Moira retired from racing, will be bred in Australia

Moira, the Eclipse Award winner as champion turf female of 2024, has been retired.

Australian trainer Chris Waller announced the decision Wednesday morning. Moira was under consideration for Friday’s Group 1 Caulfield Cup at Caulfield Racecourse in recent days.

“We simply feel she is not racing at her absolute best right now and with her extraordinary resume, she will be an outstanding broodmare, a real asset to the Australian breeding industry,” Waller said in a social media statement.

A 6-year-old Ontario-bred mare by Ghostzapper, Moira won 7 of 22 starts and earned $3,058,077. Trained in North America by Kevin Attard, Moira won the Woodbine Oaks in July 2022 and beat males a month later in the Queen’s Plate Stakes at Woodbine.

Moira clinched her 2024 championship with a win in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Del Mar last November, the highlight of a season that included a win in the Grade 2 Beverly D. Stakes at Colonial Downs. At the time, she raced for Madaket Stables, SF Racing, and X-Men Racing.

In the retirement statement, Waller said Moira “hasn’t quite reached those same heights here in Australia.”

In the days after the BC Filly and Mare Turf, Moira was sold for $4.3 million at the Fasig-Tipton November sale to Zhang Yueshang. Transferred to Waller in Australia, Moira was winless in five starts from early April to early October, including a second by a neck in an allowance race at 7 1/2 furlongs at Moonee Valley Racecourse in Melbourne on Sept. 6.

More recently, Moira was beaten by Sir Delius in two Group 1 races – a fourth-place finish by four lengths in the Underwood Stakes at Caulfield on Sept. 20 and a 10th-place finish by five lengths in a field of 14 in the Turnbull Stakes at Flemington on Oct. 4.

Sir Delius is the future-book favorite for the Group 1 Melbourne Cup at Flemington Racecourse on Nov. 4.

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