Cover image of Jolie Bay, daughter of Legally Bay at Segenhoe Stud
A perfect example of the term ‘coming full-circle’ is in the story of breeder Chris Barham and his mare Legally Bay.
Barham purchased the late daughter of Snippets on a whim for $220,000 at the 2002 Inglis Easter Yearling Sale after reading about John Magnier and taking an interest in the racing and breeding industry.
Further down the track, that mare produced a talented colt named Merchant Navy who was purchased by Magnier’s Coolmore Stud, after winning the G1 Coolmore Stud S., to wear their colours down the straight to victory at Royal Ascot before becoming one of their resident stallions.
Merchant Navy | Standing at Coolmore
The next generation
Legally Bay was a talented race mare herself having won the G3 Sweet Embrace S. and Listed Brian Crowley S. as well as placing in the G1 Oakleigh Plate and G1 Australia S., but she is quickly building a legacy at stud with not just her children, but now her grandchildren.
On Saturday at Sandown, Hindaam (NZ) (Savabeel), who is out of Bayrock (Fastnet Rock), became the first stakes winner and third stakes performer out of a daughter of Legally Bay when she took out the Listed Twilight Glow S. at just her fifth career start.
Peter O’Brien’s association with Legally Bay started at Coolmore Stud before he moved over to Segenhoe Stud, and she went with him.
“When I moved from Coolmore to Segenhoe, Legally Bay came with me,” O’Brien said. “She moved around a bit but she lived at Coolmore from 2011, and because Chris and Jane are friends of mine, I’ve always had an involvement with her all the way along.
“When I moved from Coolmore to Segenhoe, Legally Bay came with me." - Peter O'Brien
“The first few foals, even though two or three of them were winners, they all had issues. And then along came Jolie Bay who was a Group 2 winner a Group 1-placed. We still have Jolie Bay and Zara Bay living here at Segenhoe.
“Legally Bay was a typical Snippets mare. She was strong, not too big, had a huge hip and she was a very precocious racehorse herself.”
Legally Bay ended up having nine foals to race and so far six of them are winners. Three of those winners are by Fastnet Rock, two of them are stakes winners with the other a stakes-placegetter, and one of them - Merchant Navy - is a dual-hemisphere Group 1 winner.
Legally Bay when racing
A match made in heaven
When deciding the right stallion for Legally Bay, Barham said that he was always looking to cross her with Danehill (USA) sires off the back of the success of Hinchinbrook at that time.
“We worked out fairly early on that Fastnet Rock was just a really good nick for Legally Bay,” Barham said.
“All the x-rays were always perfect. Genetically Fastnet bred any imperfections out of Legally Bay and the foals out of those Fastnet mares are the same, they’re genetically really quite superior.
“All the x-rays were always perfect. Genetically Fastnet (Rock) bred any imperfections out of Legally Bay." - Peter O'Brien
“Any time we’ve bred to other stallions, because of Legally Bay’s genetics, we’ve ended up with some issues.
“We tried Redoute’s Choice but that filly had some issues. They paid $520,000 for her so she was a good foal but her x-rays weren’t perfect and it was the same thing with the Encosta De Lago and Lonhro foals.
“So we were looking for a Danehill cross and just studying what was around, Wanted and Hinchinbrook were winning stakes races at that stage, so we went for Fastnet Rock and got perfect x-rays.
“Then we went to Exceed And Excel because of the Danehill cross and we were still experimenting, and the x-rays were not that great. So we went back to Fastnet and the next five sets of Fastnet x-rays with her were perfect, we knew they could run by that stage as well.
“All the Legally Bays could run, but we just needed those ones that were just that bit more genetically superior and he was the mating that worked.”
The late Legally Bay at Segenhoe Stud
Fastnet Rock is known to stamp his stock but O’Brien said that almost all of his foals out of Legally Bay were much more like their mother than their father.
