Sire Lyphard Dam Dona Ysidra Foaled 1983 Species Equus caballus Trainer LeRoy Jolley Sex Stallion | Grandsire Northern Dancer Damsire Le Fabuleux Country United States Children Bien Bien Parents Lyphard Earnings 2.693 million USD | |
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Manila (born 1983 in Kentucky, died 2009, 28 Feb, in İzmit Turkey) was an American Thoroughbred Hall of Fame Champion racehorse. He was sired by Northern Dancer's son Lyphard, out of the mare Dona Ysidra. He was bred by Filipino food and beverage magnate Eduardo Cojuangco, Jr. who owned Dona Ysidra and who named her for his grandfather's sister, Dona Ysidra Cojuangco (1867-1960) of Tarlac, reportedly the foundress of the Cojuangco family fortune.
Manila was raced by Lexington, Kentucky thoroughbred agent Bradley M. Shannon and trained by future U.S. Racing Hall of Fame inductee LeRoy Jolley. Considered a very great long-distance turf horse, in his fourteen starts on grass Manila never finished worse than second. In his 2006 book titled THE BEST and Worst of Thoroughbred Racing, author Steve Davidowitz of Daily Racing Form ranks Manila as the best long-distance turf horse in American racing history ahead of No.2, John Henry.
Racing at age three, Manila won the important Grade I Turf Classic Handicap then in the fall won the Breeders' Cup Turf, defeating the Champion filly, Estrapade, Theatrical, and the 1986 European Horse of the Year, Dancing Brave. For his 1986 performances, Manila was voted the United States' Eclipse Award for Outstanding Male Turf Horse.
In 1987, Manila repeated as the United Nations Handicap winner and defeated Theatrical again to win the Arlington Million. Injured in the fall, he was retired to stud duty, having been syndicated for US$20 million.
Although Manila has been reasonably successful as a sire, producing the California multiple graded stakes race winner Bien Bien, none of his offspring have achieved his level of success. He stood at stud in Turkey between 1999 and 2009. He died on February 28, 2009 due to "Aortic Ring Rupture”.