The thoroughbred industry lost a true champion last week with the death of star racemare and producer Ouija Board (Cape Cross).
The beautiful Ouija Board (Pic – Stanley House Stud)
The charismatic mare was 21 years old at the time of death. A globetrotting champion, Ouija Board was another fine example of a star race mare who did well when retired to stud.
A champion on two continents, Ouija Board was Cartier Horse Of The Year in both 2004 and 2006.
Raced from two to five years, Ouija Board won ten races, with seven of her victories coming at the top level.
The globetrotting star, who raced in all of Britain, Ireland, Dubai, France, North America and Hong Kong, captured both the Gr1 Vodafone Oaks and Gr1 Darley Irish Oaks of, before going on to land the G1 Breeders’Cup Filly & Mare Turf at the end of the same year.
Ouija Board, who would repeat her Breeders’ Cup win in 2006, but put up arguably her finest performance when victorious in the 2006 Gr1 Prince Of Wales’s Stakes, retired to stud in 2007.
Sent to Kingmambo in her first season, Ouija Board produced ill-fated Gr3 MRC Easter Cup winner Our Voodoo Prince.
Sent to Dubawi in 2012, Ouija Board came up with talented Godolphin Stakes winner, and sire Frontiersman. The latter emulated his dam when he finished second in the Gr1 Coronation Cup, with Ouija Board finishing second to Shirocco in the 2006 Coronation Cup and Frontiersman beaten less than two lengths by seven time Gr1 winner Highland Reel in the 2017 Coronation Cup.
The credits at the base of her statue (Pic – Stanley House stud)
However, Ouija Board really hit gold at stud when she was sent to Highland Reel’s sire Galileo in 2010. That mating resulted in a top-class racehorse, and successful sire, Australia. That striking chestnut never ran out of the first three in his eight starts with Australia victorious in all of the Gr1 Investec Derby, Gr1 Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby and Gr1 Juddmonte International in 2014.
Retired to Coolmore in 2015, Australia has sired more than 30 stakes winners, headed by the Gr1 winners Order Of Australia, Broome, Galileo Chrome, Mare Australis, and Ocean Road.
Australia also made news at the recent Tattersalls December Mare Sale, where his high-class daughter Tranquil Lady was knocked down for 2 700 000 guineas. A very smart performer, and half-sister to the now retired four time Gr1 winner State Of Rest (Starspangledbanner), Tranquil Lady, who is from the same female line as former Gr1 Summer Cup runner up Majestic Mozart, was a group winner in both France (Gr3 Prix de Flore) and Ireland (Blue Wind Stakes).
Ouija Board was one of a select band of English Oaks winning mares who have gone on to produce an English Derby winner at stud. Other Oaks winning mares to have achieved such a feat include Snow Bride (dam of Lammtarra), Blink Bonny (dam of Blair Athol), Meld (dam of Charlottown), Sorcery (dam of Cadland), and Rosedrop (dam of Gainsborough).
Ouija Board, whose sire Cape Cross also sired English Derby winners Sea The Stars and Golden Horn, also had ties to South Africa.
When she ran third in the 2006 Gr1 Audemars Piguet Queen Elizabeth II Cup, Ouija Board was beaten by South African champion Irridescence (Caesour), while the late mare hailed from the same female line as South African based mare Ubiquitous Mantle (Alhaarth), dam of the useful Motown Magic (Uncle Mo).
