Fine for Dandy

Fine for Dandy

Aisling Crowe meets Joe Foley to chat about his stallion Dandy Man, the best value stallion at stud in Europe, and to introduce new Ballyhane Stud sire Soldier’s Call

ONE OF THE MOST INTERESTING, and revealing, statistics from this year’s Weatherby’s Return of Mares was the popularity of Ballyhane Stud’s Dandy Man. The 16-year-old was the fifth busiest Flat stallion in Britain and Ireland, covering 215 mares, with only Sioux Nation, Kingman, Australia and Zoffany busier than the son of Mozart.

That increased level of demand for Dandy Man was partly driven by the success of his two-year-old daughters La Pelosa and Lady Kaya in 2018 with the former winning the Grade 1 Natalma Stakes becoming her sire’s second Group 1 winner.

Joe Foley

Meanwhile, Lady Kaya showed herself to be a filly of the highest class with her second place in the Group 1 Moyglare Stud Stakes for the Lavery family.

“He gets more and more popular every year, we stood him at €12,500 last year and it could have been considerably more given the level of demand for him,” reveals Joe Foley, manager of Ballyhane Stud.

Dandy Man: is a top 20 sire by prize-money earnings and third-best by winners, yet he stands at a fee significantly less than his contemporaries

“We didn’t set out to cover 215 mares but we could have covered 350 with the demand for him! “We had to disappoint lots and lots of people but we also had to accommodate the people who have been using him over the years and had success with him – that’s how we got to a figure of 215.

“We have raised his fee to €15,000 for 2020 this year but demand remains high.”

The clamour for Dandy Man wasn’t driven solely by his high-profiled daughters as an analysis of his own performance shows. A Group 3 winner over 5f in the Palace House Stakes, the son of Mozart was a Group 1 performer who was unlucky not to win at least one sprint at the highest level with podium places in the Nunthorpe and King’s Stand Stakes.

Breeders, and buyers, have recognised the talent he transmits to his offspring, and as they continue to win, Dandy Man receives better bred mares every year.

Foley concurs: “His crops have continued to improve, especially over the last four years and you can see it in each crop that he breeds. This year’s yearling crop is better than last year’s, but 2018’s yearling crop has produced some good two year-olds and he has his highest number of two-year-old wins this year.

“His three-year-old crop is very strong, too, his two-year-old crop looks strong and his yearling crop looks stronger again so it is no surprise that people are chasing that upward curve as he increases his profile.

“He also gets very good-looking stock as well which obviously makes them popular at the sales,” he adds. “They are lovely, commercial, good-looking, good-walking, very correct and he stamps them very well so he is sort of a safe bet to breed to.

“Importantly, as well, his fillies tend to be very good and sell well so lots of people come to him and say they don’t mind whether they get a colt or a filly, there are not too many stallions you can say that about.

Peniaphobia

“Bearing all that in mind, when I think of the fee we have pitched him at compared to his yearling prices and what he can attain at the sales, it is no surprise that he has been popular and continues to be popular.”

On all metrics, Dandy Man outperforms his fee and offers outstanding value for money. He sits third in the leading sires’ table by winners in Britain and Ireland this year with the two stallions above him – Kodiac and Dark Angel – standing for multiples of the 16-year-old’s 2019 fee of €12,500, the highest he has commanded.

Behind him in the list are the elite, and expensive stallions – Galileo, Dubawi, Sea The Stars, Shamardal, Lope De Vega and Kingman – all have sired fewer winners than Dandy Man and all command significantly higher premiums.

Juvenile success, precocity and speed are the attributes most demanded of stallions in the current market.

A glance at the leading sires of two-yearolds table brings the facts into even more stark relief. Only Kodiac has sired more two-year-old winners than Dandy Man in Britain and Ireland this year and behind him sit the tried and tested, as well as the new kids on the block.

Only Kodiac has sired more two-year-old winners than Dandy Man in Britain and Ireland this year

At the sales, Dandy Man comes up trumps again and again for breeders and pin-hookers alike and that is being recognised in the growing presence of Dandy Man’s yearlings in the premium sales.

At Doncaster’s Premier Yearling Sale this year the Hong Kong Jockey Club paid £170,000 for a full-brother to Group 3 winner and Group 1 Nunthorpe third Extortionist. He was on the cusp of a glorious career in Hong Kong at four, but died before he could become another Group 1 winner for Dandy Man.

