DENISE’S JOY AND EYE SHADOW BOTH WON A QUEENSLAND OAKS – AND REMARKABLY BOTH GAVE BIRTH TO A FILLY FOAL THAT WOULD ALSO WIN A QUEENSLAND OAKS

02/06/16

The Group 1 Queensland Oaks is the feature race at Eagle Farm on Saturday. First run in 1951 when Maltmaid won the race from Clarrie’s Choice and Princess Jill, the 2016 Queensland Oaks has attracted a capacity field of 18 starters with four emergencies, drawn from Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and New Zealand.

Not many people would realize that the Queensland Oaks has been remarkable in its ability to have two winning fillies that would each produce a daughter that would also win the race. The four females in question are Eye Shadow and her daughter Meanmi Shadow and Denise’s Joy and her daughter Joie Denise. For her part Eye Shadow won the Queensland Oaks in 1964, prior to her daughter Meanmi Shadow saluting in 1972. Denise’s Joy won in 1976 and her daughter Joie Denise got home first in 1995.

Each of the aforesaid four females had an interesting life journey. Eye Shadow and her daughter Meanmi Shadow were both bred by brothers Ted and Percy Kruger at Lyndhurst Stud at Warwick. The Kruger family still own and operate the stud to this day.

Eye Shadow was a daughter of resident Lyndhurst stallion Smokey Eyes out of the Australian born mare Solvieg, a granddaughter of the champion racehorse and stallion that won the 1926 Cox Plate – Heroic.

Eye Shadow had an illustrious racing career as apart from the Queensland Oaks she won 18 other races for trainer Jack Wilson. A year before her Queensland Oaks victory, in her 2YO year, she won the McDougall Stakes. And 11 of her 19 career wins were in Open company races.

Upon her retirement to stud Eye Shadow produced two talented black type performers – firstly Meanmi Shadow which won the Queensland Oaks and her two year younger full brother – Ima Shadow. In terms of the racetrack feats of the two siblings, it was chalk and cheese, as Ima Shadow clearly had the wood on Meanmi Shadow as he won 31 races from 110 starts at distances from 1010 metres to 2200 metres and included in his 31 victories were 26 Open company wins in South-East Queensland.

So Eye Shadow and Meanmi Shadow may well have had their unique mother/daughter Queensland Oaks victories to themselves to this day had it not been for trainer Tommy Smith bringing his 3YO filly Denise’s Joy to Brisbane for the 1976 Brisbane Winter Carnival. Denise’s Joy was by the imported French stallion, Seventh Hussar, out of the aptly named mare Fun For All. In her racetrack career, Fun For All won the 1963 Adrian Knox Stakes over 1600 metres, a distance it was run over between 1960 and 1972, before it went to 2000 metres in 1973.

The Adrian Knox honour roll didn’t contain many stars in the 15 runnings of the race before Fun For All saluted, except for 1959 runner-up Wiggle, which had won the Stradbroke Handicap as a 2YO in 1958. Wiggle ran second in the Adrian Knox conceding two stone or about 12.75kgs to the winner Morning Gleam. But in the 15 years after Fun For All saluted, fillies of the ilk of Light Fingers (Melbourne Cup, AJC Oaks and VRC Oaks), Lowland (AJC Oaks, Underwood Stakes, Queen Elizabeth Stakes and Sydney Cup) and Leilani (Caulfield Cup, Australian Cup, Toorak Handicap, Mackinnon Stakes, Orr Stakes, AJC Oaks) all won the Adrian Knox Stakes to give the race a much needed boost in stature.

Anyway back to the score at the Test and Denise’s Joy, ridden by a young chap named Mick Dittman, won her Queensland Oaks by half a furlong and beat Calera and Visit.

Denise’s Joy won 13 races of her 50 starts and won A$301,230 in prizemoney, so she was no one-hit wonder. She also ran second to her stablemate Toy Show in a Golden Slipper, won a VRC Oaks, a WATC Derby against the colts and an Underwood Stakes and Turnbull Stakes against all-comers. As a matter of interest, after she won the Queensland Oaks at Eagle Farm, she then ran second to Cheyne Walk in the Queensland Derby. And to give you an idea of the class of Denise’s Joy, when she won the Turnbull Stakes at Flemington in 1976, the horse that finished second was the 1976 Brisbane Cup winner Balmerino. In later life Balmerino went on to win at Hollywood Park in America, Goodwood in England, then ran second to the champion, Alleged, in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. Upon his retirement, Balmerino eventually returned to New Zealand and stood successfully at stud.

Many great fillies and mares fail to produce at stud upon retirement. Denise’s Joy was no star in the breeding barn having 10 foals and six of the 10 raced and of the six that raced, only three won a race. And two of the three winners only won one race, so Joie Denise was far and away her best performed racetrack progeny. Apart from her win in the Queensland Oaks, Joie Denise’s only other black type win came in the Listed Toy Show Quality at Randwick over 1400 metres as a 3YO, en route to the Queensland Oaks.

When Denise’s Joy’s daughter and fellow Queensland Oaks winner, Joie Denise, won her Queensland Oaks some 19 years after her mother, she beat Circles of Gold and Kin Narita. In later life Circles of Gold would become the dam of five-time Group 1 winner Elvstroem and three-time Group 1 winner Haradasun.

I wonder how many people watching the Queensland Oaks on that June day in 1995 would have imagined when the quinella pair of Joie Denise and Circles of Gold hit the line that they would go on to produce four individual Group 1 winners of cumulatively 13 Group 1 races.

For her part 1995 Queensland Oaks winner Joie Denise produced two individual Group 1 winners – Tuesday Joy and Sunday Joy. Tuesday Joy won four Group 1 winners – Coolmore Classic, Ranvet Stakes, The BMW and the Chipping Norton Stakes, whilst Sunday Joy won the Group 1 AJC Australian Oaks.

But the daughters and granddaughters of matriarch Denise’s Joy have produced a plethora of black type progeny and to that end, the following list represents just some of the black type winners that are descendants of hers:-

 Joie Denise

Joie

Sunday Joy

More Joyous

Tuesday Joy

Joy And Fun

Miss Minden

Miss Danehill

Pentastic

Euphoria

Fleet

Christmas Tree

Jewel In The Crown

So Gorgeous

All In Fun

Forehand

Stand And Cheer

Kenconcarne

Miss Wutika

Light Up The World

Doctor’s Orders

Thorn Park

Conspectus

Jolly

Master Jolly

Eastern Star

Record Dash

Jewel Of Night

Sandridge Bay

Joie De Grise

Arlington Road

Ready To Rip

Fenway

Judging by all those aforesaid quality gallopers on that long list, I figure there are a whole heap of other people who enjoy hearing the name Denise’s Joy.

Denise’s Joy was 28 years old when she departed this life on 10 November 2000.

Joie Denise was only a relatively young mare aged just 18 when she crossed over on 2/9/09.

Eye Shadow lived to be 29 years old, passing away on 20/7/1990 and her daughter Meanmi Shadow was 26YO when she died on 28/7/1995.

I wonder will Saturday’s Queensland Oaks winner one day produce a daughter that is capable of winning the race whilst her mother is still alive.

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