While she sadly died last year at 12 years of age, Bonnie Mac's superior genes are far from finished shaping thoroughbred racing and breeding.
Her son Exceedance is set to enter his second year at Vinery Stud, lightly raced 3-year-old Oxley Road (Exceed And Excel) is aiming up at spring features and 2-year-old filly Mac 'N' Cheese (Sebring) became her third stakes winner in the Listed Oaklands Plate at Morphettville on Saturday.
Then there is her final foal, a colt by Capitalist, which Greg Hickman paid $1.05 million for at this year's Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale, who will have understandably high expectations of him when he makes the track.
There are few people who know Bonnie Mac and her family better than bloodstock agent Paul Moroney, who not only purchased her for NZ$90,000 as a yearling back in 2009, but also purchased her dam, Gold Class (NZ) (Gold Brose) for NZ$24,000 through the same Karaka sales ring 10 years earlier.
Capitalist x Bonnie Mac (colt)
"We thought Bonnie Mac was a standout and knowing her mother should have been better than her record said she was, we were more than happy to buy her," Moroney told TDN AusNZ.
"She was gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous and was a stunner. Gold Class was a really good type as well and she has got black type herself. She had an injury that prevented her from going right to the top.
"Bonnie Mac was just a classy filly, we knew how good Gold Class could have been and she had already put her hand up to say she could be a really good broodmare and had already had a couple of decent horses."
Moroney saw clear similarities between Gold Class, who raced as She's Golden Class in Australia, and her daughter.
"They both had a lot of scope about them. They weren't squibby types of horses, for sprinter-miler types. They stood over a lot of ground and there were similarities in that regard. They were both good types as well," he said.
Paul Moroney
Gold Class, who was stakes-placed on the track, would end up producing four stakes winners for breeder Warren Pegg, Gold Rum (NZ) (Golan {Ire}), Upham (NZ) (Mastercraftsman {Ire}), Intimate Moment (NZ) (Dubawi {Ire}) and Bonnie Mac.
Mac on the track
Winning two of her first three starts in New Zealand for trainer Michael Moroney in the colours of Ian and Chris McCarrison, Bonnie Mac came to Australia and made an immediate impression, winning races at Ballarat and Caulfield before her career-best performance when victorious in the Listed Proud Miss S. at Morphettville.
"Mike believed Bonnie Mac was as good as he had trained. She had a wind issue that curtailed her career," Moroney said.
"Mike (Moroney) believed Bonnie Mac was as good as he had trained. She had a wind issue that curtailed her career." - Paul Moroney
"We started her off in New Zealand, and she was going well and sent her across the Tasman to Mike's Australian stable and he said to me that on raw talent, she was as good a mare as he's ever trained, but unfortunately the wind condition prevented her from getting to the top."
A suspensory issue as a younger horse had meant Bonnie Mac didn't get to the track until she was four and her 16-start career lasted just 19 months once she got there.
Ready for the next stage of her career, Bonnie Mac was offered through the 2014 Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale through the Oakwood Farm draft in foal to Sepoy.
"Ian McCarrison, who sadly passed away about five years ago, named Bonnie Mac after his first granddaughter, Bonnie, and it was a real family thing," Moroney said.
"Ian McCarrison, who sadly passed away about five years ago, named Bonnie Mac after his first granddaughter, Bonnie, and it was a real family thing." - Paul Moroney
"When he passed away, his wife Chris wasn't as interested in the breeding side as much as he was, and so the mare was on-sold after she finished racing."
Vass shapes a Bonnie breeding career
Bloodstock agent Guy Mulcaster was the winning bidder, paying $460,000 for Bonnie Mac on behalf of client Nick Vass.
Unfortunately, Bonnie Mac lost her first foal soon after birth and she then slipped an Exceed And Excel foal the next year. However, on her third try, she would deliver a colt by Exceed And Excel who would become a star on the track.
It was renowned judge Peter Orton of Vinery Stud that picked out Exceedance for $180,000 at the Inglis Easter Yearling Sale.
