Cover image courtesy of The Image Is Everything
Australia’s recorded history, give or take, is 253 years old, from the point when James Cook took anchorage in Botany Bay. That was 1770, and from then on, a steady stream of settlement changed the fortunes of this continent, including its racehorses.
Seven horses travelled with the First Fleet in 1788, only two surviving more than a handful of years, but it wasn’t until 1799 that a foundation thoroughbred, the terrific stallion Rockingham (GB), stepped ashore.
Historians have dug deep in the colony records for the female equivalent of Rockingham, but few exist.
Rockingham (GB) | Image courtesy of Wikipedia
In 1802, a thoroughbred mare was imported for the naval officer, Captain William Kent, but that horse’s name has been lost to history. It isn’t until 1825 that a thoroughbred mare in Australia is recorded with a taproot in the English General Stud Book.
The mare in question was Manto (GB), a daughter of Soothsayer (GB), and she became the taproot of Bruce Lowe’s Number 18 family. Manto is one of the true foundation mares of early Australia in a nation that, probably more than any other, can appreciate what a ‘foundation’ truly is.
By definition, a ‘foundation mare’ is one credited as a progenitor, or founder, of a breed or a given bloodline within that breed. Mares like Manto existed in an age of true foundation, when the thoroughbred breed in Australia was climbing to its feet, but today, a foundation mare is largely credited to an individual bloodline.
By definition, a ‘foundation mare’ is one credited as a progenitor, or founder, of a breed or a given bloodline within that breed.
There are countless examples of these in the last hundred years. Eight Carat (GB) (Pieces Of Eight {GB}) is one, and La Troienne (Fr) (Teddy {Fr}) is another. However, today the term is largely used to describe that one mare that launched a family, in many cases founding a farm dynasty.
In that respect, there would be few farms in all of Australia that have flourished under a single family as much as Strawberry Hill Stud. John Singleton’s property is folded into the countryside around Mount White on the Central Coast, and it owes its identity to the great mare Joie Denise.
The Joie Denise farm
Joie Denise was bred by Arrowfield in 1991, a daughter of the outstanding, Tommy Smith-trained Denise’s Joy (Seventh Hussar {Fr}).
Arrowfield co-owned Joie Denise with John Singleton at a time when John Messara’s Sunday Silence (USA) project was ongoing, which, at its essence, allowed a small number of Arrowfield mares to breed to the Japan-based Sunday Silence on Southern Hemisphere time.
Today, this is commonplace, but in the late 90s, it wasn’t. The Northern Farm-Arrowfield alliance lasted four consecutive seasons and, in July 1998, Joie Denise was one of the handful of mares that headed to Japan to Sunday Silence. She returned several months later to foal the filly, Sunday Joy, whom it is reported that Singleton paid $1 million to buy outright as a yearling.
Sunday Joy | Image courtesy of Sportpix
Arrowfield’s ‘Sunday Silence project’ was a good success. It also yielded Keep The Faith, sire of Trust In A Gust, and the Group 2 winner El Daana (Redoute’s Choice), whose dam was from one of the Arrowfield mares that visited Sunday Silence in 1999.
Around the same time, Singleton bought Joie Denise outright from Messara, so that he had both the valuable mare and her very valuable filly by Sunday Silence.
But why was this family so valuable, even in the late 1990s?
When racing, Joie Denise won the G1 Queensland Oaks and Listed Toy Show Quality H. Her dam, Denise’s Joy, won a host of stakes races from the Widden S. to the VRC and Queensland Oaks and WATC Australian Derby. In turn, the dam of Denise’s Joy, Fun For All (Pipe Of Peace {GB}), was a stakes winner too, so that by the time Joie Denise won the Queensland Oaks in 1995, she was the third stakes-winning female from this line.
However, it goes on because Joie Denise’s foal, Sunday Joy, won the G1 AJC Oaks and her other foal, the Carnegie (Ire) filly Tuesday Joy (NZ), won four Group 1s and a total of seven Group races.
Tuesday Joy (NZ) | Image courtesy of Sportpix
Sunday Joy, in turn, became the dam of More Joyous (NZ) (More Than Ready {USA}), who won eight Group 1 races, and More Joyous was the sixth generation of stakes winners in this female line.
All of these fillies (except More Joyous), right back to Fun For All in the 1960s, produced Group 1 winners during their stud careers.
John Singleton had every reason to pivot his breeding empire around this family, which is exactly what he did. For decades, Strawberry Hill Stud has been carried to the top of the sport (and the top of the sale ring) by this string of Joie Denise horses.
From it has also emerged the likes of Deedra, a Zabeel (NZ) daughter of Joie Denise who didn’t win a stakes race but who foaled the Group 1 winner Fenway and Group 3 winner War (More Than Ready {USA}). Fenway is the dam of the Group 3-winning, Group 1-placed Williamsburgh (Snitzel).
John Singleton and Gai Waterhouse after More Joyous (NZ) won the G2 Riesling S. | Image courtesy of The Image Is Everything
Joie Denise didn’t replicate her racetrack brilliance in Deedra, but, as a producer, Deedra cut the mustard, and this has been a central theme of this female line.
The scroll of stakes horses from this family is magnificent, including Pentastic, Don’t Doubt Mamma (Not A Single Doubt), Secret Agenda (Not A Single Doubt) and the Gimcrack winner Enthaar (Written Tycoon), as well as Thorn Park, Bentley Biscuit (Peintre Celebre {USA}) and, most recently, Dolphin Skin (NZ) (Telperion).
