Firstly, for those of you who had access to the live coverage of the Melbourne Cup yet didn't get up to watch, shame on you!
Makybe Diva has not only become the first horse to win THREE Melbourne Cups, she was the first mare to win two, won the Cox Plate at her previous start, carried 58kgs and number one sadde cloth which has won in about 50 years and still did it comfortably. Plus has picked up other major WFA races along the way.
One word - FREAK.
Her retirement was announced after the race and she goes to stud with AUD$14m+ in her glory chest. The boys should just get on their knees and beg.
Truly amazing that her dam was bought in foal with her and the owner tried to sell her at a UK weanling sale. Failed to reach reserve so both horses popped on a plane and came to Australia. Luckily the owner is a good man with sufficient resources to look after his brood. This horse was given a chance and the rest is history.
Best Melbourne Cup that I have ever seen!!!!
Makybe Diva has just rewritten the history books
Moderators: Roguelet, hpkingjr, WaveMaster
Darn, drats, blast it all. Not that the Diva won, but that i missed the race. I got home in time to watch the last race. I think it was the Chubb Cup? I see Glenn Boss booted home the winner in that race too. Got to be hard to get right back in the saddle after such a huge win.
Big Congrats to Makybe Diva. Where oh where could I find a video replay of the race?
Shergar
Big Congrats to Makybe Diva. Where oh where could I find a video replay of the race?
Shergar
What a win and what a build up...............trainer said journalists spent the week hiding in bushes surrounding his training farm, her breaker declared she had the heart of Ned Kelly and lungs like 44 gallon drums and admitted to crying when she won the Cox Plate.
Her name was written in the sky over the course and commentators declared after the race that she has gone beyond 'champion' status to 'legend' and 'icon' of Aust racing. When asked if she is as good as Phar Lap, trainer Lee Freedman said, 'With all due respect to Phar Lap, he didn't win 3 Melbourne Cups' and to an earlier question, 'Is there anything she cannot do?' Freedman admitted there was, '....be Prime Miniser'.
What a horse!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Daraabah
Her name was written in the sky over the course and commentators declared after the race that she has gone beyond 'champion' status to 'legend' and 'icon' of Aust racing. When asked if she is as good as Phar Lap, trainer Lee Freedman said, 'With all due respect to Phar Lap, he didn't win 3 Melbourne Cups' and to an earlier question, 'Is there anything she cannot do?' Freedman admitted there was, '....be Prime Miniser'.
What a horse!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Daraabah
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nferro9925
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I cannot comprehend that now there's a mare Australians are saying puts Sunline in the shade (not that I disagree with them!).
I just don't understand how you can have a mare like Sunline and then top her that quickly...
Why can't Europe top Miesque or America top...uh...um, wait a minute it'll come to me...
-llbean
I just don't understand how you can have a mare like Sunline and then top her that quickly...
Why can't Europe top Miesque or America top...uh...um, wait a minute it'll come to me...
-llbean
What a wonderful mare. Those Down Under have been blessed with two mares that truly deserve the adjective GREAT in the last several years. Ah, dream matches that will never be...Makybe Diva vs. Shuvee (two-time JC Gold Cup winner when the race was at 2 miles) over 2 miles.
"A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher...You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse." C. S. Lewis
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erins isle
- Grade III Winner
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For those who are interested: picked up a nice story the Diva:
Science and good fortune led to breeding Diva
by Rachel Pagones
NO matter what your pedigree theories, breeding horses involves a roll of the dice every time. Makybe Diva’s origin is a prime example of the whims of fortune that run through thoroughbred families.
The seven-year-old, who galloped into racing history with a third victory in Tuesday’s Melbourne Cup, is not the product of a carefully cultivated family or of a mating between two top-class animals. She was neither expensively bred nor expensively purchased, and there was a distinct commercial side to her creation. Nonetheless, there are enough distinguished names, both human and horse, in her background to justify a plethora of explanations as to why she became the racehorse she is.
Let’s begin, somewhat arbitrarily, with Makybe Diva’s fourth dam, NobleFancy. She was bred in California by Desi Arnaz of I Love Lucy fame. Although well related – her dam Amerigo’s Fancy was a prolific winner of Graded stakes races in California, and her half-sister Trillionaire won the Princess Royal Stakes, while anotherhalf-sister, Amata, produced Diomed Stakes winner Bluegrass Prince – she was a disappointment on the racecourse, winning just one of nine starts. However, she went on to produce eight winners, including Katsura, a daughter of Northern Dancer born in 1977.
Katsura was purchased by Robert Sangster’s agent Billy McDonald for $150,000 as a yearling in America. Khalid Abdullah’s Juddmonte Farms bought her from Sangster as a four-year-old in 1981, after she had won two races and twice been placed in Group 3sin Ireland. So far so good; the mare was in the hands of an astute breeder and went on to produce ten winners, the most successful of whom was Rambushka, Makybe Diva’s grand-dam. Racing for Khalid Abdullah, Rambushka, by Roberto, won three races, including the Listed Virginia Stakes.
