On the eve of his 100th birthday on Sept. 13, Moyglare Stud’s Walter Haefner will have two horses running at The Curragh with chances to add to his long list of group I winners.
Haefner, who is listed as the world’s oldest billionaire, will be represented by Profound Beauty (unless the racecourse ground is soft) in the Ladbrokes St. Leger (Ire-I) and A Word Apart in the Boylesports.com Vincent O’Brien National Stakes (Ire-I). Both are trained by Dermot Weld, with whom Haefner has had a lengthy and successful relationship.
A successful Swiss businessman (according to Wikipedia he is the largest shareholder in Computer Associates) and award-winning rider on the European amateur circuit, Haefner began establishing a broodmare band in 1962, and not long afterward established his first farm in Ireland.
Moyglare Stud was established initially as a commercial operation, but in 1980 Haefner changed the focus from breeding to racing. He was one of the first European owners to make extensive purchases in the U.S. and many of his best mares trace to domestic families.
Since being established by Haefner, Moyglare has been represented by almost 100 stakes winners worldwide, including 16 group/grade I winners. Included among the best Moyglare homebreds have been Refuse to Bend, Media Puzzle, Stanerra, Assert, Bikala, and Go and Go, whose Belmont Stakes (gr. I) victory made him the first and only European-trained winner of an American classic race.
Although Moyglare is now owned by Haefner’s daughter, Eva-Maia Bucher Haefner, the breeder receives daily reports on the Moyglare horses and he watches race replays from his home in Zurich.
According to a farm spokeswoman, Moyglare now has 34 broodmares, 26 of which trace to U.S.-bred mares purchased in North America. Twenty-five of the mares are at Moyglare and nine are kept at Ashford Stud in central Kentucky.
Of the 47 Moyglare horses in training, most are with Weld in Ireland. One is with trainer Mark Prescott in England, and five are conditioned in the U.S. by Christophe Clement.