Grade 3 winner Royal Mo to stand in South Africa

Royal Mo, a Grade 3 winner, will begin his stallion career at Klawervlei Stud in South Africa during the 2018 Southern Hemisphere breeding season.

The 4-year-old son of Uncle Mo has been residing in Europe during a quarantine period, and will go through a separate quarantine once he arrives in South Africa. The stallion is still being syndicated, and a fee had not yet been announced.

Royal Mo won 2 of 6 starts during an abbreviated career for earnings of $267,200. Trained by John Shirreffs for owners Jerry and Ann Moss, he won his third career start at Del Mar, his finale as a juvenile, after finishing second in his first two starts.

Royal Mo returned at 3 to win the Grade 3 Robert B. Lewis Stakes at Santa Anita. He then shipped to Oaklawn Park, where he finished out of the money in the Grade 2 Rebel Stakes before returning to Santa Anita to finish third in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby.

On the cusp to qualify for the Kentucky Derby by points, Royal Mo was entered for the race and shipped to Churchill Downs, but was scratched as an also-eligible.

He was then pointed for the Preakness Stakes, but his career came to an abrupt end six days before the race after fracturing his right front sesamoid while training at Pimlico Race Course. He underwent surgery at the University of Pennsylvania’s New Bolton Center, and was immediately retired.

Bred in Kentucky by Brandywine Farm, Royal Mo is out of the placed Saint Ballado mare Royal Irish Lass, whose three winners from five runners also include stakes winner Tara From the Cape.

He is from the extended family of Grade 2 winner Irish Linnet and Grade 2-placed Irish Art.

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