Next April will bring with it the 30-year anniversary of a notable birth at Iverk House Stud, that of the bay colt by Fairy King who would later deliver the ultimate triumph for a breeder by winning the Derby at Epsom under the name of Oath.To pull it off from a small farm in Piltown, County Kilkenny, which has rarely been home to more than eight active mares at any one time, was quite the feat by Max Morris and his late wife Isabel.Certainly, Max has never been blessed with the weight of numbers of the Aga Khan, the owner-breeder of Daliapour when that horse pushed Oath all the way at Epsom. Nor can he match the might of the Coolmore partners, who between them have won the Derby on 11 further occasions since Galileo gave them their first two years after Oath in 2001.For that reason alone, victory for Iverk House's homebred Furthur in this Saturday's St Leger at Doncaster would mark a stunning return to the Classic stage for Max, not least because Coolmore will have two formidable opponents standing in his way, with their latest Derby hero, Lambourn (Australia), being joined in the line-up by the relentless Goodwood Cup winner Scandinavia (Justify).For Coolmore, it's rare that 26 days go by without a Classic hopeful emerging from the latest intake of Ballydoyle bluebloods. For Max and his second wife, Lyn, they're refusing to take anything for granted as the bid day looms for their beloved son of Waldgeist, 26 years on from the heady days of Oath.“Well, you've just buggered that chance now!” jokes a superstitious Lyn when asked what would it mean for Iverk House to taste Classic glory again all of these years later. “Anyway, it's great to have a runner. I'm looking forward to the build-up to it, but I'll be very nervous on the day.”“It's a huge achievement,” Max chimes in. “And at least we can dream between now and Saturday – that's what it's all about.” Furthur runs out a ready winner of the Group Three Geoffrey Freer Stakes! @NewburyRacing | @AndrewBalding2 | @oismurphy pic.twitter.com/0AtHMR4au4— At The Races (@AtTheRaces) August 16, 2025 Indeed it is, although it seems there wasn't much time for dreaming on a busy Wednesday morning spent in the company of the team at the neighbouring Ballylinch Stud, showing the yearlings who will shortly be heading to the sales.“We usually buy shares in the stallions at Ballylinch and they do all of our consigning for us as well,” Lyn explains, with one such share in Waldgeist being the reason why the Danetime mare Danamight headed the way of the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe winner when he embarked on his second season at stud in 2021.“Danamight put a bit of speed in anything she bred and I think that's what Waldgeist needs,” Lyn continues. “He's getting winners now and he needs big, strong mares with big backsides on them. She filled all of the criteria and we got a lovely foal. Furthur always had the most beautiful temperament.”In Lyn's own words, Danamight “wasn't very successful” in terms of what her progeny achieved on the racecourse, at least before Furthur came along, but two of her daughters have outperformed her in that department.“Danamight did breed us Queen Of Power, the dam of our flagbearer, [multiple Group 3 winner] Garrus,” says Lyn. “We had some fun with her after I managed to get her back from Michael O'Callaghan. Michael bought her as a yearling and, after she went wrong in her last race at Ascot, he rang me at our hotel and asked if I wanted to buy her back. He was going to retire her, but he didn't want to send her to the sales because she was a favourite of his.“And Tom Lacy picked up Vida Amorosa [the unraced dam of Group 2-winning sire Persian Force] for €1,200 in Goffs. I was going to go and have a look at her, because we sold her as a foal, but Max said, 'No, you'll just go and buy her'. The Lacys did well with her which was the main thing. They probably covered her better than we would have done. Then they got the home run at Tattersalls December last year [when Vida Amorosa sold for 700,000gns], which was lovely for them. They're friends of ours and we were happy to see them having that success.”Whilst Vida Amorosa should hopefully have more good years ahead of her in the paddocks, the Morrises were devastated to lose Queen Of Power when she was foaling last year.“It's always the good ones that seems to happen to,” Lyn adds. “Vets say the most dangerous time in a filly or mare's life is when they're foaling and, by God, don't we know it. Sadly, we lost Manieree foaling as well. Her dam [Sheer Spirit] was a half-sister to Oath and she won the [G2] Blandford Stakes for us.”On a happier note, Danamight is still going strong at the age of 20, albeit she was retired after foaling a now-two-year-filly by Arizona named Queen Creek.Along with the four-year-old Sissi (Waldgeist), a daughter of Queen Of Power, it is hoped that Queen Creek will one day return to Iverk House to continue the farm's involvement with a family which can be traced back to the acquisition of Furthur's second dam, Nuit Chaud (Woodman).“Max's late wife, Isabel, bought Nuit Chaud in Keeneland from Kip and Larry McCreery,” says Lyn. “We kept Danamight because Nuit Chaud got quite a decent two-year-old colt [Hallhoo] with Mick Channon which got sold to Dubai. It's a lovely family and she's related to Danehill Dancer.