“It’s a very tough, very sound family,” said Andrew Baddock, the racing manager and bloodstock advisor at Strawberry Hill Stud. Since January, Baddock has been intimately involved with the Joie Denise line, and he knows exactly how critical it has been to Singleton’s empire.
“It’s a world-class family and it’s been life-changing for Strawberry Hill. John has so much of the family and he just adores it. It’s been so successful for him and a high percentage of the broodmare band at the farm is centred around this family alone.”
“It’s a world-class family and it’s been life-changing for Strawberry Hill. John has so much of the family and he just adores it... a high percentage of the broodmare band at the farm is centred around this family alone.” - Andrew Baddock
Joie Denise had seven fillies and, at one point, Strawberry Hill had all of them. In the last few years, Singleton has sold a number of descendants, including Joyous Legend (Snitzel) who is from More Joyous and Group 2-placed.
Joyous Legend was the first of the More Joyous progeny to be sold and she was an $800,000 yearling for buyer Legend Racing. She was third in the G2 Percy Sykes S. two years ago, and then third in the Listed Mick Dittman S. before her retirement.
“We still have a lot of the family on the farm, including the retired mares,” Baddock said. “One of the only ones we don’t have is Tuesday Joy, who died last year. Sunday Joy is still around, and of course More Joyous is getting along but she’s still with us too.”
Andrew Baddock and the late Eduardo Cojuangco
Joie Denise, the original matriarch for Strawberry Hill, died in 2009. Her first foal for Singleton was Sunday Joy, but she’d had a filly by Geiger Counter (USA) and a colt by Kenmare (Fr) before being bought outright by Singleton.
She was a loss when she died, but at that point, the family was alive and well because by then, 3-year-old More Joyous was on the scene.
“These great families, they just keep coming back,” Baddock said. “Sometimes these great mares don’t throw something themselves, but it keeps returning through one of their daughters, which so often happens. More Joyous has thrown nothing like herself, which doesn’t surprise me, but one of her daughters could be anything.
“Those top mares are just so good, so to expect them to reproduce anything like themselves is probably unrealistic. Although, if you look at this family, right back to Denise’s Joy who I think was bred by TJ Smith, it goes off into dozens of branches. It keeps coming back.”
“...if you look at this family, right back to Denise’s Joy who I think was bred by TJ Smith, it goes off into dozens of branches. It keeps coming back.” - Andrew Baddock
In the early winter of 1995, Baddock was trackside at Eagle Farm the day Joie Denise won the Queensland Oaks. He was there with Gooree Park, for whom he worked.
Joie Denise led home Circles Of Gold (Marscay) that day in a close argument to the line, with jockey Larry Olsen just getting the better of Shane Dye on Circles Of Gold. It was a breed-shaping finish.
“I remember saying that day, ‘wouldn’t you love to own a mare like that’,” Baddock said. “It’s a family that Strawberry Hill has developed from a long way back, and it’s John’s trademark for sure. To his credit, he raised the bar pretty high in producing More Joyous, but I know he’s trying to replicate it.”
“It’s a family that Strawberry Hill has developed from a long way back, and it’s John’s trademark for sure. To his credit, he raised the bar pretty high in producing More Joyous, but I know he’s trying to replicate it.” - Andrew Baddock
There are no families at Strawberry Hill that compete with the Joie Denise family. Baddock calls it the ‘Joie Denise farm’.
“John has had massive success with it,” he said. “It’s just an amazing page and as good as you’ll get anywhere in the world. It’s John’s brand. It’s what he’s most known for and he’s proud of it.”
The importance of it all
More Joyous is rising 17 years old now. She’s been at stud since 2013 and she’s had six foals, the latest of which was a So You Think (NZ) colt.
This spring, she will visit Anamoe at Darley Australia, bringing the collective haul of this union to 17 Group 1s and 31 Group wins all up. As Singleton said, “that’s as good as it can get”.
More Joyous (NZ) when racing | Image courtesy of The Image Is Everything
Her daughter, Woman (Frankel {GB}), will visit Russian Revolution, while Deedra is booked to Best Of Bordeaux at Coolmore. Deedra’s daughter, This Time Bridie, a three-quarter sister to More Joyous by More Than Ready (USA), will also visit Best Of Bordeaux.
Other branches of the family include Tender Mercies (More Than Ready {USA}), a daughter of Sunday Joy, who is going to Russian Revolution, and Fly Lightly (More Than Ready {USA}), a daughter of Deedra, is booked to Snitzel. History Repeats is a More Than Ready daughter of Tuesday Joy who is booked to Home Affairs.
“Sometimes you can have so much of a family that you start to look for different blood, just to get hold of other great families,” Baddock said. “But it will be hard to ever get past the Joie Denise family.
“When you walk into the boardroom here at Strawberry Hill, John has these massive photographs of More Joyous, Sunday Joy, Tuesday Joy and so on. It hits you straight away how important it all is to him.”
“When you walk into the boardroom here at Strawberry Hill, John has these massive photographs of More Joyous, Sunday Joy, Tuesday Joy and so on. It hits you straight away how important it all is to him.” - Andrew Baddock
One of the photographs, large and lifeful, shows Sunday Joy winning the AJC Oaks in 2003. In the picture, a half-length away, is Shower Of Roses (NZ) (Zabeel {NZ}), a granddaughter of Eight Carat in the Gooree colours. For Baddock, who spent close to 30 years working for the Cojuangco family at Gooree, it’s a case of life going full circle.
“At that time, they were two of the best-bred fillies in the Southern Hemisphere,” he said. “They had the world ahead of them.”
Shower Of Roses died shortly after her delivering her first foal in 2005, while the rest, in the case of Sunday Joy, is breed-shaping history.