Dandy Man has done exceptionally well in Hong Kong so it was no surprise to see Michael Kinane, the HKJC’s new European representative, sign for another Dandy Man colt at Tattersalls Ireland’s September Yearling Sale.

Dandy Man’s two most expensive yearlings of 2019 were sold at the Goffs Orby Sale where the sire’s average was €119,600, a seriously impressive figure when you consider that his covering fee in 2017 was just €10,000.

The top price of €220,000 was given for the first foal out of the Listed Heritage Stakes winner Lily’s Angel, purchased by Sackville Donald, and from the family of the sire’s Group 1 Hong Kong Sprint winner Peniaphobia.

Just €10,000 less was a filly out of a half-sister to Soviet Song and from the family of Marsha who went to Pattern Bloodstock. At October Book 1 Dandy Man had two yearlings make 100,000gns and his average for the sale was 93,333gns.

Trainer Ed Dunlop paid 100,000gns for a half-brother to Listed-placed Sagaciously from the family of Group 1 winners Sagamix, Sagacity, Sageburg and Japan, while Ben McElroy bought a half-sister to Group 3-placed Alba Power, from the Aga Khan family of Shemima, Shakeel and Shimraan for the same figure.

“I think importantly Dandy Man was a very good racehorse – he may only have won a Group 3 on paper but he was a proper Group 1 horse,” reasons Foley. “He was just chinned in the King’s Stand on two different occasions; he was a horse with an awful lot of ability and was a well-bred horse out of a very fast mare who beat King Of Kings in the Anglesey and won the Molecombe, which is why I was very keen to have him.”

Foley then makes a neat segue into talking of Ballyhane Stud’s new recruit for 2020.

“That brings us to Soldier’s Call. He has a similar profile – he was a fast horse with a lot of ability who is a Group 1 horse by a very good stallion, a potent stallion, in Showcasing and, similarly to Dandy Man, the mare was a very fast mare.

“She won the Listed Prix la Fleche and was third in the Grade 3 Railbird Stakes. Interestingly, his second dam won her maiden by three and a half lengths and was favourite for the Molecomb, but broke down and never won again.

“His fourth dam won the Queen Mary and the Flying Childers Stakes and was placed in the Cheveley Park Stakes.” The speed influences in Soldier’s Call’s pedigree are clear to see. His dam Dijarvo was the third-highest rated runner by the ill-fated Coventry Stakes winner Iceman, a Cheveley Park Stud home-bred son of the top-class sprinter and leading sire Polar Falcon, and a three-parts brother to the Lockinge Stakes winner Virtual.

Soldier’s Call emulated his great-great-grandmother by winning the Group 2 Flying Childers Stakes and was also successful in the Group 3 Prix d’Arenberg and the Listed Windsor Castle Stakes at two, a first Royal Ascot winner for trainer Archie Watson and owner Steve Parkin.

He was a neck third in the Group 1 Prix de l’Abbaye and at three was placed in the King’s Stand, Nunthorpe and Flying Five Stakes.

Soldier’s Call is a son of Showcasing, who is fast becoming a highly-prized progenitor of class and speed. His leading offspring so far include this year’s leading three-year-old sprinter Advertise, and Quiet Reflection, who was his first winner of the Commonwealth Cup (G1). Soldier’s Call is the highest-rated son of Showcasing to retire to stud in Ireland and, as he is a member of the Oasis Dream branch of the Green Desert sire line, it makes him a valuable commodity in Ireland, where sons and grandsons of the July Cup winner are thin on the ground.

“He seems to have captured people’s imagination, he is a very good-looking horse as well so he has a lot of similarities with Dandy Man,” says Foley.

“He’s a high-class horse from a high-class speed family by a very good stallion and a similar type to Dandy Man as well.

“He is a very good-looking horse with a great action and is very correct as well, the type of horse I like buying at the yearling sales. He has a beautiful temperament to match and he had that in training too; he has a brilliant attitude and is a very relaxed horse and I think that is a huge asset in a stallion prospect,” Foley says of his new stallion. “I am looking forward to building his career. We will support him in the breeding shed and the sales ring, but we will be very interested to see his stock selling in the ring. Let’s hope he is lucky,” he adds.

With the established Dandy Man’s best yet to come and the exciting Soldier’s Call joining him in Leighlinbridge, it is shaping up to be a thrilling New Year for Ballyhane Stud.