Moonax

Moonax
Racing colours of Sheikh Mohammed
Sire	Caerleon
Grandsire	Nijinsky
Dam	Moonsilk
Damsire	Solinus
Sex	Stallion
Foaled	22 March 1991
Country	Ireland
Colour	Chestnut
Breeder	Liscannor Stud
Owner	Sheikh Mohammed
Trainer	Barry Hills
Record	22: 6-7-4
Earnings	£ 427,601
Major wins
St Leger (1994) Prix Royal-Oak (1994) Yorkshire Cup (1995)
Awards
European Champion Stayer (1994)
Last updated on August 25, 2007

Moonax (1991–2004) was an Irish-bred, English-trained Thoroughbred racehorse and sire. In 1994 Moonax became the first horse to win both the Classic St Leger and the Prix Royal-Oak and was named European Champion Stayer. He remains the only three-year-old to have been honoured in this way. He stayed in training until the age of six, winning only two more races, but finishing second in four Group One races. In his later career he acquired a reputation for unpredictable and sometimes dangerous behaviour and was described as "the world's naughtiest horse". He was most unusual as a Classic winner who was raced over hurdles. He died in 2004 at the age of thirteen.

Moonax, a chestnut horse with a white blaze who stood 16.2 hands high, was bred in Ireland by the Liscannor Stud. His sire, Caerleon, won the Prix du Jockey Club and the Benson & Hedges Gold Cup in 1983 and went on to become an “excellent” stallion, siring the winners of more than 700 races including Generous, Marienbard and Warrsan. His dam, Moonsilk, never won a race, but came from a good family, being a half sister of the 1975 1000 Guineas winner, Nocturnal Spree.

Moonax was sent by the Limerick-based Newborough Stud as a yearling to the Goffs sales in October 1992, where he was bought for IR£37,000 by the Curragh Bloodstock Agency He entered the ownership of Sheikh Mohammed and was sent into training with Barry Hills at Lambourn. Recalling Monnax's temperament, Hills said "you couldn't let him near another horse. He would have attacked them" whilst one of his jockeys remembered that "he'd pin you up against the wall before you knew it". A sign outside the horse's stable warned visitors not to approach.