“We haven't got much of the family left, except we've retained Furthur's sister by Arizona, who wouldn't be the most fashionable stallion – but then neither is Waldgeist. She'll be going up to Joseph O'Brien's in a couple of months' time. We gave most of her two-year-old year off because she's a big, tall filly, quite like Furthur.“We've also got Sissi with Joseph. She has ability, she's just got to have it firm. Before her last two races they've watered and then it's rained on top. She can't handle that, but she won her maiden at Roscommon pretty nicely. Like all of Waldgeist's progeny, she was too weak at two. She's four now and she'll probably go back into training next year.”Although looking forward to welcoming Queen Creek and Sissi to their broodmare band at the end of their racing days, the Morrises admit that they do have plans to cut back, citing the economic pressures faced by so many small breeders.“We've always had six to eight mares,” says Max. “There's a little golden rule with Thoroughbreds and breeding, going back many, many years, and I think it's 10 acres for every mare. We've kept the numbers down and kept the ground fresh for them. That's our old-fashioned way.”“We have eight mares who are coverable, but we're going to cut right back until the sales start improving,” Lyn then reveals. “We've got four yearlings and five or six foals to go to Goffs this autumn. If the foals don't make what we want, we'll bring them back and sell them as yearlings. We hope to God we can sell the yearlings decently, because it's an expensive little operation to run if you can't make your money at the sales.”There was no such problem when Furthur first went through the ring as a foal. Offered through Ballylinch at Goffs November, he sold to Paul and Michelle Motherway of TDM Bloodstock for €65,000.“We were delighted with the price,” Lyn remembers. “The Motherways had bought a New Bay out of the mare the year before, Stipulation. He was then bought by John Dance and all of his horses were not allowed to run. He didn't appear for two years, but David Loughnane has got him now and I think they're finally getting him going as a four-year-old.“So, the Motherways bought him the year before and I think Michelle fell in love with Furthur. She wasn't going to leave the sale without him and Paul said, 'What am I going to do with a Waldgeist yearling?'. They sold him for 58,000gns, virtually the same as they paid for him as a foal, but they said he was a delight to have. I've got pictures of him at the sales as a foal with the girls sort of hugging him across his back. He was just one of those lovely people.”That lovely person now has a Classic date at Doncaster in his sights for trainer Andrew Balding and owners The Merry Pranksters and Partner, with Aidan O'Brien set to provide the stiffest resistance with Scandinavia, Lambourn and, perhaps, the less-exposed Stay True (Galileo).“Three is too many, two is plenty,” Max jokes of the competition from Ballydoyle, with Lyn adding, “None would be fine by us!”The Morrises, of course, should know the O'Brien family better than most. The village of Owning they call home is also the base of Joseph O'Brien's powerful string, operating from the same yard where Aidan and Annemarie O'Brien trained before they moved to Ballydoyle.“We can go up to Joseph's any time and see them work,” Max says of their patronage of the young trainer. “We're very much involved. You get great fun when you breed a nice one. When you own them as well and you can be involved in the training alongside Joseph, it's even better. Not many people are fortunate enough to do what we can do, with such a nice guy as Joseph around as a neighbour.“We had a two-year-old last year, Last Encore, who won the Birdcatcher in Naas, and he was very much like Oath. He was out of Late Harvest, a half-sister to Manieree. Unfortunately, times are tough and we had to sell him to Saudi Arabia. I would have loved to have kept him with Joseph – we could have had some fun with him.”Win, lose or draw on Saturday, having fun is top of the list of priorities for the Morrises when it comes to following the future exploits of Furthur, with what he's achieved as a three-year-old – including a last-time-out victory in the G3 Geoffrey Freer Stakes at Newbury – potentially just scratching the surface in Lyn's view.“It's lovely to breed a horse like Furthur, because hopefully we'll have further fun with him for the next two or three years,” says Max, before Lyn adds, “I think he's going to be a much better horse next year, although I would think they might sell him to Australia. There's talk of the Melbourne Cup and everything. I think as a syndicate they will probably want to get their money back, and they'd be right to, because now is the time to sell and get the money.”Should The Merry Pranksters choose to cash in, they might be tempted to ask celebrated artist Lyn to paint a portrait of Furthur to remember him by, with her previous works including the likes of Sadler's Wells, Danehill, Sea The Stars and, of course, Oath.“Max won't pay me, that's the trouble,” jokes Lyn when it's suggested that a St Leger success might earn Furthur pride of place on the walls of Iverk House. “We'll have to get the owners of Furthur to commission it instead!“We have one of Oath. I haven't done Garrus yet, but we have his photographs up on the wall. I shall have to go and raid the money box and pinch some of Max's cash. Then I'll be happy to do it.”The post “At Least We Can Dream” – Oath Breeder Back in the Classic Fold with Furthur appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.