Australian champion More Joyous booked to Frankel

Australian champion More Joyous has been retired and will ship to England to be bred to unbeaten champion Frankel on Southern Hemisphere time, her owner John Singleton has announced.

Two-time reigning European Horse of the Year Frankel is approaching the end of his first Northern Hemisphere breeding season at owner-breeder Juddmonte Farm's Banstead Manor Stud near Newmarket, England. The stellar first book for the 10-time Group 1 winner numbered approximately 130 mares, including many Grade/Group 1 winners or producers. Rather than shuttling, the 5-year-old Galileo horse will now be available to cover a limited number of Southern Hemisphere mares in England, with that season beginning Sept. 1.

More Joyous, Australia's champion older horse of 2012, was a group stakes winner every season she raced, capturing 21 of 33 starts—20 of those in stakes races—and earning $4,506,154. The New Zealand-bred daughter of More Than Ready won eight Group 1 races during her career.

More Joyous will be accompanied on the trip to England by Singleton's More Strawberries, who will also be covered by Frankel. That mare, another daughter of More Than Ready, was a multiple Group 2 winner and was Group 1-placed.

"The plan is then to bring More Joyous and More Strawberries home around January or February so they can have their foals at Strawberry Hills Stud later next year," Duncan Grimley, Singleton's racing manager, told The Australian. "It would be ideal if both mares can produce fillies by Frankel. More Joyous is special to John because not only did he breed her to win eight Group 1 races and 20 stakes races, which is phenomenal, but he also raced her mother, Sunday Joy."

Sunday Joy is a daughter of Sunday Silence. A half-sister to multiple Group 1 winner and $3 million earner Tuesday Joy, she captured the Australian Oaks for Singleton.