Azkadellia’s maiden foal born with one eye
Group 1 winner with controversial past finally finds home at stud after years in the wilderness
Azkadellia (Shinko King), the Group 1-winning mare who was found to be raced by convicted conman Peter Foster, and whose bona fides saw her trainer Ciaron Maher sidelined by authorities in 2017 for six months, has had her first foal, giving rise to the possibility of continuing the bloodline.
However, Azkadellia’s eight-month-old daughter by Shamus Award (Snitzel) will not grace an Australian racetrack, after being born with only one eye at Ultra Thoroughbreds’ Victorian property.
Ultra Thoroughbreds’ Sean Buckley, the owner of Barree Stud near Kilmore, revealed the filly’s unfortunate deformity to ANZ Bloodstock News yesterday. Buckley does not own Azkadellia or the filly, but they are agisted at his property on behalf of a client whose identity has not been publicly disclosed.
“Azkadellia has had her first foal, but unfortunately she was a filly who had one eye, so she will never race. She might be a good broodmare and she is a beautiful type, by the way, and Azkadellia is back in foal to Shamus,” Buckley said.
“[The owner] was distraught because he paid a lot for the mare… and she is just a magnificent type, so he went back again [to Shamus Award last year].”
Azkadellia spent years in the racing wilderness following her last-start second in the 2016 Tattersall’s Tiara (Gr 1, 1400m) at Eagle Farm. After the controversy which saw Racing Victoria stewards investigate who owned the valuable mare, she was left in a paddock near Melbourne until she was offered through a horse auction at Echuca in September 2019.
She was “sold” for $615,000 to agent Sheamus Mills at the country Victoria auction, but the sale was soon voided when another legal argument was made by a person claiming to own Azkadellia.
Azkadellia was eventually sold to her current owner, but who received the money from the sale, believed to be upwards of $700,000, remains unclear.
Azkadellia’s first foal, a November 3-born brown or black filly, has been registered with the Australian Stud Book and the mare is back in foal to Shamus Award, whose fee has shot up to $88,000 (inc GST) this year on the back of Duais, Incentivise and El Patroness winning Group 1 races this season. She was covered on November 28 last year.
Stewards slapped a not-to-race embargo on Azkadellia in September 2016, soon after her successful four-year-old autumn and winter campaign, after it emerged Foster was the owner of the New Zealand-bred mare and four other horses trained by Maher. They had been racing in the name of Maher’s then racing manager Ben Connolly, who was disqualified for his role in the saga until January 2020.
Maher was fined $75,000, as well as being given a six-month suspension.
Azkadellia was reportedly put back into pre-training in 2019 by her new owner with hopes of reviving her racetrack career, but Racing NSW officials overruled the plan in early 2020 and rejected the owner’s application, leading to her being covered by Rosemont Stud stallion Shamus Award later that year, without a racing swansong.
According to the Racing Australia website, Azkadellia retains her victory in the 2016 Queen Of The Turf Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) and her placings in that year’s Coolmore Classic (Gr 1, 1500m), Doncaster Mile (Gr 1, 1600m) when third to Winx (Street Cry) and Happy Clapper (Teofilo), and the Doomben 10,000 (Gr 1, 1350m) and Tattersall’s Tiara.
She was, however, disqualified from victories at Ballarat and Cranbourne, as well as placings at Pakenham, in the Tesio Stakes (Gr 3, 1600m) at Moonee Valley and the Myer Classic (Gr 1, 1600m) at Flemington in the spring of 2015, and a win in the Mannerism Stakes (Gr 3, 1400m) and a second in the Bellmaine Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m) in February 2016.
Azkadellia, who was initially trained in New Zealand by Ilone Kelly to win a two-year-old maiden at Avondale in July 2014, was purchased privately soon after and transferred to Maher’s Caulfield stable, winning her first start for new connections at Wangaratta in September of that year.
From 17 starts, she won from 1000 metres to 1600 metres and almost $1.6 million in prize-money before she was stripped of seven races by Racing Victoria stewards.
Buckley banks on Mo’unga delivering at stud
Meanwhile, Buckley yesterday also confirmed he had purchased a significant share in Group 1-winning stallion prospect Mo’unga (Savabeel) in partnership with Newhaven Park.
The Annabel Neasham-trained rising five-year-old entire, whose stud deal was negotiated via tender through auction house Magic Millions earlier this year on behalf of Tony Fung Investments, is slated to race on next season before retiring to the Kelly family’s Boorowa stud in 2023.
Mo’unga is out of the stakes-placed O’Reilly (Last Tycoon) mare Chandelier and after winning his first three starts as a late two– and early three-year-old, the colt won the Rosehill Guineas (Gr 1, 2000m) in the autumn of 2021, returning last August with a victory in the Winx Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) at Randwick, a win which clinched his appeal as a stallion prospect.
Buckley was drawn to Mo’unga as a high-class out-cross option for a number of mares he owns by Shamus Award, the 2013 Cox Plate (Gr 1, 2040m) and 2014 Australian Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) winner who carried the owner’s black, emerald green chevrons and black and green striped cap colours.
“He’ll race-on this year and then go to stud next year and I’ll send my Shamus mares that I’ve got in the paddock back to him as it’s a great nick,” he said.
Tony Fung Investments have retained a minority share in Mo’unga, who is back in training with Neasham at Warwick Farm and is being aimed at another tilt at the spring and a second crack at the Winx Stakes his probable first-up target.