Hall Of Fame - Moved To Tears

Original article written by Danny Warren posted 12 years 2 weeks ago

Unless you have lived under a rock for the last 30 or so years, everyone knows the story of the movies based on character Rocky Balboa. A slugger going nowhere gets a once in a lifetime shot and captures everyone’s heart in the pursuit of a seemingly impossible dream, a dream he eventually grabs hold of.

A similar story lies well back in the annals of the SIM.
A filly, for who most of her racing life was an every horse, the type running around anywhere not garnering any attention. But midway through her fairly short career, one race, one miracle happened, and after that everyone knew her name and for awhile she was at the top of the mountain and loved by all.

Her beginnings were unremarkable, bought for just $42,000 at one of the few yearling sales of The Steward by Tammy Fox, whose bid was more speculative rather than with any great expectation.
The finely built bay’s biggest attraction was that her Sire was the exceptional Tulloch who won seven of ten starts, going out in style with wins in the Gr.1 Irish 2000 Guineas and the Gr.1 Steward’s Cup Turf Mile.
At the time of the sale, Tulloch had three crops of racing age and another about to start and had already shown that he could get a nice horse, having success with the likes of Freak of Nature, Four of Wands, Vapor, Solace and the brilliant pair of Consolation Prize and Crystal Night.
Whether the filly with the diamond on her forehead had gained any of her fathers talent was questionable.
Her size was unimpressive and her Dam, Storm of Tears had been nothing of note on the track, retiring after four starts without a win. In time, she would be one of the first mares to prove that racetrack performance doesn’t always mean a thing when it comes to being a good broodmare, producing four millionaires including top stallion Tears of Triumph, a younger full brother to the filly who was named Moved To Tears.

Moved To Tears left Tammy wondering why she spent the money for her, as her lithe frame left her susceptible to be hurled off balance at just the slightest of bumps from her training partners and she never appeared too interested in fighting back. She was timid and shy, not generally a great sign for a racing filly. As a yearling, whenever Tammy ventured out to her yearling pastures with a bag of apples for her youngsters, Moved To Tears always waited at the back without fail, only managing to get an apple if Tammy specifically went into the yard and separated her from the others. Tammy often wondered if Moved To Tears would simply become a pet, but when allowed to run on her own, she had put up times worthy of seeing if she could handle racing.

She spent a lot of time as a two year old travelling in planes, her tractability and patience making the trips a breeze.
Tammy sent Moved To Tears to Chile for her debut in a 6f turf maiden, with hind bandages to protect her from striking herself and a shadow roll in the hope that she would be far more interested in the lambskin than concerning herself with the other eleven runners.
Midfield in the early stages of the race, Moved To Tears showed that on occasions her quiet nature would be of great help to her. While the majority of the field reefed and pulled their way along, Moved To Tears still had some energy in her to finish off the race, running past many tired rivals and into second place, a length behind winner Desert Sound.

Pleasantly surprised, Tammy brought Moved To Tears along to Europe with her while in the region on business and made it a working holiday for the filly, entering her in another maiden, this time over 7f in London.
Just hoping to see Moved To Tears get around safely, Tammy was on hand to see quite a race. Moved To Tears again drifted back, allowing the British two year olds to do exactly as the Chilean one’s had. On the bend, it was clear that the front runners were in trouble and there were as many as six horses making ground from the rear swinging as deep as they could to avoid being stuck behind the weakening leaders. Moved To Tears worked home well and was one of five fillies who dove across the finish line in a line, their heads bobbing as if they were abreast in a carousel, finishing fourth.

Tammy has always been watchful of her horses efforts and had made a mental note that Moved To Tears was working home nicely, as long as she came wide where she wasn’t going to be buffeted about. Noting that her finish probably would never actually win her a race in a sprint, she noted a weak looking 1 1/16 mile maiden over the Irish Sea and decided to see if her notes would be proven true.
Tammy’s heart sank when Moved To Tears drew the inside barrier, but with the addition of front bandages and blinkers to impede her view of those around her, she hoped for the best. It worked perfectly. Moved To Tears jumped well and with a slower early speed in the race was able to sit much closer. She bided her time before taking a run along the rail and grinding home to win her first start by half a length from Undertow.

It was time to go home and wishing to give Moved To Tears a final start for the year, Tammy picked out the listed Marie Matthews Stakes over the mile. Tammy wasn’t really convinced that a close maiden winner was up to winning against two handy fillies in the unbeaten Bring On The Rain and the handy All Power, but the others in the race hadn’t even won yet, so she would at least have a chance for some nice prize money. All Power led easily with Moved To Tears quite happy on the outside of Bring On The Rain, while the three others struggled to keep up. Bring On The Rain made her move down the straight, and it was a great effort from Moved To Tears to try and stay with her. At the line All Power held off bring On The Rain by just a nose, but Moved To Tears was only a length behind in a solid run.

Moved To Tears grew little in her break and Tammy was aware that the filly could use a confidence booster. Hoping that the surrounds in Europe would again spark a win, they boarded the plane to France, choosing a 1 1/16 mile Allowance. Moved To Tears was warm favourite after nearly winning a stakes race last start, but although she ran on into third, she had none of her dash and Tammy went home thinking that at best she had a solid Allowance horse.

