Urban Fox a third Group 1 winner for Foxwedge

URBAN FOX (GB) - 2014 bay filly

Group 1-winning Australian sprinter Foxwedge (by Fastnet Rock) was a reverse-shuttle stallion to Whitsbury Manor Stud, in England, for four seasons, and although he has not yet set the world alight here, he has come up with three Group 1 winners from his global first crop.

​Foxplay has won at the top level over a mile in Australia, Volpe Veloce achieved the feat over six furlongs in New Zealand in January, and Urban Fox put up the performance of her life, so far, to take the Group 1 Juddmonte Pretty Polly Stakes at the Curragh on Sunday. The stallion is based at Newgate Stud in New South Wales, Australia.

Urban Fox was a talented two-year-old who was third in each of the Group 1 Fillies' Mile, Group 2 May Hill Stakes and Group 3 Prestige Stakes, but she was disappointing at three, was sold for 425,000gns at the Tattersalls December Mare Sale in Newmarket and left the James Tate yard to join William Haggas.

She won a mile handicap on the straight course at Ascot on her seasonal reappearance in May, finished fourth to Aljazzi in the Group 2 Duke of Cambridge Stakes over the same course and distance in June, and then sprang something of a surprise with her Irish success, beating Oaks heroine Forever Together by three and a quarter lengths on her first attempt at 10 furlongs.

​The now Timeform 118-rated bay holds entries in the Group 1 Tattersalls Falmouth Stakes, Group 2 Kilboy Estate Stakes, Group 1 Qatar Nassau Stakes, and Group 1 Coolmore Fastnet Rock Matron Stakes, and it will be interesting to see how much more improvement there is to come from her, if any.

Urban Fox was bred by Mascalls Stud, who sold her for 10,000gns from Book 2 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale. A half-sister to the blacktype-placed chaser Hollow Penny (by Beat Hollow), and to several flat winners, she is a daughter of the winning Nashwan (by Blushing Groom) mare Lomapamar and is not the first member of family to surprise at the Curragh.

The best of her dam's eight winning siblings was Mons (by Deploy), the impressive Group 2 Royal Lodge Stakes winner who went on to be placed in the Group 1 Racing Post Trophy, Group 1 Gran Premio del Jockey Club, Group 2 Great Voltigeur Stakes and Group 2 Yorkshire Cup, but they also include Inforapenny (by Deploy) who finished third, at 100/1, to Petruskha in the Group 1 Irish Oaks.

Their dam, Morina (by Lyphard), won once in France as a three-year-old and was a half-sister to 10 winners out of Arewehavingfunyet (by Sham), who got the best of her blacktype wins in the Grade 1 Oak Leaf Stakes, Grade 2 Del Mar Debutante Stakes and Grade 3 Landaluce Stakes, all as a two-year-old.

That star is the dam of listed scorer Have Fun (by Topsider) and ancestor of a host of blacktype-placed horses, and this daughter of listed race winner Just Jazz (by Exclusive Native) is a half-sister to a stakes-winning filly called Northern Jazz (by Northern Jove) and from a branch of an Argentine family.

Urban Fox is a much improved filly this year and it will be interesting to see what other value-enhancers she can add to her record before going to stud.