mare of the month
Dam of Feel Like Dancing
Maid Of Killeen (Darshaan) ex Sovereign Touch (Pennine Walk) ex Sovereign Dona (Sovereign Path)
T
o breed an industry important horse and dual Classic winner is a notable achievement, particularly when you have just a handful of mares, even if they are a particularly well chosen batch of
Feel Like Dancing: is the second Group race winner for Maid of Killeen. The Darshaan mare has now had five winners from seven runners, including the Group 1 winner Indian Ink
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ladies. The Pivotal filly Sariska, homebred by Lady Bamford, was a leading filly, a two-time Oaks winner who went on as a four-year-old to finish second in the Coronation Cup (G1). She produced a filly by Galileo last year and a filly by Oasis Dream, already named Snow Moon, this spring. It is obviously hugely difficult for any breeder without the recourse to progeny from a myriad of broodmares to follow up on such a scale, but Lady Bamford’s current threeyear-old Feel Like Dancing, while not yet in the class of the Oaks-winning filly, picked up his first Group 3 at the July meeting, the Bahrain Trophy. He looks likely to have further improvement in him and has a possible future tilt at a Classic himself, trainer John Gosden casting an eye on the St Leger at Doncaster in September after a possible run in the Great Voltigeur Stakes (G2). Targeting the longest Classic is a plan by Gosden that is firmly in keeping with the colt’s pedigree. Feel Like Dancing is out of the maidenwinning Darshaan mare Maid Of Killeen, who failed to win again but who always held an official rating in the high 90s. She achieved a noteworthy placing when second to Theatreworld in a soft ground Listed 1m4f Oyster Stakes, the Racing Post analysis reporting that Maid of Killeen was: “Held up in rear, headway 3f out, 5th 2f out, 3rd and ridden straight, 2nd 1f out, stayed on well under pressure, never nearer”.