younger stallions
Record breaker
In 2020, Mehmas broke the record for number of winners sired by a first-season stallion. Aisling Crowe reviews the results for the year’s new sires with runners and analyses the progress made by 2020’s second-season sires
T
HE O’CALLAGHAN FAMILY of Tally-Ho Stud sure know a thing or two about making champion first-season sires, with this year’s title-holder the seventh Tally-Ho stallion to wear that crown and the fourth since 2014. He emulates Society Rock, his muchmissed predecessor at the Westmeath farm, in winning the title on both prize-money and winners and by siring a Group 1 winner in his first crop. That came courtesy of the Middle Park Stakes hero Supremacy, who also won the Group 2 Richmond Stakes for Clive Cox. Mehmas also smashed the European record of 37 individual winners for a first-season sire, a record previously held by Iffraaj in 2011, with 44 and still counting as the season drew to a close. What makes the success of Mehmas
What makes the success of Mehmas even more extraordinary is that he has achieved all that he has despite the truncated European season
even more extraordinary is that he has achieved all that he has despite the truncated European season, which was shut down for more than two months due to the pandemic. The highlight of a sensational season had to be his amazing 1-3 in the Middle Park – the Group 2 Gimcrack Stakes winner Minzaal taking bronze behind Supremacy. They were two of the four stakes winners from the first crop of the Group 2 July and Richmond Stakes winner, who also sired the Listed Rose Bowl Stakes winner and Group 3 Cornwallis Stakes second Method, as well as the Listed Roses Stakes winner Acklam Express. His stakes winners-torunners percentage worked out at 4.08 per cent. His stakes horses-to-runners percentage was strong – he sired ten stakes performers overall, including the Group 2 Gimcrack and Group 3 Sirenia Stakes third Mystery Smiles
www.internationalthoroughbred.net
105