But from there things went downhill. By December of 1997, Rambushka’s first five foals of racing age had resulted in one minor winner and an unplaced runner. The latter was Tugela, an American-bred daughter of Riverman, and she was sent through that year’s Tattersalls December Sales by Juddmonte – a cast-off, in plain language.
But one man’s pile of dirt is another one’s diamond mine. Eamonn Reilly, an agent for the Curragh Bloodstock Agency, had spent ten years as a pedigree researcher for Goffs, and had developed a strong appreciation for both Riverman and the Juddmonte operation. Given an order to buy a mare for trainer Jim Bolger’s accountant, Jim Connolly, that could be put in foal and resold the following year, Reilly landed on lot 2305 in the December catalogue. There was only one problem with the “mare”: she was still a two-year-old.
“I rang up Jim and told him I’d found a Riverman – but she’s only two,” recalls Reilly. “He said to go ahead and go for it.”
Buying in the name of the CBA, Reilly went the modest distance of 21,000gns for Tugela, more than 10,000gns below the sale’s average price.
She was sent to County Wexford and bred to Desert King. She was duly pronounced in foal and, carrying the unborn Makybe Diva, sent through the next round of Tattersalls December Sales from the Ballylinch Stud consignment. This time she caught the eye of agent John Foote, who paid 60,000gns for her – a fair return on investment.
“At the time, I thought it was a job well done,” says Reilly. “But little did I know what we were selling.”
Neither did anyone else. Makybe Diva was born at Britton House Stud, then owned by Dick Fowlston, and sent through the December Sales as a foal, but was returned to her vendor on a 19,000gns bid. Tugela had been exported to Australia after her foal was weaned, and Makybe Diva soon followed suit.
She has been retired to Roxby Estate Stud in Victoria, managed by Fowlston. Her mate has not yet been decided.
Science and good fortune led to breeding Diva
by Rachel Pagones
NO matter what your pedigree theories, breeding horses involves a roll of the dice every time. Makybe Diva’s origin is a prime example of the whims of fortune that run through thoroughbred families.
The seven-year-old, who galloped into racing history with a third victory in Tuesday’s Melbourne Cup, is not the product of a carefully cultivated family or of a mating between two top-class animals. She was neither expensively bred nor expensively purchased, and there was a distinct commercial side to her creation. Nonetheless, there are enough distinguished names, both human and horse, in her background to justify a plethora of explanations as to why she became the racehorse she is.
Let’s begin, somewhat arbitrarily, with Makybe Diva’s fourth dam, NobleFancy. She was bred in California by Desi Arnaz of I Love Lucy fame. Although well related – her dam Amerigo’s Fancy was a prolific winner of Graded stakes races in California, and her half-sister Trillionaire won the Princess Royal Stakes, while anotherhalf-sister, Amata, produced Diomed Stakes winner Bluegrass Prince – she was a disappointment on the racecourse, winning just one of nine starts. However, she went on to produce eight winners, including Katsura, a daughter of Northern Dancer born in 1977.
Katsura was purchased by Robert Sangster’s agent Billy McDonald for $150,000 as a yearling in America. Khalid Abdullah’s Juddmonte Farms bought her from Sangster as a four-year-old in 1981, after she had won two races and twice been placed in Group 3sin Ireland. So far so good; the mare was in the hands of an astute breeder and went on to produce ten winners, the most successful of whom was Rambushka, Makybe Diva’s grand-dam. Racing for Khalid Abdullah, Rambushka, by Roberto, won three races, including the Listed Virginia Stakes.
But from there things went downhill. By December of 1997, Rambushka’s first five foals of racing age had resulted in one minor winner and an unplaced runner. The latter was Tugela, an American-bred daughter of Riverman, and she was sent through that year’s Tattersalls December Sales by Juddmonte – a cast-off, in plain language.
But one man’s pile of dirt is another one’s diamond mine. Eamonn Reilly, an agent for the Curragh Bloodstock Agency, had spent ten years as a pedigree researcher for Goffs, and had developed a strong appreciation for both Riverman and the Juddmonte operation. Given an order to buy a mare for trainer Jim Bolger’s accountant, Jim Connolly, that could be put in foal and resold the following year, Reilly landed on lot 2305 in the December catalogue. There was only one problem with the “mare”: she was still a two-year-old.
“I rang up Jim and told him I’d found a Riverman – but she’s only two,” recalls Reilly. “He said to go ahead and go for it.”
Buying in the name of the CBA, Reilly went the modest distance of 21,000gns for Tugela, more than 10,000gns below the sale’s average price.
