Moira Glitters for Ghostzapper

While Nest's dominating display in the Alabama Stakes (G1) had pundits wondering how she might fare if matched against the leading colts of the generation, the same weekend a 3-year-old filly defeated colts to take the second classic of her brief career north of the border. The filly in question, Moira, has been a standout from the very start of her career, taking the Princess Elizabeth Stakes—the most prestigious event for Canadian-bred juvenile fillies—by 4 1/4 lengths on her racecourse debut. She missed by half a length in the Mazarine Stakes (G3) on her only other start at 2, but that proved to be the only blemish on her record, as in three starts this term she's captured the Stella Artois Fury Stakes, the Woodbine Oaks presented by Budweiser, which she took by 10 3/4 lengths, and the Aug. 21 Queen's Plate, where she had seven lengths to spare over the nearest of her male rivals while setting a track record. Moira is by Ghostzapper, who is undoubtedly one of the top five or six males to race on dirt in North America this century. A fast-finishing third in the King's Bishop Stakes (G1) on his black-type debut, Ghostzapper was undefeated in six subsequent starts—all in graded stakes—from 6 1/2 to 10 furlongs, including the Vosburgh Stakes (G1), the Metropolitan Handicap (G1), which he took by 6 1/4 lengths, on his only start at 5; and the Breeders' Cup Classic (G1), setting a track record. If not as dominant a stallion as he was a racehorse, Ghostzapper has certainly been a more than successful one with 90 stakes winners, 48 graded, and 13 grade 1. His sons include the recently retired Dubai World Cup Sponsored by Emirates Airline (G1) scorer Mystic Guide, Canadian Champions Shaman Ghost and Hunters Bay, and other grade 1 winners Moreno, Stately Victor, and Nucky. Overall, he's probably been more noted for daughters, who in addition to Moira, including such as Champion Sprinter Judy The Beauty, Guarana, Paulassilverlining, Better Lucky, Contested, and Molly Morgan. Ghostzapper is also becoming a very successful broodmare sire, and his daughters have produced nearly 30 stakes winners, including Triple Crown winner Justify and Champion Sprinter Drefong. Moira has yet to race on anything other than an all-weather surface, and if she ventures outside of Woodbine, it will be interesting to see if she prefers dirt or turf. Ghostzapper was a dirt runner, and although he's been a versatile sire, his best have also been either on that surface or the all-weather. Moira's dam, the Unbridled's Song mare Devine Aida, captured the Ginger Brew Stakes on turf and the Herecomesthebride Stakes on dirt in consecutive starts, and also earned a third in the Mrs. Revere Stakes (G2) on the lawn. With three named foals, Devine Aida is also dam of the stakes-winning Animal Kingdom colt Jungle Cry. Moira's granddam, Passion, was also a stakes winner, taking the La Habra Stakes (G3) at Santa Anita and the Alywow Stakes at Woodbine. She is a half sister to the Hollywood Oaks (G2) and Providencia Stakes winner, and Santa Anita Oaks (G1) second, Kumari Continent. One of the best runners for her sire, the Gone West horse Came Home, Passion had an interesting pedigree as her broodmare sire, Known Fact, was a half sister to Gone West's dam, Secrettame, both out of the very influential broodmare Tamerett. The third dam, Rajmata, was unraced but was a sister to the stakes-winning and multiple graded stakes-placed Binalong, and to stakes winner Songlines, the ancestress of at least 11 stakes winners, including the Champion 2-Year-Old Filly of 2017, Caledonia Road (by Quality Road, a grandson of Gone West), and other grade 1 scorers Data Link and Hymn Book. Three other half sisters to Rajmata also produced stakes winners, notably Badawi, dam of English stakes winner and group 1 performer Badminton, and Sahibah, dam of the three-time graded scorer Roshani. Begum, the dam of Rajmata and her notable siblings, was born blind, but her breeder, Alice Chandler, kept her in a special paddock at her Mill Ridge Farm, where Begum's foals wore bells to let their dam know where they were. It's easy to see, looking at her pedigree, why the effort was made. Begum was by Alydar, and a half sister to graded stakes winner Old Goat, and to stakes winners Good and Early and Sailors Mate, and what's more was the last foal of her dam, the stakes-placed Nasrullah mare Rullah Good. The family goes back to Rhetoric, a sister to the 1905 English Derby hero, Cicero, and arrived in the U.S. with the importation of Rhetoric's daughter Peroration in 1923. Peroration's most important immediate descendant was Damaged Goods—so called as she was injured in a fire when she was a yearling—successful in the Acorn Stakes and Coaching Club American Oaks. It is Damaged Goods' stakes-winning daughter, Case Goods, who figures as the sixth dam of Moira. Through Case Good's stakes-winning half sister, Twice Shy, Damaged Goods is ancestress of a couple of earlier Canadian standouts in Not Too Shy, Champion 3-Year-Old Filly and twice Champion Older Mare in Canada, and the Champion Canadian Turf Mare, Heliotrope (whose dam was by Highland Park, and so 5x3 to Damaged Goods). Moira is the only stakes winner from 12 starters by Ghostzapper out of mares by Unbridled's Song. He has sired at least another three stakes winners out of Unbridled line mares, most notably Paulassilverlinging. It probably helps that Moira comes from the 'N' Achilli mitochondrial haplogroup, as does Ghostzapper's sire, Awesome Again, and also Unbridled.