An admitted ‘fanboy’, Jay Hovdey speaks to Ed Dunlop and Frankie Dettori about the hugely popular globetrotting mare who won two races at the Breeders’ Cup – and probably should have won a third
Of course I was always going to fall for Ouija Board. I mean, come on, she was more than a racehorse. She was a force of nature, a moveable feast, a recurring dream pushing the limits of what a truly great Thoroughbred could accomplish.
Her gift of three North American runs in the Breeders’ Cup was merely the glitzy tip of her incomparable record. We Yanks walked along in her presence – at places like Lone Star and Belmont Park – aware of her freakish accomplishments while seduced by her queenly serenity, all class and no fuss.
When we said farewell in 2006 at Churchill Downs, and she replied with a victory of ridiculous ease, she closed the deal on our hearts forever.
After that, Ouija Board raced once more in the 2006 Japan Cup. It was her 22nd start, 10 of which took place outside her native England in places like Dubai and Hong Kong, in addition to Japan.
She tested high-class males in a dozen events, beginning with an unlucky run in the 2004 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. When she beat them, the racing angels sang. When she did not, those boys knew they'd been in a fight.
Ouija Board was bred and raced by Edward Richard William Stanley, the 19th Earl of Derby, and trained by Ed Dunlop, son of champion British trainer John Dunlop, whose 10 Classic victories in his native England included two in the Epsom Derby with Shirley Heights and Erhaab.
Eight different riders were attached to Ouija Board at one time or another, although Kieren Fallon and Frankie Dettori were her most frequent and successful companions.
It is presumptuous of an American writer to delve too deeply into a story that has been told so well by his international counterparts. Even Lord Derby himself got into the act with his fulsome biography, Ouija Board: A Mare in a Million, published in 2007.
Having witnessed her three domestic races allows a foot in the door, but for the rest of her career this writer had to be content as a fanboy from afar.
No context
To be honest, there really was no context for Ouija Board. American breeding and racing never has encouraged the existence of such creatures.
Then again, by the dawn of the 2000s, first-class turf racing in the US had been a thing only since the mid-20th century. North America did not even recognize a grass champion until 1953, when the Chilean horse Iceberg II was cited by Daily Racing Form on the strength of victories in the United Nations Handicap at Atlantic City and the Bougainvillea Turf Handicap at Hialeah Park, along with a second-place finish in the Washington DC International.
Round Table, a towering talent on grass or dirt, gave the reputation of turf racing a boost in the late 1950s. By 1967, Hollywood Park joined a list of 21 other North American racetracks with a turf course.
America’s dirt dominance persisted, though. Keeneland finally added a grass course in 1985, followed by its Kentucky neighbor, Churchill Downs, in 1987. To this day, Oaklawn Park is the only major track in North America without a grass course, but they seem to be doing just fine.
Drumtop, a daughter of Round Table, was North America’s first homegrown female turf star. Between 1969 and 1971, she ranged back and forth across the continent, facing males more often than not.
She beat the boys in three major stakes, including the Canadian International Championship and the Hialeah Turf Cup, and placed in five others. She might have been a national champion in 1971 were it not for a tendon injury that prematurely ended her best season.
European onslaught
Soon after, an onslaught of European mares followed – Dahlia, Waya, All Along, Estrapade – each bringing North American males to their knees. Pebbles and Miss Alleged won early versions of the Breeders’ Cup Turf, while All Along, Estrapade, Indian Skimmer and Sierra Roberta hit the board.
The Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf was created in 1999, although that did not stop mares like Enable, Found, Tarnawa, Magical, Teona, and The Fugue from rising up to trouble males in the BC Turf.
Predictably, the Filly & Mare Turf became the province of Europeans, but through its first 25 runnings, there has been only one horse to win the race twice: Ouija Board.
“Most importantly, to be able to race all over the world like she did, you must have the support of an owner willing to take those chances,” said Ed Dunlop (right) recently from his LaGrange Stables in Newmarket.
“And then you must transfer credit for a lot of her success to my staff, the wonderful people who traveled with her, particularly my travelling head lad, Robin Trevor-Jones, who still works for me.”
Add Chris Hinson, Jason Tate, and William Knight to the list of Dunlop aides at the beck and call of Ouija Board. “She had a wonderful temperament, which is half the battle,” Dunlop said. “She had her soundness issues in her career, but at each stage when she was going to America she was very good.”
