DNA Equine’s Donna Cowens and Nicky Souza de Oliveira have already contributed to two of the largest success stories of the breeze-up sales season, demonstrating how everyone engaged is interconnected and the scene is intertwined together like the strands on a double helix. One of the best jockeys on the breeze-up scene, Souza de Oliveira, was in the saddle for the Rowley mile gallop that so pleased the Godolphin team at the Craven Sale that they lavished 1,400,000 guineas on the Acclamation colt, which Willie Browne had prepared. The story of Johnny and Danielle Hurley, who sold a Kodi Bear colt at Goffs UK last week for £500,000, is among the most heartbreaking stories of the year thus far bought him as a yearling for €9,000, and, like the Acclamation, he was knocked down to Godolphin.
“Nicky is having a lovely year this year,” she says of her partner, who brought their three horses to Newmarket on Sunday in preparation for Thursday’s Guineas Breeze-Up Sale. “He rode the Kodi Bear that Johnny and Danielle Hurley sold in Doncaster after riding Willie’s Acclamation at the Craven. After we break some of theirs and spend the first month with them, they return to Johnny and Danielle for preparation. We had him at the beginning and broke him as a yearling. Nicky spent the majority of his proper work with him on the grass gallops and up on the Old Vic. He did express his liking for him throughout, and I’m thrilled for Danielle and and Johnny, it’s a brilliant pinhook.”
The guy with the golden touch, Souza De Oliveira, will be riding in the Rowley Mile on Wednesday alongside three young DNA Equine consigns and some of Mocklershill’s best. While working at the sales, Cowens met Souza De Oliveira, who proposed that Cowens trade his winter riding out for trainer Rose Dobbin in Northumberland for Willie Browne’s breezer riding in Tipperary. She decided to take the risk and study while moving forward on her path to independence at Browne’s famous breeze-up academy for four years. In September 2023, they finally found the ideal location for DNA Equine after pinhooking a few horses and selling them under the Mocklershill name yard on the Maddenstown side of the Curragh where the Irish National Stud is their main neighbour.
There isn’t enough certainty and stability to support a business and a life on its own, even while the breeze-up side of the business is always the one that makes headlines and can result in the kind of life-altering windfall that was witnessed last week. It is not that they haven’t had their own experiences with transformative sales, which occurred early enough in their brand’s life to be important in attracting attention. Cowens humbly attributes this to novice luck. In 2023, Goffs UK sold Mantra, a Tamayuz filly purchased by €10,000, to Highclere for £160,000. Their debut at Osarus in early April was another notable percentage increase, though not in the same financial realm.
Chicas Amigas, the runner-up in the Naas Juvenile Fillies Sprint Stakes, sold a Lucky Vega half-sister to Outsider Bloodstock at La Teste. “She barely completed two pieces of work before leaving, and each time she worked, her performance astounded us. We weren’t prepared for her to convert €2,000 into €22,000, but she went above and beyond!” Cowens says. In addition to getting breeze-up horses ready, breaking and pre-training are crucial components of the DNA Equine brand. Cowens states: “We would treat the breeze-up horses as though they were going to be racehorses instead of concentrating on the two furlongs of the breeze, and the breaking and pre-training are not that different from a breeze-up prep.
You want to sell horses that can train and run for many years, even though they just need to gallop two furlongs on that one day. When they are racing, they will be galloping considerably farther. “The breeze-up horses and pre-training are done concurrently up until a certain point. It is only a two-person operation; Cowens is at home finishing up the preparations of their two horses for the Tattersalls Ireland Breeze-Up Sale in late May, while Souza De Oliveira in Newmarket is in charge of the breeze-up horses this week. The biggest educational development has been dealing with clients and the administrative side of the business. Every sale business turned down the couple’s Sands of Mali filly last year because each auction they put her forward to.
They had no choice but to put her through training because private sales were not arriving, even though it was an unnecessary expense. Copacabana Sands’ trainer, Diego Dias, agreed with them that she was capable. “He said, ‘don’t worry she’s a racehorse but probably a three-year-old,'” Cowens recalls. Dias made the right decision. The three-year-old stood out when he finished third in the Irish EBF Auction Series Race Final at Naas in October, one of five times he ran for them. Copacabana Sands was privately sold to Michael O’Callaghan before the current season began, and she finished second in her first race for the trainer at the Curragh last month.
After that, she had a strong race and finished sixth in the Leopardstown Group 3 Priory Belle Stakes, earning a Racing Post Rating (RPR) of 105. “Even though we don’t have a lot of money or anything, we agreed we would have to race her because we loved her and felt she should have a shot. We had to manage her ourselves after failing to sell her. She said, “She’s entered in the Mutamakina Stakes Group 3 at Leopardstown on Sunday week [May 11].” Success may be attained in a variety of ways, and having the guts to follow your own path is an essential trait. Even while Copacabana Sands hasn’t made news yet, she has the same DNA as those who already have.
