A coin toss has a 50% probability of delivering either heads or tails.
Similarly, the likelihood of colts or fillies in a horse population. Of course, there can be extended sequences of one or the other.
That’s where Normandy Stud is this foaling season.
Their tally stands at 20 fillies and nine colts. The fillies include the last Silvano they’ll ever breed.
All three their Gimmethegreenlights are fillies (fortunately there’s no ability bias between his colts and fillies), as well as two of their three Queraris.
Oscar Foulkes says that especially for a stud like theirs, where they’ve spent 50 years developing their own families, fillies are critical.
“If Tramore had never produced Terpsichore, we wouldn’t have had Mother Russia, Winter Solstice, Bravura or others. We often find ourselves in the situation where we desperately hope that certain mares produce fillies.So it was in 2018. And, not only did we get the fillies we wanted, but we got fillies that we looked forward to racing,” he adds.
Taomina
Our homebred champion filly Tatler would have been an excellent addition to our broodmare band, but the offer from overseas was just too good, so we sold her.
Andreas Jacobs ended up importing two of her daughters, one of which was Taomina. When we bought her in 2016, as a barren mare, her daughter Tahini was a one-time winning three-year-old.
Tahini would go on to win a total of six races, with a third-place finish in the Grade I Empress Club. She was also a fast-closing third in the Grade II Ipi Tombi, beaten less than half a length.
Taomina missed the first season we had her, and then we managed to get her in foal to Twice Over. We haven’t been able to get her in foal since then, so we’re very grateful for the 2018 filly. We’re even happier with the individual we got. She looks very racy.
Joshua’s Princess
Princess Daisy was a mare that my mother bought in partnership with my grandmother in the mid-80s. They did very well with her, although her best foal turned out to be her last.
Joshua’s Princess was born when Princess Daisy was 21 years old, but that didn’t stop her winning a couple of Grade IIs and placing in the Fillies Guineas, nor running fourth in the Met.
We bought her as an in-foal mare, but she lost the Pomodoro she was carrying. To date, her 2018 Twice Over filly is the only foal we’ve got out of her.
As with the Taomina filly, this one is very athletic. She’s a lot like her dam – tall and scopey.
Hi Lana
While we didn’t breed this filly, she has similarities with the balance of the ‘Thrice Over’ grouping, in that she’s a scopey, athletic filly from the immediate family of a top race filly, in Roland’s Song.
Even as a weanling, when we bought her, she was an excellent walker. She shares a birthday with my mother and myself, so it was partially also a sentimental purchase.
Having had success with another Twice Over filly that shares our birth sign, the aptly named Libra, we had to take a chance with her.
Thrice over
Continuing the Normandy strategy of making racehorse ownership more accessible, their first racing opportunity for this crop of two-year-olds is based upon these three fillies.
- The budgeted monthly cost is R4500 per 10% (in all three fillies).
- The cost of larger or smaller shares is adjusted pro rata, with a minimum shareholding of 2% (i.e. R900 per month).
- There’s no up-front purchase price, because this covers their racing career only. They remain the property of Normandy, and will retire to the stud at the conclusion of their racing careers.
- All three fillies will be trained by Justin Snaith, who has had great results with Twice Over progeny.
