It was supposed to be a mating made in horse heaven, but the resulting foal Taqneen has made a lacklustre debut at Pakenham.
The three-year-old by Lonhro from three-time Melbourne Cup winner Makybe Diva, finished eighth in a 1380m Maiden race at Pakenham on Tuesday as a well-tried $3.70 favourite.
A $360,000 yearling purchase, Taqneen is trained by David Hayes and raced by Shadwell Stud Australasia which raced former Melbourne Cup winners At Talaq and Jeune.
Ridden by Michael Walker, Taqneen settled midfield early before creeping forward on the fence to be just behind the leaders turning for home.
After being held up in the early part of the straight, Taqneen was outsprinted, finishing 6.4 lengths from the winner Parkinson.
Lonhro was named Australian Horse of the Year for 2003-2004 and Makybe Diva was awarded the title in 2004-2005 and 2005-2006.
Taqneen, intriguingly, despite the bluest of blue blood is a gelding.
(with AAP)
craig crombie
Roar Rookie
Hopefully something good comes out of it in the next race, it is still early days and has it's whole racing career ahead of it, It would of been nice to see it win it's 1st race though, i am sure David Hayes will pull something out of the hat and hopefully get some good results in the future, Happy punting my fellow punters and good luck.
michael steel
Guest
It's a sad fact but champion mares rarely breed good racehorses. However the positive side is that the bloodlines will be strong and later generations of the Makybe Diva clan will be very valuable. I think Maykbe Diva like Black Caviar both have mothers which were unraced mares. Ethereal also didn't produce much but her mother was a good racehorse Romanee Conti, so it can happen occasionally.