In the households of a certain generation, someone always owned a Ouija board. We pronounced it ‘wee-gee’ thanks to a grandmother’s Oklahoma dialect and believed its divinations only when we knew them to be true. In lore, the board actually gave itself its own name, ‘spelled out’ under the hand of a medium who then asked the meaning of the word. The board replied, ‘good luck’.
The lucky filly in question was foaled at Lord Derby’s Stanley House Stud on March 1, 2001. She basically named herself as well. Selection Board, her dam, was by Welsh Pageant out of Ouija, a daughter of Silly Season.
Surprise victory
Neither mare was a stakes winner, but Ouija did produce Teleprompter, who carried the colors of the 18th Earl of Derby, Edward Stanley’s uncle, to a surprise victory in the 1986 Arlington Million over the heavily favored Greinton. (Before going on, it should be noted that the Stanley family not only contributed the term ‘derby’ to the lexicon of the sport, they also get credit for the introduction of the Stanley Cup to the world of professional hockey.)
Ouija Board came from the first crop of the Green Desert stallion Cape Cross, a G1 winner for Godolphin. It was hardly an exclusive club, and many of his 174 first-crop named foals came from time spent at stud in New Zealand. At the time of his death in 2017, Cape Cross had sired 54 Group or Graded stakes winners, including Epsom Derby winners Golden Horn and Sea The Stars, in addition to Ouija Board. All three were honored as a Cartier Horse of the Year.
In the case of Ouija Board, that happened twice, first in 2004 when she won the Epsom Oaks and Irish Oaks and finished a close third in the Arc before her first US sojourn for the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf in Texas.
“My greatest thrill was Lone Star,” Dunlop said. “It was a different place for the Breeders’ Cup, which made it very exciting. The weather conditions were difficult, so we didn’t know what we were doing on that score, and it was also very expensive. There were very few travel allowances made then.”
By the autumn of 2004, Dunlop already was making a mark on the international stage. He had won Classics in Ireland and France, the E.P. Taylor Stakes in Canada, and the Flower Bowl Invitational in New York. But Texas was a whole new challenge for man and beast.
A torrential storm the night before the Breeders’ Cup turned the Lone Star turf into a slippery swamp, generously labeled ‘yielding’. With her Oaks partner Fallon on board, Ouija Board powered through the muck and mire to win by a length and half in 2:18.25 for the mile and three-eighths. Film Maker, winner of the Queen Elizabeth Challenge Cup at Keeneland the year before, finished second.
Dettori entered the Ouija Board picture the following year to win the Princess Royal Stakes at Newmarket, when Fallon was otherwise committed to a ride for Coolmore, his contract holder. Frankie was asked recently to recall his impressions of Lord Derby’s mare.
‘An absolute joy to ride’
“She was an absolute joy to ride,” Dettori said. “Easy, very push-button. Nothing ever fazed her, she never broke a sweat, just took everything like a pro.”
Anything else? “She had very pretty ears,” Dettori said. “Soft and rounded, not long and pointy.”
The observation is helpful, because otherwise Ouija Board was an unmarked dark bay from top to bottom, save for a tiny dusting of white between the eyes. Dettori rode her six times, although he had to miss the mount for the 2005 Filly & Mare Turf at Belmont Park when committed to longshot Sundrop for Godolphin.
Juddmonte’s Intercontinental led all the way around that day on an uncontested pace to beat Ouija Board and Jerry Bailey by a length and a quarter. Film Maker was lapped on in third.
“I’d have to say we were pretty unlucky at Belmont,” Dunlop said. “She wasn’t a tricky ride, and Jerry was top of the pops at the time. But he didn’t know her. We were a long way back of a very good winner who made all.”
Ouija Board closed out her four-year-old campaign with a victory under Fallon in the Hong Kong Vase. To the delight of her growing fan base, Lord Derby decided to keep her in training as a five-year-old, although the 2006 campaign got off to a disappointing start with her listless fourth in the Dubai Sheema Classic.
Ouija Board was due for a break after that, but her people called an audible when she emerged from the race as if it had been nothing more than a canter.
“The outcome of the Sheema Classic was so deeply unsatisfactory that we thought we would try to get the taste of it out of our mouths by taking her to Hong Kong again in late April,” Lord Derby wrote in A Mare in a Million.