Peter Orton
"Going through those colts, I saw him and he was a striking colt and he took my eye. We followed him through and he had a couple of issues that might have turned a few people off, but for me, he was a good tough colt and a lovely horse to take through," Orton told TDN AusNZ in 2019.
Bonnie Mac would subsequently produce another colt by Exceed And Excel and a filly by Sebring the following two years before Vass offered her through the Newgate Consignment at the 2019 Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale, in foal to Newgate stallion Capitalist, where she took the eye of bloodstock agent Andrew Williams and his client, Allam Racing.
"We ended up buying her on the basis that she was an outcross mare and we were targeting that year of Capitalists, trying to capitalise selling off the back of his first 2-year-olds hitting the track," Williams said.
"It was the Intimate Moment (Bonnie Mac's half-sister) family. She had come out and produced a $1.1 million yearling and a $500,000 yearling in the previous two years, so we knew there was enough floating around through the first dam.
"Exceedance had just come out and won at Wyong and the sectionals were very good. So she was a stakes winner that produced a very exciting first foal to race. She was in foal to Capitalist, she had a good action and she was a nice mare who had been bought by a good judge in Paul Moroney as a yearling."
The pedigree page explodes
Bonnie Mac was purchased by Williams and Allam Racing for $375,000 and it looked a brilliant acquisition when the Team Hawkes-trained Exceedance came out in the spring and won the G3 San Domenico S. and then the stallion-making G1 Coolmore Stud S.
Exceedance winning the G1 Coolmore Stud S.
The page has just got better and better since, with the Peter Moody-trained Oxley Road, who was a $125,000 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale purchase by Stephen Gray, winning the G3 Zeditave S. at just his second start in January and now the Tony and Calvin McEvoy-trained Mac 'N' Cheese, a $300,000 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale purchase by Spendthrift Australia, a Listed winner after her three starts.
The fickle nature of thoroughbred breeding saw Allam Racing lose what would be one of the hottest broodmares in the country, last May.
"She was on route to becoming a blue hen mare when she passed away," Williams said. "She's a tragic loss because with three to race for three stakes winners, including a Group 1 winner, she was building an amazing record."
"She (Bonnie Mac) was on route to becoming a blue hen mare when she passed away." - Andrew Williams
Allam Racing's consolation was that it got to sell the one colt she produced for it, by Capitalist, at the Easter Yearling Sale this year for $1.05 million. It's early in the journey, but reports on him are strong, according to Williams.
"I think he was well-found at the yearling sales. He had 29 x-ray hits, was a great physical and it was a great mating that Nick Vass had come up with," he said.
"I think they are really happy with him. He is going through his motions now. He needed a little bit of time, with an x-ray issue he had."
Moroney points out that given both his dam and his grandam didn't race until they were four, there should be no particular compulsion to rush the colt.
"They (Bonnie Mac and Gold Class) were never going to be 2-year-old types. It took a little while to come to fruition, but once they hit the track they went really well," he said.
"They (Bonnie Mac and Gold Class) were never going to be 2-year-old types. It took a little while to come to fruition, but once they hit the track they went really well." - Andrew Williams
"I'm surprised she has left horses that have been able to get up and do something at two, because those two certainly didn't and they got better with age."
As the only filly from Bonnie Mac, and now as a stakes winner, Mac 'N' Cheese has considerable value for Spendthrift, who will undoubtedly be very pleased with a filly who looks to have the upside of both a racing and breeding prospect.
Her progress will always be tracked closely by the Moroneys, who take great pride in the legacy that their good mares leave.
"When you buy these fillies and you go to the track and get black type and they then go on to become good producers, it’s a real thrill," he said.
"We’ve had a lot to do with the family. We believed in them and we looked at all of her progeny and always thought we’d like to buy one. We missed out on a couple and now she is no longer around. Hopefully, this filly can carry the line, because there is not much of that family left now."
