Mawj , a dual group/grade 1 winner in 2023 and a finalist for North America’s champion female turf horse of last year, was announced Feb. 7 as retired from racing by owner/breeder Godolphin. She will join Godolphin’s broodmare band, a release said, though a booking to a specific stallion was not announced.
Her retirement follows a ninth-place finish in Dubai in the Jan. 26 Jebel Hatta (G1) at Meydan Racecourse. That race marked her first and final start of 2024.
Winner of the One Thousand Guineas (G1) in England at Newmarket last May, Mawj returned from a physical setback to travel to the United States and compete in the fall. She won the Oct. 14 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup Stakes (G1T) at Keeneland before nearly winning the Breeders’ Cup Mile (G1T) at Santa Anita Park Nov. 4. Advancing inside from a stalking position, she held the lead in midstretch before being caught at the finish by another Godolphin runner, Master of The Seas .
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Those achievements ranked her as one of the top grass fillies to race in North America last year, and she finished third in Eclipse Award voting behind Inspiral and In Italian .
“Mawj is a very special filly, who showed her brilliance throughout her racing career,” trainer Saeed Bin Suroor said. “It was a fantastic day when she won the One Thousand Guineas, and I was especially pleased that it was her who provided me with my 500th group race victory out in Keeneland.
“She proved herself against the best horses across the world, winning in Dubai, the U.K., and the United States, as well as finishing second in a Breeders’ Cup Mile. Everyone at Al Quoz and Godolphin Stables is going to miss her but we look forward to the next stage of her life as a broodmare.”
Mawj retires with a 6-2-1 record in 11 starts with earnings of nearly $1.3 million. In addition to her two top-level victories as a 3-year-old last year, she was a group winner at 2, taking the 2022 Duchess Of Cambridge Stakes (G2) at Newmarket. She also was third in the Cheveley Park Stakes (G1) and second in the Albany Stakes (G3) as a juvenile in England.
She readied for the One Thousand Guineas by winning a pair of races early last year at Meydan.
A Godolphin homebred, she is a 4-year-old daughter of Exceed And Excel out of the New Approach mare Modern Ideals . Her elite dam previously produced stakes winners Modern News and Modern Games , a dual Breeders’ Cup race winner and North America’s champion male turf horse of 2022.
