The Jockey Club of Canada hosted the 48th Annual Sovereign Awards ceremony during the evening of April 13, when Moira was awarded the night’s most prestigious prize as Canada’s 2022 Horse of the Year.
In winning Horse of the Year, Moira received 103 votes, outpolling Lady Speightspeare (75) and Filo Di Arianna (24), both dual-category winners during the Sovereign Awards. She was also named champion Three-Year-Old Filly.
Moira, bred by Adena Springs, became the eighth filly to notch the Oaks-Plate double. She was sold on behalf of Adena by Hidden Brook Farm at the 2020 Keeneland September sale.
Last year during her 3-year-old season for owners X-Men Racing, Madaket Stables, and SF Racing, Moira scored three wins from five starts. The daughter of Ghostzapper kicked off her year with a victory in the Fury Stakes before dominating the Woodbine Oaks and easily handling males in the Queen’s Plate, a race sometimes referred to as Canada’s Kentucky Derby.
Her 1 1/4-mile time of 2:01.38 on Woodbine’s synthetic Tapeta surface established a track record and was the fastest in the 163-year history of the race, the first leg of the Canadian Triple Crown.
The race also gave Canadian-born bloodstock agent Donato Lanni a coveted victory as an owner. She was part of a group of horses he selected to race for the X-Men Racing partnership he heads in partnership with Madaket Stables and SF Racing.
“I’ve known Kevin (trainer Attard) for 20 years, and this has been a dream—a dream of his, mine—being two Canadian boys to win this race,” Lanni said on Queen’s Plate Day. “This is unbelievable. What a filly.”
-edited from www.bloodhorse.com