Asking around for advice, and not getting much in the way of anything she hadn’t already thought of, Tammy came across a grey haired man watching the early morning works. She never knew his name and never would, but he knew her and suggested that the filly needed something to bring out some aggression and that maybe a tongue tie might just annoy her enough to make her run home quicker, if only to find someone to take it off.
Tammy thanked the man for his input and walked off to check the race entries of what Moved To Tears could perhaps run in next. It was here that a timely glance would make a world of difference.
Out of curiosity only, Tammy looked at the entries for the Gr.1 Vodaphone Oaks Stakes in London and was surprised to see that not one entrant had won a stakes race before. She raised her eyebrows and thought, “Nothing to lose, why not ?” and entered Moved To Tears on a whim.
Her two main rivals on paper looked to be three time winner Ancient Wisdom and twice winning Starfilled Dreams and Gottalotaheartntry, but Moved To Tears was just as good a chance as any.
Starfilled Dreams charged to the front from Burning Desire and Gottalotaheartntry, with Moved To Tears and Ancient Wisdom and The A Train doing all it could do keep up. The order didn’t change throughout the entire race as Starfilled Dreams rolled along under no pressure and on straightening looked in no danger. The mile and a half was finding a few runners out, but the under whelmed crowd began to take notice as Moved To Tears exploded from out of the pack to take on the chase. Starfilled Dreams felt the challenge coming as the crowd noise lifted and tried to find an extra gear as Moved To Tears closed in from one direction just as quickly as the winning post approached from the other. Both fillies reached the line at the same time and as a hushed mob of English fans waited, the clerk of the course waited at the entrance of the track to see which horse he was to bring in. Tammy was in near apoplexy. This was not supposed to happen, her little filly who couldn’t even win an Allowance was in a nail biting finale of one of the biggest races in Europe.
After what felt like an eternity, Moved To Tears was announced as the winner by a nose from Starfilled Dreams with Gottalotaheartntry battling into third and a disbelieving Tammy had to be guided to the winners enclosure to greet her now Gr.1 winning filly.

It’s almost the natural progression of things for the Vodaphone English Oaks Stakes winner to go on to the Irish Oaks and Moved To Tears was joined again by Starfilled Dreams searching for revenge, Burning Desire and Ancient Wisdom along with Tropical Night over from Australia.
Again Starfilled Dreams tried to lead all the way and after a brief charge by Tropical Night, fought hard all the way, but Moved To Tears sprouted wings in the last furlong and stuck her fine head out just in time once more.

Now a dual Oaks winner, Moved To Tears had captured the worlds attention and an invite arrived at Tammy’s hotel for her and her filly to run in the Gr.1 Hong Kong Vase worth $2,000,000 and being run in Tokyo while the track in Hong Kong was being finalised.
A field of very consistent fillies and mares took to the track, but a filly in form is hard to stop, and Moved To Tears wore down Mystic Dragoness late to win her third straight mile and a half Gr.1 race by half a length, with her two European Oaks wins enough to earn her the SIMMY award for European Champion Three Year Old Filly.

In a matter or six weeks, Moved To Tears went from being a name in small print at the bottom of the results page to becoming an international icon and her time off at the end of the year was more about posing for photos for the shy filly than rest, and to ensure she had a decent break, Tammy took her along quietly.
Un be known to most, Tammy had received an invite for Moved To Tears to travel to Dubai and race in the Desert Duty Free and in the blazing heat, Tammy found out on arrival that there were only four acceptors in the race. The others though were of the finest quality and far and away the best opposition Moved To Tears had ever faced.
There was Here Indeed, a winner of eight out of ten starts, the highly rated Audience and the Chilean Champion Hype, who had won his first eight starts in Chile and the younger brother of superstar Consolation Prize.
The shorter trip of 1 1/8 mile was a concern against such a great field, but thankfully the pace was on right from the jump. Audience and Hype led the way, with Moved To Tears about two lengths back with another length to Here Indeed. With two furlongs to go Hype stepped up the pace and moved away from Audience. Here Indeed was coming fast and Moved To Tears was taking a while to warm to the task. Hype was holding Here Indeed, but as if a switch had been hit, Moved To Tears unleashed a burst of speed rarely seen in the Emirates and skipped past both Here Indeed and Hype with ridiculous ease to win by two lengths and collect her second $1.2 million cheque in a row.

Tammy wanted to have one more run back home in America before going back to defend the Hong Kong Vase title and Moved To Tears was heroic in defeat, just failing to catch the undefeated Fiji Nights in the Gr.1 Yellow Ribbon Stakes.

The Hong Kong Vase defence would prove to be Moved To Tears’ final start.
The race was to be no nice gentle farewell either with Rive Gauche and the current Irish Oaks champion Heartshattering.
Heartshattering tried to break the others spirit with some breathtaking sectionals, but she was unable to keep going and Rive Gauche and Moved To Tears rushed at her in the final furlong, with Moved To Tears leaving Tammy in just that way as she crossed the wire a length clear of Rive Gauche who was just in front of Heartshattering who would never be beaten again.

Despite just having a single race that at the time was classed as within Europe, Moved To Tears was overwhelmingly voted the SIMMY award winner for Champion Older European Mare.

Moved To Tears finally went to the breeding barn having ten foals, beginning with the incredible Tears Of The Stars who won four SIMMY’s of her own, winning thirteen of fifteen over a variety of distances. Moved To Tears also produced another millionaire in Electric Tears and smart miler Visine who has gone to have fifteen stakes winners and over one hundred winners of his own. Only one of Moved To Tears foals failed to earn six figures on the track.

The finely built filly with the quiet disposition was a true feel good story of the turf, a horse who was nice but not courageous enough to take the extra step. She found her power and confidence and rose to the top, giving every owner that hope that one day one of their own may also reach the top and she deserves her place in the Hall Of Fame, not just for her on track performances, but for how her story keeps the dream alive.

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