Stonewall Stallions’ Doneraile Court has enjoyed a tremendous year in 2008, and one of his top performers – southern hemisphere 3-year-old filly Cocoa Beach (Chi) – put an emphatic exclamation point on the season with a powerful win in the $500,000 Matriarch S. (G1) at Hollywood Park on Nov. 30th.

The victory was Cocoa Beach’s second in a Grade 1, as she also won the Beldame (G1) on dirt at Belmont in September before finishing a game second in the Breeders’ Cup Ladies’ Classic (G1) last month over Santa Anita’s synthetic course. The Matriarch was her first turf try since winning her debut on grass in her native Chile in January of 2007. Sent off as the slight 9-5 favorite over multiple Grade 1-winning turf specialist Precious Kitten, Cocoa Beach showed that she can perform at the top level on any surface, rallying to overtake Precious Kitten in the final stages of the one-mile event to win by three-quarters of a length. The final time was 1:35.49 over a firm course, and Cocoa Beach earned a 96 Beyer for the performance.

Cocoa Beach has now amassed earnings of more than $1.6 million while never finishing off the board in a dozen starts, giving her average earnings of nearly $140,000 every time she goes to post. She owns nine wins, a pair of runner-up efforts and one third-place finish for her owner Godolphin Racing LLC, which acquired her from Chile following her championship juvenile campaign. She is conditioned by that juggernaut’s top stable trainer Saeed bin Suroor.

Along with Grade 1 winner Ariege, Cocoa Beach has attributed to giving her sire a trio of American Grade 1 wins in 2008, and the two star fillies have been paramount in Doneraile Court ranking in the Top 25 on the General Sires list. The Seattle Slew stallion, currently ranked 22nd with nearly $5.4 million in progeny earnings heading into the final month of the year, is the only stallion in the Top 25 with a fee of under $25,000. Doneraile Court will stand 2009 for a fee of $7,500.