White Moss records an impressive victory in the Gr.3 Nivison Stakes at Randwick (Steve Hart)
The Esplin family bred and owned, White Moss, is rapidly building a sizeable fan base in Sydney via a record that currently reads five wins and a second from eight outings.
On Saturday at Royal Randwick, the flashy mare added black to the white with an impressive victory in the Group Three ICD Nivison Stakes over 1200m: her first win at stakes level and, given her pedigree, a highly profitable addition to the resume.
Prominent throughout in the Nivison, the Jason Coyle trained mare hit the lead at the 300m and, with a full head of steam, there was no gathering in this White Moss.
“She (White Moss) has always shown us ability,” Coyle enthused. “She’s not an overly big mare and we cuddled her early on, but hopefully it’s all coming together for her now and I reckon she’ll run 1400m easily.”
Not surprisingly, Hamish Esplin was thrilled with White Moss’s win, adding that the race had special significance.
“We’ve known the Nivison and Tait families for a long time and they’re good friends,” Esplin points out. “It was a real privilege to win the race. We ran second in the Nivison four years ago with another of our home-bred mares in Plucky Belle, who is also by Mossman.
“After running second in the Nivison, Plucky Belle won a stakes race over 1400m at Flemington on Melbourne Cup day and it’s likely White Moss will follow a similar path this year and go around in the (Group Three) Hong Kong Jockey Club Stakes on 7 November.”
Although Esplin isn’t getting ahead of himself, he’s got his fingers crossed that White Moss can emulate Plucky Belle, who would eventually win the Group One Coolmore Classic over 1500m at Rosehill Gardens.
“We’ve been impressed with White Moss from early on and she stacked up pretty well against her Nivison rivals,” Esplin adds. “She is still furnishing and won’t have a long prep this time in and will probably only have one more start in the spring. It’s been very encouraging with what we’ve seen so far though.”
White Moss is by the Vinery Stud stallion, Mossman, from the Champion 3YO Sprinter, Pay My Bail, who has produced five winners, including another Sydney stakes winner in White Sage, while her multiple winner, Runway Runaway, is the dam of last month’s Flemington stakes winner, Fox Swift.
“Unfortunately, White Moss’s dam, Pay My Bail, died earlier this year, in foal to Dundeel,” Esplin explains. “It was a huge disappointment … she was such a lovely, neat mare. A really good breeder.
“On the plus side, we have most of Pay My Bail’s daughters, so the family lives on.”
Esplin – who along with his mother, brother and sister breed from around 30 mares at their Kulnura, NSW property – adds that Plucky Belle has produced a More Than Ready filly and has been covered this spring by Redoute’s Choice, while Semitone – the dam of their three time stakes winner, Slightly Sweet – is due to foal shortly to Olympic Glory.
“We’ve got a 2YO by Mossman out of Semitone that’s with Jason (Coyle) and she’s called Singing River,” Esplin adds. “She had her first spin around recently and is due to be tipped out for a spell, but is a promising type according to the stable.
“We love the Mossmans. Vinery does a great job and foals down most of our mares in the Hunter Valley and I was also happy for them to get another stakes winner for Mossman. He’s in the twilight of his career but what a terrific stallion he’s been.”
White Moss was the 36th individual stakes winner for Mossman whose other black typers
include Golden Slipper winner, Mossfun, Ofcourseican, Plucky Belle and the incomparable Buffering.
