Before they were famous: Tofane

In this series TDN AusNZ will take a look at Group 1 runners before they were successful on the racetrack; speaking to breeders, breakers and trainers on their formative years. Today, we take a look at Yulong's runner for The Everest, Tofane.

Tofane (NZ)

Ocean Park x Baggy Green (Galileo {Ire})

Winner - G1 All Aged S. 1400m

Winner - G3 Furphy Sprint 1100m

Winner - G3 Bass Strait Beef Steaks 1200m

Placegetter - G2 Bobbie Lewis Quality 1200m

Placegetter - G1 City Tattersalls Club Galaxy 1100m

Placegetter - G2 Tab Euclase S. 1200m

The breeder

TDN AusNZ: This was Baggy Green’s second foal, what was the foaling down like?

Gordon Cunningham, Curraghmore Stud: She had a straightforward foaling and we noted that she loved her foal and had a great udder.

TDN AusNZ: What was Tofane like as a foal?

GC: I felt she was a typical Ocean Park, a good size, enough of everything and with good limbs.

TDN AusNZ: What was she like as a weanling? Did she have any mannerisms, traits or paddock mates?

GC: In her paddock group, like her mother, she tended to be a bit timid - she didn’t possess natural confidence.

TDN AusNZ: Could you foresee her success from early on?

GC: She wasn’t a standout but as she matured and strengthened, her quality came through. When you went out to the paddock you’d always see her.

TDN AusNZ: What was she like through her yearling preparation?

GC: We brought her in late and she just completed the introductory phase of our preparation before we decided to retain her and we turned her back out to the paddock.

TDN AusNZ: Could you describe her physically. Did she have any standout traits, mannerisms, or any tales from her preparation?

GC: She had a beautiful head, was very balanced and always looked like a filly that you’d need to nurture. Her movement definitely improved as she matured. She was definitely a routine and confidence filly.

TDN AusNZ: Could you foresee her career unfolding as it has?

GC: You dream of your breed achieving what Tofane has achieved but I honestly imagined she’d perform best over a mile and further. Great credit to Mike Moroney and his team at Ballymore for developing her into a Group 1 sprinter.

TDN AusNZ: How do you think she will perform in The Everest?

GC: I’d love it to be 1400 metres. However, she went very close in The Galaxy and flew home in the TJ Smith. She loves Randwick too, so you never know. We wish Rupert Legh and his partners all the best!

The trainer

TDN AusNZ: When did Tofane arrive in your care? Can you describe her personality, her early work and how you acquired her?

Mike Moroney, Ballymore Stables: She arrived in our New Zealand stable as a spring 3-year-old, she had been at her owners' in New Zealand and was broken in there by their pre-trainer. Basically he rang me one day and said he had a good little filly, and I had trained another one for him previously, and he said he had another one that he really liked and that he would send her over when she was ready.

So I told Pam [Gerard], my training partner in New Zealand, that she would be turning up at some stage and she liaised with Gordon over it. But she took a while to come in, I think she hurt herself a couple of times - she was very accident prone.

When she eventually made it to the stable, Pam said she was very jittery and very hard to work for a while. So Pam spent a lot of time with her trying to get her to do things right and calm down, she was on her toe a wee bit in her work.

Each time I spoke to her [Pam], she would say you know ‘she’s a nice filly but she’s very hard to work’, and it wasn’t until we started fast work with her and got her closer to trialling that she started saying she's coming around more now and she looks like she’s got some ability.

We gave her one barrier trial in New Zealand at a place called Te Teko, which is a nice, big, right-handed track and she was quite impressive and won very easily. It was surprising to see, as she wasn’t that forward and she didn’t know a lot and we didn’t expect a lot of her for the trial.

But she ran faster than the open heat and then quite a lot of trainers from Australia got wind of her and wanted to buy her. Gordon approached me and said I’ve had offers from Chris Waller’s agent and also from John O’Shea wanting to know more about this filly but because you’ve done the work with her you can have first preference.

So he told me the figure he wanted and I went to work to get together a syndicate to buy her. I approached Rupert Legh the main owner and Neil Werrett and Colin Madden and Rupert got Bryan Dorman in and so we syndicated her, and once we got most of it done and got her paid for, we said we’d try to get her over.

But, of course it wasn't straightforward because after she trialled at Te Teko Pam decided the thing she needed most was a paddock at Gordon’s stud, so she sent her back there. With her sale we needed to get her vetted so she got floated back over to our stables in Matamata and was out the back in a day paddock and when we went to bring her in to be vetted she had a big open cut on her hind leg. So we had to wait six weeks and she had to have a small operation in order to get her vetted again.