“Merchant Navy was a unique Fastnet Rock as a yearling, as in he had all those traits from his mother and he wasn’t your typical Fastnet Rock,” O’Brien said. “Fastnet Rock wouldn’t be known for having 2-year-olds but Merchant Navy just looked like a 2-year-old and looked like a sprinter and he got all of that from his mother in my mind.
“And the really interesting thing for me is that nine out of 10 Merchant Navy foals seem to be that shape as well.
“Jolie Bay was very much in the mould of her mother but Zara Bay was much more like Fastnet in that she had a lot more size and scope.
“We tragically lost a Fastnet Rock colt in a paddock accident who I thought was the best she ever had and that was the year before Merchant Navy was born.
“Bayrock was very much in the mould of her mother, she was a pretty tidy mare. So most of them have been in the mould of their mother bar Zara Bay.”
Fastnet Rock | Standing at Coolmore
And as for her personality, O’Brien said she was a different sort of character and she has passed that down to her progeny as well.
“She was as unique as you could get,” he said. “If you put her in a paddock she would be furthest away from any other horse, she was a complete loner, I’ve never seen a mare like her and her daughters are the same, it’s bizarre.
“Legally Bay was a bit claustrophobic and both of her daughters are as well. But Legally, if there were 10 mares in a paddock, there would be nine up one end and she’d be down the other and happy as, as well.
“She did everything on her own terms but she was lovely to deal with.
“She (Legally Bay) did everything on her own terms but she was lovely to deal with." - Peter O'Brien
“She was a superb mother. She looked after her foals like no other but she was just a unique character. Probably the most unique character I’ve ever dealt with. There was no badness in her, she just did everything on her terms and once you realised that, it was a match made in heaven.”
Part of the family
That main point that is echoed between both O’Brien and Barham is how special she was to both of them.
O’Brien has been involved with many a superstar mare but he said he has a special place in his heart for Legally Bay with the farm placing a headstone for her on the property after her passing last year.
“We lost Arborea the other day and she was the closest horse to being a part of my family but next to her would be Legally Bay,” O’Brien said. “I’ve had her for generations and now we have granddaughters of hers here now.
“It’s like anybody when you’ve been around a family for so long, it’s only when you lose a matriarch, it does kick you in the belly. She meant everything to me but not just me, the lads here at the farm, because she was such a unique character, everybody loved her.”
Legally Bay's headstone at Segenhoe Stud
As for Barham, he attributes all of his success in racing to Legally Bay and believes his life would’ve been completely different if not for her.
“Going back to the start of the story with the first book I read about John Magnier, my goal was to somehow get one of their stallions and that’s been our aim,” he said. “We’ve spent a lot of time and money in a roundabout way to try and achieve that and then out of the blue comes along Merchant Navy and the story went full circle.
“We’ve been very lucky and we know we’ve been lucky. Lucky to get the filly, lucky to get the mare and secondarily to that, having given her the chance to be a blue hen.
“Who knows what Merchant will do, that’s a whole other world for her legacy, but it’s a bit overwhelming seeing all these horses people have bought that you helped be a part of.”
“Who knows what Merchant (Navy) will do, that’s a whole other world for her legacy, but it’s a bit overwhelming seeing all these horses people have bought that you helped be a part of.” - Chris Barham
Having been named by her daughter, Legally Bay was a true family horse and for that, Barham said he was especially grateful.
“There are not many things that you can do as a family and that’s probably the great thing for us is that she enabled us to do things as a family,” he said. “And she was part of the family.
“It’s a long way to drive to Segenhoe to go and pat her but that’s what you’d do. You’d get in the car and drive nine hours to go and see her.
“There were times where people said to us ‘why don’t you sell her? She’s worth a lot of money,’ and I said ‘we can’t sell her, how could you sell her?’
“It was a very sad day when she died last year and it was a terrible phone call to get, but we sit back and think about how she changed our lives and she did, she changed our lives.
“Without her, there’s a whole world we wouldn’t have known about and we wouldn’t have met people we know now.
“The bottom line is, she was just part of the family.”
