Champion Australian mare More Joyous has been retired and will travel to England to be mated with equine superstar Frankel.
More Joyous finished her career with twenty-one race victories, including eight Group 1 wins, but her stunning performances on the track are likely to be overshadowed by her final start in the All Aged Stakes in which she finished second last, which led to owner John Singleton accusing trainer Gai Waterhouse of concealing fitness problems with the mare.
Singleton’s racing manager Duncan Grimley paid tribute to the More Than Ready mare when announcing the retirement earlier in the week.
“She has been the horse you dream about as a breeder, one that is bought up on your farm and raced at the highest level in your colours and never lets you down,” Grimley said.
“It was always going to be a tough decision but the time is right and she retires a sound horse, which was very important to John.
“More Joyous is special to John because not only did he breed her to win eight Group 1 races and 20 stakes races, which is phenomenal, but he also raced her mother, Sunday Joy.
“We are taking the opportunity to go to Frankel because John wants to bred to the best.”
More Joyous debuted as a two-year-old in 2009 and won the Group 2 Reisling Stakes before finishing a disappointing fifteenth in the Golden Slipper.
She returned to the track as a three-year-old and won four out of five starts including her maiden Group 1 in the Flight Stakes and was set for a Cox Plate campaign in her four-year-old season.
More Joyous picked up Group 1 victories in the George Main Stakes and Toorak Handicap but faded to finish fifth behind So You Think in the 2010 Cox Plate.
After a spell she returned for the Sydney Autumn Festival and returned to her winning ways with victories in the Group 1 Futurity Stakes and Queen of the Turf Stakes.
She finished a disappointing eleventh in the 2011 Doncaster Handicap that started a brief form slump but was back to her best during the Autumn of 2012 when she took out the Group 1 trifecta of the Queen of the Turf, Doncaster Handicap and Queen Elizabeth Stakes.
Controversy began to overshadow her racing exploits late last year when Waterhouse inexplicably selected an outside barrier for the 2012 Cox Plate that led to More Joyous finishing eleventh in the race.
Singleton was clearly upset with the leading trainer and the tension between the pair exploded just before the running of the All Aged Stakes.
More Joyous is expected to visit Frankel in September.
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