The days are long gone when the tabloids treated a newborn Makybe Diva foal with the same reverence as a royal birth.
Her first foal, Rockstardom, a son of the international colossus Galileo, won two of his 12 starts, at Cranbourne and Bendigo.
Transferred to Chris Waller, Rockstardom died when fracturing his skull.
His prizemoney of $29,000 was a poor return on his purchase price of $1.5 million at the 2009 Easter Yearling Sale.
Second foal, La Dolce Diva, a daughter of Kentucky Derby winner Fusaichi Pegasus (USA), failed to place in four starts.
She was purchased by Mark Kavanagh as a yearling for $1.2 million.
Two years later she was back in the sale ring and her worth had decreased to $300,000 and she was headed back to her breeder Tony Santic.
La Dolce Diva is the dam of the recent Randwick winner Touch Of Mink (Not A Single Doubt).
Makybe Diva produced a colt by Encosta de Lago who was sent to race in France.
Named Coaster, he had four starts, finishing last in two and beating one home in the other two.
Makybe Diva foaled a Lonhro colt named Taqneen who was purchased by Shadwell Australia for $360,000.
He won races at Balnarring and Merton and was last seen trialling over the hurdles at Sale back in Mal last year.
The fifth foal of Makybe Diva was a High Chaparral (IRE) colt named Surrey who was purchased by James Bester for $275,000.
He was owned by Lloyd Williams but was later sold to Graeme Rogerson in New Zealand.
Surrey made his first start as a 5yo back in May and created a good impression when winning by over two lengths at Matamata.
In two starts since Surrey has finished second and sixth.
A couple of weeks after Surrey made his winning debut, his three-year-old half-sister Divanation did the same at Werribee.
The daughter of All Too Hard was a $300,000 purchase by Tony McEvoy at the 2016 Inglis Premier Yearling Sale.
McEvoy said Divanation (pictured as a yearling ) was the one he liked most of all Makybe Diva’s foals.
He puts that opinion to the test at Morphettville on Saturday when Divanation puts her unbeaten record on the line in a benchmark 70 over 1800 metres.
Makybe Diva has a yearling filly by Brazen Beau and is in foal to Written Tycoon.
So, all is not lost for fans that marvelled at the exploits of the 3-time Melbourne Cup heroine.