Snarl of traffic
Reunited with Dettori in Hong Kong for the valuable Audemars Piguet QEII Cup, Ouija Board encountered a snarl of traffic early in the field of 13 and lost crucial position. Nevertheless, she uncorked a ferocious run through final furlongs to finish third, beaten a nose and a head.
Lord Derby reports that a frustrated Dettori slammed his helmet to the ground after the race, convinced he should have won. Watching her finish, it is hard to argue the point.
The Coronation Cup at Epsom was next, over the same ground and distance as Ouija Board’s seven-length triumph in the Oaks two years before. Once again she came flying but was second best to the German star Shirocco, who reigned as the Breeders’ Cup Turf champ of 2005 and was in the form of his life.
It was frustrating to watch these setbacks from afar, but Ouija Board lost no luster, and even the skeptics were quieted after her subsequent thriller in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes during Royal Ascot.
Dettori was claimed for Godolphin’s Electrocutionist, but Olivier Peslier proved a cool-headed replacement, waiting until the last possible moment to release his mare from deep cover on the rail and come hurtling through the final yards, touching off Dettori by a half-length.
The ultimate target for five-year-old Ouija Board was a third appearance in the 2006 Filly & Mare Turf at Churchill Downs. She cruised home by 2¼ lengths to clinch her second Cartier honor, and once again, the persistent Film Maker was second.
Everlasting memories
“I became friends later with Ed Dunlop,” said Graham Motion, who trained Film Maker for Courtlandt Farms. “Because of those races, we had a very good relationship. But, wow, what it cost my filly. They were two tough, honest racemares.
“I have a picture of them together at Lane’s End Farm, after they’d retired,” Motion added. “I keep it in my living room.”
That’s Ouija Board, provider of everlasting memories.
“As good as she was at Churchill Downs, the best she ever ran for me was the Nassau Stakes against Alexander Goldrun,” Dettori said. “It was two great fillies going at it over that last quarter mile, neither backing off.”
Ouija Board won by the bob of a nose.
After her final Breeders’ Cup triumph, there was nothing to be ashamed about finishing third, just missing second, behind Japanese icon Deep Impact on his home ground in the 2006 Japan Cup, Ouija Board’s final race.
“I mean, he ran his last three-eighths in 33 and change that day,” Dettori said. “But I’m convinced I would’ve been second if I hadn’t tried to beat him.”
Ouija Board came along in the midst of a golden era of international female stars. She was preceded by the Australian giants Sunline and Makybe Diva, then closely followed by Zarkava in France, Vodka in Japan, Australia’s Black Caviar, and in the States, Zenyatta and Rachel Alexandra. As good as they were, none could lay claim to reigning as a two-time champion in both Euro
pe and North America.
‘A great mare and a true champion’
“She was so very talented, a great mare, and a true champion,” Dunlop said. “But I was pretty young at the time, early as it was in my career, so it was hard to enjoy, even though the story kept carrying on. I don’t think I was able to enjoy the experience as much as I did Snow Fairy later on.”
After giving Dunlop a second Epsom Oaks in 2010, Snow Fairy took Dunlop on another world tour to win the Irish Oaks, Irish Champion, Hong Kong Cup, and consecutive runnings of the Queen Elizabeth II Commemorative Cup in Japan.
Still, it is Ouija Board by whom all international travelers of the 21st century should be measured, both for quality of performance and longevity. As a bonus, she left a mark as a broodmare. Her first five foals were winners, including the Galileo colt Australia, hero of the 2014 Epsom Derby and Juddmonte International.
“As an Oaks winner who produced a Derby winner, she was an iconic broodmare,” Dunlop said. “But she was very unlucky. She lost a full-brother to Australia and was badly affected gynaecologically. Despite various efforts to try and get her right, that was the end of her broodmare career.”
Ouija Board's final foal hit the ground in 2013. She died in November of 2022, a beloved pensioner at Stanley House Stud, while the memories of Ouija Board lingered on.
“Several years after she retired, I was riding out at Ballydoyle for Aidan O’Brien one morning in April, breezing a young chestnut,” Dettori said.
It was Ouija Board's son, Australia, getting ready for his three-year-old debut. Asked if the colt reminded him at all of his famous dam, Dettori took the bait.
“Yes,” Frankie replied, “I think he had very nice ears. Although they were a different color.”
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