show me:

1000 Guineas heroine Mawj retired to stud

3 minute read

Last year’s 1000 Guineas victor Mawj has been retired from racing.

MAWJ (blue cap) winning the 1000 Guineas Stakes at Newmarket in Newmarket, England. Picture: Alan Crowhurst/Getty Images

The daughter of Exceed and Excel provided his trainer Saeed Bin Suroor with a thirteenth British Classic winner when showing plenty of guts and determination to fend off the Aga Khan-owned Tahiyrah by half a length on Newmarket's Rowley Mile.

A setback prevented Mawj from returning to the track until October of that year when she would go on to claim the Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Stakes at Keeneland. A follow-up American success wasn't to be, but Mawj lost little in defeat when denied a nose by fellow Godolphin contender Master Of The Seas in the Breeders' Cup Mile.

The Saeed Bin Suroor-trained runner disappointed when last of nine on her sole outing as a four-year-old in the Grade 1 Jebel Hatta at Meydan last month and has subsequently been retired to stand at stud.

Mawj retired a six-time winner from eleven starts on the racecourse and amassed over £1 million in prize money.

Bin Suroor said on www.godolphin.com: "Mawj is a very special filly, who showed her brilliance throughout her racing career. It was a fantastic day when she won the 1000 Guineas, and I was especially pleased that it was her who provided me with my 500th Group race victory out in Keeneland.

"She proved herself against the best horses across the world, winning in Dubai, the UK and the United States as well as finishing second in a Breeders' Cup Mile. Everyone at Al Quoz and Godolphin Stables is going to miss her but we look forward to the next stage of her life as a broodmare."