Endless Time bred for Group 1 potential

ENDLESS TIME (IRE) - 2012 bay filly

Hawkbill was not the only major winner this weekend who got their start on the all-weather tracks. Like Saturday's Group 1 Coral-Eclipse hero, and last year's classic stars Jack Hobbs and Covert Love, the Charlie Appleby-trained Endless Time got her maiden success on an artificial surface.

Fifth of 12 in a seven furlong maiden at Newmarket in early August of her two-year-old season, her only other start that year came 18 days later, a neck win over a mile on the polytrack at Kempton. Since then she has run six times, winning five, and she has made the progression through handicap ranks to become a potential Group 1 contender.

Next month's Group 1 Yorkshire Oaks may be on the agenda for Godolphin's four-year-old following her half-length success in the Group 2 bet365 Lancashire Oaks over 12 furlongs on soft ground at Haydock on Saturday. This was her seasonal debut and she rounded off 2015 with an easy listed race success over the same trip at Naas.

Endless Time was bred by Mabaki Investments, and having initially made 115,000gns in Newmarket as a foal, she returned to that venue the following autumn where John Ferguson Bloodstock bought her for 180,000gns. Last year her full-sister made 240,000gns at the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale, a price that could have been even higher had the auction been a fortnight later.

Now named The Sky Is Blazing, the filly was bought on 7th October, by Mayfair Speculators / Peter & Ross Doyle Bloodstock, which was four days after Endless Time won a 12-furlong handicap at Newmarket, a performance for which her handicap figure would increase to 98. Earlier in the year she had beaten subsequent classic star Simple Verse over the same trip at Goodwood. It was on 18th October, however, that Endless Time impressed in the Listed Es Que Love European Breeders Fund Bluebell Stakes over 12 furlongs at Naas.

Endless Time is one of the latest major winners for multiple classic hero and outstanding young Gilltown Stud stallion Sea The Stars (by Cape Cross) and she is her dam's first blacktype horse on the flat. Her half-brother Courage (by Invincible Spirit) is a blacktype-placed staying hurdler, and her half-brother Marhaba Malyoon (by Tiger Hill) won over 10 furlongs and 14 furlongs in England, finished last in Pour Moi's Derby at Epsom, and has won as an older horse abroad.

Mamonta (by Fantastic Light), who is the dam of Saturday's Group 2 scorer, has a yearling son of Shamardal (by Giant's Causeway) and a colt foal from the second crop of juvenile and classic star Dawn Approach (by New Approach), and she is on target to surpass her own dam's record at stud.

Mamoura (by Lomond), who won twice as a three-year-old, came up with eight winners from 16 foals and, like her daughter, she has a Group 2 winner to her name. Mouramara (by Kahyasi), who is a half-sister to a pair of blacktype-placed multiple winners, won the Group 2 Prix de Royallieu and is now a notably successful broodmare whose offspring include two Group 1 performers.

Mourayan (by Alhaarth) is the more notable of the pair as he won the Group 1 Sydney Cup at Randwick, was runner-up in the Group 1 Metropolitan Handicap at the same venue, in the Group 1 Mackinnon Stakes at Flemington and in the Group 1 Tancred Stakes at Rosehill, and he finished third behind Fame And Glory in the Group 1 Irish Derby.

Mourilyan (by Desert Prince) won the Listed March Stakes at Goodwood and his Group 1 placing came when finishing third to Shocking in the 2009 edition of the Melbourne Cup. He was also runner-up in the Group 2 Goodwood Cup and in the Group 3 Dubai City of Gold, third in the Group 3 Geoffrey Freer Stakes and also in the Group 3 September Stakes.

Their half-brother Mourad (by Sinndar) is also a blacktype winner, although his talents lie over obstacles. He was trained by Willie Mullins, won the Grade 2 Galmoy Hurdle at Gowran Park, the Grade 2 Christmas Hurdle at Leopardstown and the Grade 2 Boyne Hurdle at Navan, and his Grade 1 placings include three times behind Quevega in the Ladbrokes.com World Series Hurdle at the Punchestown Festival.

Mamonta and Mouramara are also half-sisters to a one-time scorer called Mouriyana (by Akarad), and what makes that one significant is that her string of successful progeny includes the 10 and a half furlong listed scorer Epatha (by Highest Honor) and also Skins Game (by Diktat). That triple blacktype winner took the Group 3 Prix Edmond Blanc at Saint-Cloud, he was pattern-placed several times from eight to 10 furlongs, and he took up stallion duties in France in 2012.

Mamouna (by Vaguely Noble), who is the third dam of Endless Time, earned her blacktype when runner-up in the Listed Atalanta Stakes at Sandown and third in the Group 2 Nassau Stakes at Goodwood, and in addition to Mamoura, her six winning progeny, from nine foals, include the Listed Challenge Stakes runner-up and Group 3 Meld Stakes third Mirana (by Ela-Mana-Mou). That filly became the dam of the Group 3 Prix de Flore scorer Miliana (by Polar Falcon).

Fourth dam Mabira (by Habitat) won a listed handicap at Saint-Cloud and was a half-sister to 1984's Group 1 Poule d'Essai des Pouliches (French 1000 Guineas) heroine Masarika (by Thatch). The next dam, Miss Melody (by Tudor Melody), was runner-up in the Group 3 Molecomb Stakes, and the notable horses who descend from the various branches extending from that mare include Group/Grade 1 stars Sulk (by Selkirk) and Dank (by Dansili) and the classic-placed Group 2 scorers Massyar (by Kahyasi) and Eagle Mountain (by Rock Of Gibraltar).

That latter group of horses are so remote to Endless Time as to be all but irrelevant beyond illustrating the broad influence that her family has had. But there is more than enough talent among her more immediate relations to show why her pedigree always gave her a chance of becoming a high-class racehorse.

It will be interesting to find out just how high in the rankings she can go by the time her racing career finally comes to an end, and as a Sea The Stars filly from this family there is every reason to hope that she can also become a notable success at stud.