I said to the guys, look she’s worth waiting for so let's just wait and give her the time to get right before we vet her again. So the whole process was pushed back six weeks and she didn’t arrive until probably eight weeks after that first barrier trial. It had put us in a bit of an awkward spot then because I had to get her fit again with a couple barrier trials before she could actually step out at the races here, so that’s why she wasn’t seen until she was a late 3-year-old.

You know most people would have walked away from her and said well she’s just had an operation so we don't need that, but I just said to them, look it's only a minor operation she'll be fine let’s just wait and revisit her and they were pretty happy to do that on my advice. And she was a pretty good filly at the time so that was the start of her career and how we acquired her.

TDN AusNZ: When did you see something special in the horse?

MM: We knew from the time we jumped her out at Te Teko that she was very, very good. She was just very skittery and quite immature in the way she would handle things, we had to sort of work around her. She never got to a stage where she was really bad, or toey or got upset about things but she was spooky about everything. But, we always knew she had real ability.

In her first start Damien Oliver rode her and she went out $1.80 favourite because she had jumped out so well at Flemington and I suppose also because she won that only barrier trial at Te Teko. But yes, she went out as the $1.80 favourite and got beaten. Damien came back in and his words to me were ‘you’re right, she’s very good but until she learns to harness that ability or she will never make a racehorse’, so we then we went about trying to do that.

All she was doing was trying to rush through things and overdoing it and that's how Pam found her to start with too. We really had to make sure we ran her only when we drew a decent barrier and had the chance to cover her up to keep her quiet, we knew that would get her beaten a couple of times but as it turned out she won her next start. Then she got beaten a couple of times because we knew she wanted a little bit further, but we were worried to run her further because she was just so hard going.

Strangely enough in that time a horse called Youngster came along, who is related to her and she was an Oaks winner and I think the second dam was a multiple Group 1-winning Oaks winner in Europe, so it was a staying family, and it was thought that she would be a mile plus filly. But, it became pretty evident that we were going to struggle to get her to do that, and instead she was going to be a sprinter, even though her bloodlines suggest she shouldn't have been.

The next six months were really the making of her when we really asked her to slow down, and ride her back, even though we thought that might prevent her from winning some races but she was that good she would get back and still win. Once she learnt to harness her own abilities and relax a bit more, we started to get up in class and she started racing a bit handier and more relaxed.

Then she proved she was up to stakes class against the mares after about six runs, and she started taking the better ones on and started beating them, which culminated in having a go at the all comers and win the All Aged S.

She went her way through the classes quickly because of her natural ability, but on the way through we were really happy to nurse her along, just to ensure that when she did arrive at the big time, she was relaxed enough and happy enough to beat them.

TDN AusNZ: What do you consider her career highlight?

MM: Definitely her All Aged S. win. She’d be the first mare to win that race for a very long time and it's a very hard race to win, the 1400 metres is a real test you can have a good sprinter beat you and a good miler come back and beat you also. For her to beat all comers at the weight-for-age, they’re not many mares that have won that race and that certainly would be her highlight win.

Another would be when she beat Pippie who of course is now a Group 1 winner as well, she's a very fast filly, she beat her over 1100 metres, which was one of the only times Pippie has been beaten at that trip, so that was another big win, and I think that sort of announced her arrival on the main stage when she did that.

TDN AusNZ: Is she a team favourite?

MM: She's a lovely mare to deal with now and I think one of the reasons for that is that we took her to Adelaide at about her fourth start and ran her in a Group 2. As it turned out Gytrash was in it and he ran behind her, and she also beat Bothemoth home, she came second and it was her greenness that beat her there.

But that trip made her, I was really worried about travelling her and there was nothing left of her afterwards, she went to the paddock, but it was really the turning point for her. She actually relaxed on race day, which surprised me. I thought that once she got away from home she would be difficult but she wasn't.

The time we travelled her to Sydney she travelled well then too. She enjoys it and races well if not better, so that travel certainly made her and she's very push button now. She's still not a kids horse to work, she can pull a bit but she's learnt how to harness her ability and she’s quite lightly raced but all of that came together quicker than I thought it would. She’s lovely to handle and has worked out what she needs to do and she's become a really professional racehorse.

Tyler Johson works her most mornings and he's done a great job in teaching her to relax and not pull so much, but if he's not there Lily Miller rides her work as well and she traveled to Sydney with her also.

My team have done such a great job with her the whole way through, it's a credit to them.

She is a beautiful mare, she's got everything in the right place, balanced, is a lovely correct horse that has got a nice amount of bone and is a really feminine looking mare.