Park Express (25 March 1983 – 2006) was an Irish Thoroughbred racehorse and broodmare. She showed promise as a two-year-old in 1985, before developing into a top-class middle-distance performer in the following season. Racing against horses of her own age and sex she won the Lancashire Oaks and Nassau Stakes before recording her biggest success against colts and older horses in the Phoenix Champion Stakes. She retired from racing with a record of five wins and five places from fourteen races. She later became an extremely successful broodmare, producing several good winners. Most importantly, she was the dam of The Derby winner New Approach, a colt foaled at a time when Park Express was completely blind. She died in 2006 at the age of 23.

Background

Park Express was a "big, rangy",^[3] dark brown mare bred in Ireland by Peter Clarke. She was sired by Ahonoora, whose other offspring included The Derby winner Dr Devious. Ahonoora was a representative of the Byerley Turk sire line,^[4] unlike more than 95% of modern thoroughbreds, who descend directly from the Darley Arabian.^[5] Park Express's dam Matcher was bred in Canada by E. P. Taylor and produced several other winners including Myra's Best (Firth of Clyde Stakes) and the successful hurdler Wing and a Prayer.^[3]

The filly was sent to the sales as a foal and sold for 17,000 Irish guineas. In the following year she was sold again for 42,000 guineas,^[3] this time to John Warren, acting on behalf of the father and son team of Paddy and Seamus Burns of the Lodge Park Stud.^[6][7] She was sent into training with Jim Bolger at Coolcullen in County Carlow. Park Express usually raced in a sheepskin noseband.

Racing career

Assessment

In 1985, the independent Timeform organisation gave Park Express a rating of 111, thirteen pounds below the top-rated two-year-old filly Femme Elite. In the official International Classification for two-year-olds, she was given a rating of 72, eight pounds behind the top-rated filly Baiser Vole.^[3] In the following year she was given a rating of 123 by both Timeform and the International Classification. She was the highest-rated three-year-old of either sex trained in Ireland and the highest-rated filly of her generation in Europe over ten furlongs.^[8]

Stud record

Park Express was retired from racing to become a broodmare at her owner's Lodge Park Stud in County Kilkenny.^[7] She proved to be very successful, producing at least eleven foals and being the ancestor of many good winners:

• Lady Express (chestnut filly, foaled 1990, sired by Soviet Star)
• Park Heiress (bay filly, foaled 1991, sired by Sadler's Wells)
• Shinko Forest (brown colt, foaled 1993, sired by Green Desert), won Grade I Takamatsunomiya Kinen^[11]
• Green Seraphim (chestnut filly, foaled 1995, sired by Caerleon)
• Dazzling Park (brown filly, foaled 1996, sired by Warning), won three races including the Matron Stakes.^[12]
• Innocent Affair (filly, foaled 1997, sired by Night Shift)
• Alluring Park (brown filly, foaled 1999, sired by Green Desert), won one race,^[13] dam of The Oaks winner Was, and the filly Al Naamah who was sold for 5m guineas as a yearling in 2013.
• Tycoon King (brown colt, foaled 2000, sired by Last Tycoon), won two races^[14]
• Thunder Rock (bay colt, foaled 2002, sired by King's Best), won five races^[15]
• Sir Arthur (colt, foaled 2003, sired by Desert Prince), won two races^[16]
• New Approach (chestnut colt, foaled 2005, sired by Galileo), Park Express's last foal,^[17] won eight races including the National Stakes, Dewhurst Stakes, Epsom Derby, Irish Champion Stakes, Champion Stakes.

Her later achievements as a broodmare were more remarkable as she began to lose her sight at the age of sixteen. Her last foal, New Approach, wore a bell to enable his mother to find him at the farm where he was raised. Towards the end of her life her companion was one of the farm's bullocks, to which she had become strongly attached.^[6] Park Express died in 2006 at the age of twenty-three.^[18]

Pedigree

References