented racehorse, but he made little impact during his time standing in Ireland and is now based in Italy. He is an unusual sire of a younger sibling to a horse heading into the Coronation Cup as the second favorite.

"I do a good bit of work for Ger and he trained Cappella Sansevero, so I bought a breeding right in him when he went to stud," said Boland. "Remember this was long before Emily Upjohn came along, and she'd just lost the Aclaim foal, so I wasn't going to spend a lot of money on the mating; at that point I just wanted to see if we could get her in foal. 

"As it happens, I like the fact that Cappella is by Showcasing , and I can't see any reason why he wouldn't make a decent broodmare sire when we come to breed from her." 

Lady Luck rarely remains smiling on the same person for long, but she might just have taken a shine to Boland, as a more recent mare purchase is working out quite nicely, too. 

Alanza , a multiple stakes-winning sprinter/miler by Dubai Destination , out of E.P. Taylor Stakes (G1) runner-up Alasha from another deep Aga Khan Studs family, was bought in foal to Teofilo  for €30,000 ($31,096) at Goffs in November. 

Her Lope de Vega  3-year-old colt Alashar has shown good form for Francis Graffard this season, and she has a Blue Point  2-year-old colt and Invincible Spirit  yearling filly to come. She produced a "lovely" colt foal at Piercetown Stud this year. 

So is Boland really sure it's still all down to good fortune, and there's not even a little genius at play? 

"Will you get away? It's all luck!" he protests. 

The staunchly self-effacing Boland is heading to Epsom to cheer on Emily Upjohn with son Aaron, who was the gold medal-winning student on the Irish National Stud breeding course three years ago and now works at Juddmonte. Daughter Aoife is due to graduate from the same course next month. 

There you go: Aaron and Aoife's academic flair must have come from somewhere. Their father is surely more scholarly in the subject of breeding and buying than he's letting on. 

"I'd say they get that from the dam's side," Boland insisted with a laugh.

Who am I to argue with such an expert on distaff pedigrees, who bought into two brilliant but dormant families just before they were reawakened by the exploits of Emily Upjohn and Even So? 

I still think you make your own luck in this life, though, and he's only saying all this to stop us looking over his shoulder at his catalog at the next round of breeding-stock sales.