Even by her own very high standards, it will be a high profile weekend for Sizzling Sarah.
On Saturday, her son Skywalker Logan is one of the leading fancies for the Slyne Memorial final at Cork. On the same night on this side of the water, litter sister Magical Vera will contest the English Oaks Final at Swindon with brother Magical Icarus, beaten favourite in the English St.Leger Final, likely to start at very short odds to land the supporting stayers open.
The trio are from Sarah’s fifth and final litter by the promising young Irish sire Tarsna Havana (Skywalker Puma-Tarsna Sal) from a bunch than also includes open winner Mystical Merlin and top grade runners at Swindon and Belle Vue.
But Sarah (Razldazzl Billy-Nifty Princess) is far from being a one trick pony. To Definate Opinion she produced the best marathon runner of the last decade, Roxholme Magic, plus three minor open winners.
To Top Savings, she produced four open winners, but most notably, competition finalists Chubbys Oak and Huarache Scotty. Last but not least, to Zero Ten she threw the 2018 Irish Derby runner-up Magical Bale. Her poorest litter – which still included minor open winners – was by the very moderate sire, College Causeway.
Not too shabby for a failed puppy selection.
Sarah’s owner Emer Guilfoyle said: “When I went to choose her and a litter brother as pups, I had the choice of any. Only later did Ray Patterson choose the sister Skywalker Queen, (who went on to win the 2009 Irish Oaks/Dundalk International). For a while I took a bit of flak for picking the wrong one.”
The story looks even worse when you realise that Sarah only won three of her 21 races. Though, there is more to the story. At 19 months old, the 65 pound brindle had clocked an impressive 29.09 at Galway. But then it all went wrong.
Emer said: “We ran her at Galway in the winter, and the track was really too firm. We shouldn’t have run, and she came off sore on both wrists. It held her back through the rest of her career.”
But while Skywalker Queen failed to pass on her tremendous ability to her pups, Emer came out smiling. However, despite the opportunity to earn probably £30,000-£40,000 from her next litter, Emer has retired the supermum from breeding duties.
She said: “I think too much of her. She has had five litters and never less than 10 pups, up to 13 in any litter. Immediately she comes amiss, she goes on hunger strike and I end up feeding the pups every two hours. Thankfully we haven’t lost any but I wouldn’t put her through that again.”
A grand daughter of Seamus Graham’s Corn Cuchulainn and IGB 750 winner Nifty Niamh, who later threw Premier Fantasy, Sarah will surely continue to appear in top class pedigrees for years to come.
Emer plans to breed with Magical Bale’s litter sister Magical Zeta with another comrade Mystical Moll, also staying in the family.
