SATURDAY, 22 SEPTEMBER 2018 ITALIAN BREEDERS RALLY TO SUPPORT SALE MORGAN FINDS NEW By Emma Berry NICHE CONSIGNING MILAN, Italy--Even before it has started, the SGA Select Yearling Sale is already up on last year in that the catalogue has almost doubled in size. For many sales companies in the current climate that would be a concern, but in Milan it is cause for cheer, with the number of yearlings sent to the country's main sale having fallen to just 98 in 2017. That coincided with a change of venue to 'La Maura' trotting track next to San Siro racecourse and in its second year at the new premises, which was once the training stables of Bruno Grizzetti, the sale has grown to 167 yearlings catalogued plus a wildcard (lot 112b). "I'm really pleased to see that breeders have come back in numbers to support the sale," said Massimo Parri, owner of Le.Gi Stud and in his first year as Chairman of Italy's Thoroughbred Breeders' Association (ANAC), which hosts the sale. Cont. p4 Joanna Morgan offers eight yearlings at Tattersalls Ireland next week through her Portlester Stud | Racing Post IN TDN AMERICA TODAY FOCUS ON THE KEYSTONE STATE By Daithi Harvey Parx Racing outside of Philadelphia plays host to the state’s two Joanna Morgan has successfully turned her hand to several Grade I events, the $1-million Pennsylvania Derby and the Cotillion S., different roles throughout her career in racing. She has been a featuring Monomoy Girl (Tapizar). Click or tap here to go straight to trail-blazing jockey, a Royal Ascot-winning trainer, a bloodstock TDN America. agent and is currently a yearling consigner through her Portlester Stud. Morgan will have her hands full at Tattersalls Ireland next week when she offers a draft of five yearlings in the two-day September Yearling Sale with a further three in Part II of the sale on Thursday. Morgan has never been one to sugarcoat a situation and she surprised many when winding up her training career early in 2015, just two years after saddling Roca Tumu (Ire) (Footstepsinthesand {GB}) to win the Britannia S. at Royal Ascot. Roca Tumu would then be sold to Hong Kong, where he raced for Tony Cruz as Beauty Flame and was twice runner up at the highest level as well as winning the G2 Jockey Club Mile at Sha Tin. Despite such success as a trainer, Morgan said she felt the daily grind of her then-vocation, for meagre reward, just wasn't worth the hassle it entailed and she said the day she handed in her licence felt like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders. Cont. p2 TDN EUROPE • PAGE 2 OF 14 • THETDN.COM SATURDAY • 22 SEPTEMBER 2018 Morgan Finds New Niche Consigning cont. from p1 facility to carry them to the breeze-up stage if we can't or don't "Oh I thought I'd died and gone to heaven when I gave up," sell one as a yearling for whatever reason. However, there will she said. "I don't know how a lot of smaller trainers keep going. I be no breezing done next year as Katie is pregnant so there is just got worn out by the constant graft. I couldn't get enough more pressure to sell this year." staff and I was doing the work of two men and losing money on Morgan's cause in the sales ring in Ratoath next week should top of that so it wasn't sustainable for me. A while after I gave be aided by a well-bred draft, but having come through the up I was looking through the accounts and I calculated I had lost 2018 sales season with mixed fortunes so far, expectations will i150,000 in three years in the training side of the business. I be set at a modest level. was living off trading horses but it was costing me a grand a "I am optimistic about my draft next week and while I'm week to be a trainer," she adds. hopeful I do think it's going to be a tricky year for a lot of people. Morgan was never going to allow a lifetime of experience in I tend to buy a good, correct foal to begin with. I'm not into the game lie fallow for too long. She did, after all, make history taking a chance with one that needs a bit of restructuring, I by becoming the first woman to ride professionally at Royal prefer to buy a nice, correct block of a horse," she explains. Ascot and in an Irish Classic and rode over 200 winners in an era A colt by Whitsbury Manor Stud stallion Due Diligence is the when she did not have many colleagues in the ladies' changing first on offer from Portlester Stud as lot 277 towards the end of room. It was the pinhooking side the