Trotting mare Majestic Action was undoubtedly Ripple Creek's star performer during the worst of covid times. She was certainly one of the equine characters around the stable. Now Molly as she's affectionately known is enjoying green pastures while the months count down to foaling season.
After being served by French stallion Timoko, Majestic Action continued racing through till the end of March. In fact her last four months of competition saw her in the best form of her life, with three of her seven wins coming while in foal.
The now six-year-old Majestic Son mare came to Ripple Creek a somewhat cantankerous mare and retired from racing considerably more affable. “She always was very hormonal,” trainer Trent Yesberg said about her. “Hard work and high maintenance to say the least, until she got in foal and became a dream to train and race.” Even then she had her moments. It always paid to watch those back legs, with the habit she had of giving them a quick stretch without warning.
Trent picked up the one-race winner just as lockdown was about to strike in March 2020. Having recently sold their four-win trotter Never Mind to Mike Tanev of Toronto (who has since had such success in NZ with Aardie’s Express), Trent and a group of that trotter’s former owners set out to see what the mare could do. “Just prior to us getting her she’d caused a no race at Ashburton, and she needed a little time to get in a better headspace.”
Taking her along very patiently and needing to satisfactorily trial her twice before she could race again, it would be July before Trent lined Majestic Action up in her new colours. Starting a warm favourite, she would let her supporters down with a bad break as the tapes flew. Next start she trotted all the way but had a horror run from her unruly position. By her third start for Trent, each so far at Addington, she was stepping beautifully and managed a second after racing wide. For the ownership team, their new favourite trotter Molly was away.
Ove the next 20 months Majestic Action would prove very reliable on race day, scoring on grit and grass for another six wins and numerous placings. Her best run of form would come once her future motherhood plans were sealed. “She did a great job for us throughout and especially towards the end of her racing career, determined and competitive even with her rise in grade”, Trent says.
In choosing to have Majestic Action served by the five million Euro-winning Timoko, the team gave a nod to that stallion’s reputation as something of a warhorse. Molly could show great speed when called upon, but she is quite lightly framed. ”We are hoping that a mating with such a powerful and tough European stallion will give her progeny a bit more strength than she could muster at times.”
Safely in foal, Majestic Action is happily settling into the broodmare band. Her dam is the unraced Ensure, whose pedigree includes quite a collection of minor winners and a sprinkling of quality performers. With her prolific sire unquestionably a factor in Molly’s success on the track, there’s reason to believe that with Timoko’s influence she just might take the family to the next level. That’s the Ripple Creek theory anyway.
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