Photo:

Alex Evers / Eclipse Sportswire & Government of Canada – composite

There should be no doubt the classy Canada mare Moira will be named champion turf female of 2024 in 2 1/2 weeks. It’s an honor well deserved for the bay daughter of Ghostzapper.

A star since first stepping on the track, she all but wrapped up her first Eclipse Award with a popular victory in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf at Del Mar.

Purchased at auction as a broodmare prospect for $4.3 million just a few days after her most important career victory to date, it was presumed her racing days were over. Sold to an Australia outfit, however, the racing career of Moira may not have come to a close just yet.

Flashback: Moira makes Breeders’ Cup her 1st Grade 1 win.

The breeding season down under does not begin until September. Now owned by Yulong Stud, the door for her to come back and race in 2025 is still very much open. While we wait to see if the champion comes back for one more season, let’s get to know her a little better.

Here are ten things to know about the wonderful race mare Moira.

1. She was named after a television character. Canada-born actress Catherine O’Hara won an Emmy Award for her portrayal of Moira Rose, the unforgettable leading lady of the popular Canada sitcom “Schitt’s Creek.”

2. Trained by one of Canada’s best, Moira skipped her conditions and made her career debut for Kevin Attard in the Princess Elizabeth Stakes in October of her juvenile season. She won easily by 4 1/4 lengths.

3. When she beat the boys in the 2022 edition of the historic Queen’s Plate, she broke the Woodbine track record. In fact, her winning time of 2:01.48 is the fastest ever at the traditional 1 1/4-mile distance of Canada’s Kentucky Derby on any surface.

4. In the race before her Queen’s Plate victory, Moira displayed why she can be such a handful to train. The filly was so rambunctious in the paddock before the Woodbine Oaks she lost one hind shoe and bent the other. Racing with no hind shoes in the prestigious test for 3-year-old fillies, she won by 10 3/4 lengths.

5. With her recent victory over an international field in the Filly & Mare Turf, the Canada-bred Moira joined her sire Ghostzapper, her paternal grandsire Awesome Again and her broodmare sire Unbridled’s Song as a winner at the Breeders’ Cup. She also joined Dance Smartly and Awesome Again as the only horses ever to win both the Queen’s Plate and a Breeders’ Cup race.

6. Despite a strong dirt influence in her bloodlines led by two winners of the Breeders’ Cup Classic and a winner of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, Moira never once has run a race on the dirt.

7. Offered at public auction after a strong third to a pair of Europe champions in the 2023 edition of the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf, the record states she was sold to DM Racing Ventures for $3 million. She didn’t actually change hands, however. Not willing to part with their star, her ownership group of Madaket Stables, SF Racing and X-Men Racing bought her back. The DM stood for Del Mar and was a symbol for where she would be headed the following year.

8. Her heroic victory in the 2024 Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf will assuredly push her over the top in the voting for Canada’s biggest yearly honor. When that happens, Moira will become the first female horse ever to win the Canada horse-of-the-year title twice. She also won the award in 2022.

9. Class through and through, Moira never has run in anything but a stakes in her first 17 career races. Of her five races in the United States, three came in the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf at Keeneland, Santa Anita and Del Mar.

10. Before beginning her new career as a broodmare next northern fall, there is good reason to believe she will come back and race as a 6-year-old. If she does return, it would happen in one or more of three countries, the U.S., Canada or Australia. In other words, better stay tuned for more Moira.