first session on Tuesday. of the business that appealed to "He's a nice horse and he has a the horsewoman within and with good step to him," Morgan says. her daughter Katie McGivern "He looks a 2-year-old, the mare establishing herself in the seems to be breeding them breeze-up business, it was sharp and he is a nice racy foal-to-yearling pinhooking that individual. He's never given us a seemed to dovetail best with moment's bother and has a their set-up. good page, being out of a "I buy most of the foals Danehill Dancer mare, which I between myself and Katie. We love." share the workload as I keep On Wednesday, Morgan offers them until they are ready to be a filly by first-crop yearling sire prepped for the sale then Katie Ivawood (GB) (lot 333) and she takes over and does most of the is a half-sister to Freedom (Ire) Brendan Bashford, Joanna Morgan and prep work. She has the staff (Hurricane Run {Ire}), who won Cormac McCormack | Racing Post from the breeze-ups and it's a the G3 Diamond S. at Dundalk system that works for us," she explains. for Aidan O'Brien a number of years ago. Having an established breeze-up business is always a help if or "She's lovely. I'm a big fan of Ivawood. He stamps them well, when a yearling doesn't make a yearling sale or a reserve price, they are all good looking stock, just like him. This is a sweet, but in Morgan's case breezing is more plan D than plan B. She sharp filly and she has a good pedigree which is important for a says, "The mission is to sell as yearlings but we do have the filly." Cont. p3 TDN EUROPE • PAGE 3 OF 14 • THETDN.COM SATURDAY • 22 SEPTEMBER 2018 Morgan Finds New Niche Consigning cont. Next up on Wednesday, Portlester offer lot 409, a colt from the first crop of GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf winner Outstrip (GB) out of Gandini (GB) (Night Shift), herself the dam of five winners including the stakes performer Powerful Speed (GB) (Compton Place {GB}). "This lad is a real 2-year-old. He has a great backside to him and is a very likeable horse," she says. The Portlester draft has plenty to offer on pedigree and lot 500 Vice President, International Operations is another prime example. This daughter of Toronado (Ire) is a Gary King half-sister to a stakes winner in Goldoni (Ire) (Dylan Thomas Twitter: @garykingTDN {Ire}), while her year-older half-brother Lariat (GB) (Poet's Voice [email protected] {GB}) made an eye-catching debut for Andrew Balding recently + 1.732.320.0975 when third in a maiden at Goodwood at the end of August. International Editor Morgan also holds the distinction of offering the only yearling Kelsey Riley by Pivotal (GB) in the sale. Lot 540 is being consigned by Twitter: @kelseynrileyTDN Portlester on behalf of a client and is out of the winning Galileo [email protected] (Ire) mare Minoan Dancer (Ire), whose second produce Hoffa (Ire) (Iffraaj {GB}) has been placed twice in juvenile races for European Editor Richard Fahey since the catalogue went to print. It is the reverse Emma Berry of a cross that has produced such stars in recent years as Twitter: @collingsberry Rhododendron (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) and Hydrangea (Ire) (Galileo [email protected] {Ire}) and Morgan says, "He's a nice colt and Pivotal is such a Associate International Editor wonderful stallion, and the mare's first produce, who is also by Heather Anderson Pivotal, is a winner so it is a proven pedigree." Twitter: @HLAndersonTDN Morgan's prowess with bloodstock is not confined to riding, training or trading as she also has shown a canny ability to select Marketing Manager a high-class yearling with a relatively modest budget. Sir Alayna Cullen Dancealot (Ire) (Sir Prancealot {Ire}) and Desert Skyline (Ire) Twitter: @AlaynaCullen (Tamayuz {GB}) were two horses that Morgan played a major [email protected] role in buying as yearlings three years ago at Goffs. The David Contributing Editor Elsworth-trained pair cost i70,000 in total and have since won Alan Carasso 11 races and bagged almost ,750,000 in prize-money between Twitter: @EquinealTDN them. Reflecting on a career that saw her train group winners in both Cafe Racing Ireland and England, Morgan said, "I don't regret training in the Sean Cronin slightest; nothing will give you the feeling of training a winner or Tom Frary riding a winner, but the last few years I was training there was [email protected] no fun in it.