Forever Together, a daughter of Green Room, winning the 2018 Epsom Oaks© Photo Healy Racing
Leopardstown Racecourse are delighted to announce that one of the feature races in their flat programme is to be sponsored by Gillian & Vimal Khosla in honour of their outstanding broodmare Green Room.
The feature race, which will take place Saturday 11th July at Leopardstown will from today be known as The Green Room Meld Stakes.
The Group 3 Meld Stakes has been run at Leopardstown since 2003 and is firmly established as one of the summer highlights at the racecourse. Entries for the 2020 renewal of the Green Room Stakes were released today and there are some notable names amongst them.
Aidan O'Brien landed the first running of the race at Leopardstown with the Michael Kinane-ridden Mingun and he took the honours again when Johnny Murtagh partnered King Of Rome to success in 2008. However, Ireland’s perennial champion trainer didn’t win the race again until last year when Donnacha O'Brien guided Mohawk to a two-length success over the Willie McCreery-trained Up Helly Aa.
Jim Bolger is the trainer with the best recent record in the race. He has won the Meld Stakes at Leopardstown on five occasions, sharing each win with Kevin Manning. Turret Rocks won the 2018 renewal at odds of 14/1, easily the longest priced winner of the race since 2000.
Dermot Weld has won the race four times in the past ten years. Famous Name was something of a course specialist at Leopardstown, winning 13 races at the Dublin track, and he took the Meld Stakes in three consecutive years from 2010 to 2012 with Pat Smullen in the saddle. Smullen was also onboard when Carla Bianca won for the Curragh trainer in 2015.
Latino Magic, Fracas and She’s Our Mark were Meld Stakes winners at Leopardstown for trainers Robbie Osborne, David Wachman and Pat Flynn respectively while Roger Charlton sent over Decorated Knight from his Wiltshire base to win in 2016, a year before the son of Galileo returned to win the Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown, his third and final Group 1 victory.
Green Room, an unraced daughter of Breeders Cup Turf winner, Theatrical, was bought by the Khosla’s through Templeton Railton Farms for $240,000 at the 2006 Keeneland January Sale and has since gone on to be one of the leading broodmares in the world.
Her offspring include Classic winner Forever Together (Ire) and fellow Group 1 winners Together Forever (Ire)-also by Galileo-and Lord Shanakill (Speightstown).
Her progeny consistently lead in the sales ring with a sister to Investec Oaks winner Forever Together claiming the accolade of being the highest-priced yearling in the world in 2018, and she also holds the record price for a yearling filly at Goffs after selling for €3.2 million. Her full sister, recently named Espania by new owners Coolmore, was also top lot at the 2019 Goffs Orby Sale at €3m.
Green Room is based at Ballylinch Stud in Kilkenny and Managing Director, John O’Connor, said; “Green Room is one of those rare broodmares who can breed outstanding racehorses, in her case three Group 1 winners and also exceptional sales horses.
"She has bred the highest priced yearling filly in Europe for the last two years. I have never seen a broodmare who can produce such beautiful equine athletes with the consistency that Green Room does. Her yearling filly by Sea The Stars is a real stunner.
"I am very grateful to the Khoslas for basing Green Room at Ballylinch and I feel confident that Green Room and her daughters will have a big influence on the breed for many years to come.”
Tim Husbands MBE, Leopardstown CEO, said; “The Meld Stakes has an illustrious history and we are honoured to have it named the Green Room Meld Stakes after this outstanding mare.
"We are very grateful to Gillian & Vimal Khosla for their support and look forward to celebrating Green Room’s success through this race”.
