After running prominently for the first two furlongs he was badly hampered, stumbled and unseated his rider Richard Quinn. He was sent off the 6/1 third favourite for a maiden race at Doncaster in November 1993. Moonax's career began in an unusual and unfortunate manner. A sign outside the horse's stable warned visitors not to approach. He would have attacked them' whilst one of his jockeys remembered that 'he'd pin you up against the wall before you knew it'. Recalling Monnax's temperament, Hills said 'you couldn't let him near another horse. Moonax was sent by the Limerick-based Newborough Stud as a yearling to the Goffs sales in October 1992, where he was bought for IR£37,000 by the Curragh Bloodstock Agency He entered the ownership of Sheikh Mohammed and was sent into training with Barry Hills at Lambourn. His dam, Moonsilk, never won a race, but came from a good family, being a half sister of the 1975 1000 Guineas winner, Nocturnal Spree. His sire, Caerleon, won the Prix du Jockey Club and the Benson & Hedges Gold Cup in 1983 and went on to become an “excellent” stallion, siring the winners of more than 700 races including Generous, Marienbard and Warrsan. Moonax, a chestnut horse with a white blaze who stood 16.2 hands high, was bred in Ireland by the Liscannor Stud. He was most unusual as a Classic winner who was raced over hurdles. In his later career he acquired a reputation for unpredictable and sometimes dangerous behaviour and was described as 'the world's naughtiest horse'. He stayed in training until the age of six, winning only two more races, but finishing second in four Group One races. He remains the only three-year-old to have been honoured in this way. In 1994 Moonax became the first horse to win both the ClassicSt Leger and the Prix Royal-Oak and was named European Champion Stayer. Moonax (1991–2004) was an Irish-bred, English-trained Thoroughbred racehorse and sire.
0 kommentar(er)