She was sent to County Wexford and bred to Desert King. She was duly pronounced in foal and, carrying the unborn Makybe Diva, sent through the next round of Tattersalls December Sales from the Ballylinch Stud consignment. This time she caught the eye of agent John Foote, who paid 60,000gns for her – a fair return on investment.
“At the time, I thought it was a job well done,” says Reilly. “But little did I know what we were selling.”
Neither did anyone else. Makybe Diva was born at Britton House Stud, then owned by Dick Fowlston, and sent through the December Sales as a foal, but was returned to her vendor on a 19,000gns bid. Tugela had been exported to Australia after her foal was weaned, and Makybe Diva soon followed suit.
She has been retired to Roxby Estate Stud in Victoria, managed by Fowlston. Her mate has not yet been decided.
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louis finochio
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The similarity of line-breeding to Natalma the foundation and mother of the breed are found in both Makybe Diva and Divine Porportions.
Divine Proportions is line-bred 4 SS X 3 DS to ND with Natalma being the dam of ND.
Makybe Diva is line-bred 4 SS X 4 SS X 4 DS to ND.
Makybe Diva is line-bred 5 SS X 5 SS X 5 X SS X 5 DS to Natalma
Skimming 1st foals will be 2yr. old in 06. Skimming is line-bred along the same breeding patterns as Divine Porportions and Makybe Diva.
Skimming is line-bred to Northern Dancer 2 SS X 3 DS to ND.
Skimming is line-bred to Natalma the dam of ND 3 SS X 4 DS.
Skimming is line-bred to Alamahmoud the dam of Natalma 4 SS X 5 DS.
Skimming foals will be worth the wait as this is a case of family over the individual. If Skimming goes on to greater heights in the breeding pen, his fillies ought to be golden in the breeding shed.
Divine Proportions is line-bred 4 SS X 3 DS to ND with Natalma being the dam of ND.
Makybe Diva is line-bred 4 SS X 4 SS X 4 DS to ND.
Makybe Diva is line-bred 5 SS X 5 SS X 5 X SS X 5 DS to Natalma
Skimming 1st foals will be 2yr. old in 06. Skimming is line-bred along the same breeding patterns as Divine Porportions and Makybe Diva.
Skimming is line-bred to Northern Dancer 2 SS X 3 DS to ND.
Skimming is line-bred to Natalma the dam of ND 3 SS X 4 DS.
Skimming is line-bred to Alamahmoud the dam of Natalma 4 SS X 5 DS.
Skimming foals will be worth the wait as this is a case of family over the individual. If Skimming goes on to greater heights in the breeding pen, his fillies ought to be golden in the breeding shed.
Those without sin cast the first stone.
Louis Finochio
Louis Finochio
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George William Smith
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Makybe Diva
Yikes, I hate articles like that. Researched like a reporter who get the names and prices right but miss the entire point of how Makybe Diva came into being. And some how 21000 Guineas is inexpensive. I guess they'll make a movie showing she was bought by a little girl from the money in her piggy bank, got sick, almost died, but with her purse money enabled Aids to be cured in Africa.
The mare told her story on the track. She's simply terrific.
The mare told her story on the track. She's simply terrific.
Right On George!!
BTW< I really liked your PedigreePost article on Makybe Diva... The Damsire Sequence (Riverman over Roberto over Northern Dancer over Vaguely Noble over Amerigo over War Relic over Mahmoud over Teddy) on Makybe Diva is OUTSTANDING in the extreme and you seem to be the only person to have noticed this simple fact openly discussing it.
But the question to me is: "How many people except you and me are actually smart enough to know how good Amerigo was as a sire?"
Anyway, that's where your GRASP Score comes in, I suppose your answer will be, but I wonder how many readers of your article will be smart enough to comprehend the implication (namely that you should check the GRASP scores on the sequence of damsires on a mare's damline).
One more question; why did you once say Makybe Diva's GSV is especially good "For A Filly"? I never noticed before a reason why female horses should get lower scores on average...
-llbean
BTW< I really liked your PedigreePost article on Makybe Diva... The Damsire Sequence (Riverman over Roberto over Northern Dancer over Vaguely Noble over Amerigo over War Relic over Mahmoud over Teddy) on Makybe Diva is OUTSTANDING in the extreme and you seem to be the only person to have noticed this simple fact openly discussing it.
But the question to me is: "How many people except you and me are actually smart enough to know how good Amerigo was as a sire?"
Anyway, that's where your GRASP Score comes in, I suppose your answer will be, but I wonder how many readers of your article will be smart enough to comprehend the implication (namely that you should check the GRASP scores on the sequence of damsires on a mare's damline).
One more question; why did you once say Makybe Diva's GSV is especially good "For A Filly"? I never noticed before a reason why female horses should get lower scores on average...
-llbean