From Bonanova To Bella Nipotina: The Mares Behind The Tiara

Kristen Manning

Editor

Last updated: Wed 24 Jun 2026 16:36

Kristen Manning 3 hours ago

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Tattersall's Tiara winners have produced 126 race winners, averaging 4.6 per mare
40% of winners produced stakes-winning progeny—proving strong broodmare value
Recent winners command million-dollar prices at auction, emphasizing the race’s breeding and investment significance

Less than four months after winning the Tattersall's Tiara, Bella Nipotina captured The Everest in 2024. (Getty)

It's the final Group 1 race for the season, the $700,000 Tattersall's Tiara; a 1400m weight-for-age contest for the girls — one which takes place at Eagle Farm this Saturday.

Lots Of Winners
International Success
Seven-Figure Girls

Starting life as a Listed race called the Winter Stakes, it was upgraded to Group 3 level after four runnings, then to Group 2 after another 10 editions, before quickly attaining its current elite status in 2007. It was renamed in 2011.

Group 1 black-type can make a mare very valuable indeed, and it is interesting to take a look at this race and see how its winners have fared at stud.

The Tiara has been held on 33 occasions and has been won by 32 different horses, with the fast-finishing Bonanova the only dual winner (back when it was a Group 3 race).

Of those 32 winners, 28 have foals of racing age, including Tofane, whose first is a yet-to-race two-year-old.

Lots Of Winners

Of the 27 with runners, all have been represented by winners — 126 in total; an average of 4.6 winners per mare.

Of those 27, 11 have produced stakes winners; a 40.7% strike rate, which makes the race an outstanding source of quality broodmares.

Since being elevated to Group 1 status, it has been won 13 times by mares who have had runners. Five of those (38.4%) are the dams of stakes winners.

The second Tiara (Winter Stakes) winner, Rich Pageantry, got the ball rolling as the dam of the Group 2 Alister Clark Stakes winner Speedy King and the Listed winner Miss Pageantry. Two years later, the race was won by Mamzelle Pedrille, whose son O'Lonhro won the Group 2 Chelmsford Stakes in record time.

The third Group 3 running of the race was taken out by Razor Blade, a high-class broodmare with four stakes winners — the triple Group 1-winning sprinter Flamerge, the ill-fated Group 2 galloper Sunburnt Land, the dual Group 3 winner Durendal and the two-time Listed winner Curtana.

International Success

Bonanova produced the Listed winners Bonaichi and Prima Nova, whilst the following year's winner Porto Roca made her mark internationally as the dam of the Group 1 Dubai World Cup winner Monterosso, who was also a Group 2 winner at Royal Ascot.

The only Group 2 Winter Stakes winner, La Sizeranne, is the dam of the Listed winner Za Moulin Rouge, whilst Nova Star, who won the first Group 1 running of the race, produced the Listed winner Desert Lord.

The next winner, Absolut Glam, is the dam of the Group 3 and Listed winner Jazz Song.

There was a bit of a gap between stakes-winning producers, though four of the next nine winners of the race produced stakes-placed gallopers, whilst the 2018 winner Prompt Response is the dam of this year's Group 3 PJ Bell Handicap winner Plaintiff.

The value of Group 1 mares has certainly increased in recent years, and the last six Tiara winners to have made their way through the sales ring have attracted plenty of attention.

Sold in 2017 (a year after her win), Miss Cover Girl fetched $500,000, and she is the only one in that group not to have sold for seven figures.

Seven-Figure Girls

Also a winner of the Group 1 Stradbroke, Srikandi changed hands four years later for $2 million. A year after her win, Invincibella made $1.3 million.

The winner of another three Group 1 races, Tofane won in 2021 and was purchased by Yulong for $3.1 million a year later. The following year's winner, Startantes, has been sold twice, fetching $1.15 million in 2024 and $1.4 million last year.

One of the race's best winners, Bella Nipotina (it was one of her four Group 1 successes), was bred by Michael Christian, and he bought out his fellow owners when securing her for $4.2 million last year. Both she and last year's winner Tashi (retained by breeder Corumbene Stud) were served last October by reigning Champion Sire Zoustar.

Second last year, Abounding attempts to go one better this time around, whilst the 2004 runner-up Semana showed that Group 1 placings also add value. That Group 3 winner was sold last year for $1.55 million.

Aside from the 11 Tattersall's Tiara winners to have produced stakes winners, seven have had stakes-placed horses, whilst another 11 are the grandams of stakes winners, with the best of those being Porto Roca's Group 1 William Reid Stakes-winning granddaughter Silent Sedition.