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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
See from page 105 in the pdf for tables and statistics
THE 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 much-missed 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 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 and the Group 3 Mercury Stakes second Muker. He achieved a stakes horses-to-runners percentage of 10.2 per cent.
His phenomenal ability to get winners rewarded breeders who were brave enough to take a chance on him in his second season – his yearling sales average reflecting his racecourse success at a time when sales prices were generally down significantly.
Mehmas recorded an average of €49,417 for 66 yearlings sold in Europe this autumn, up from €27,996 last year from a smaller offering of 100 in 2019.
He also doubled his number of six-figure yearlings to 11 in 2020 with a top price of 320,000gns given for Cregg Stud’s colt out of Ashtown Girl achieved at the Tattersalls October Book 2 Sale.
Ashtown Girl is a daughter of Exceed And Excel, and Mehmas’s first-crop has demonstrated an affinity with Danehill line sires – Minzaal is out of a Clodovil mare, while Mystery Smiles has former Tally-Ho resident Danetime as his broodmare sire. Three of Mehmas’s four Listed-placed horses have Danehill sons as their dam-sires.
The most expensive filly from his second-crop was a half-sister to Group 3 Goldene Peitsche winner K Club, sold for €330,000 by The Castlebridge Consignment to Hugo Merry at the Goffs Orby Sale in Doncaster. Her dam Big Boned is a Street Sense mare.
Pride of Dubai: the stakes sire
Statistically, two stallions stood out above their peers with excellent stakes winners-to-runners percentages.
Pride Of Dubai, already crowned champion first-season sire in Australia, transfered that success to the northernhemisphere with a staggering five stakes winners from just 32 runners, the best by far of any European stallion with first runners.
Considering that his dam Al Anood is a full-sister to Kodiac and half to Invincible Spirit, it doesn’t come as a major shock that a family, which has produced such top class sires, should come up with another one, especially as Pride Of Dubai is a Group 1-winning son of Street Cry.
The market for Pride Of Dubai’s first crop of northern-hemisphere yearlings wasn’t particularly strong last year, but the proving ground of any horse is the racecourse not the sales ring, and stallions should be judged on those efforts and not the price tag of their offspring.
On that metric he is second on the list of leading sires of two-year-olds in Europe behind only Kodiac, and ahead of Galileo, Zoffany, Dandy Man, Lope De Vega, Siyouni and Dubawi. Contemporaries Mehmas and Belardo also make the top ten with four stakes winners apiece.
Belardo is another of this year’s class to graduate with honours as the sire of three individual Group winners and a Listed winner for a stakes winners-to-runners rate of 8.5 per cent, the third best of the group.
Pride Of Dubai’s best runners include the Group 2 Premio Dormello and Listed Premio Coolmore winner Telepathic Glance, as well as the Group 3 Eyrefield Stakes winner Flying Visit and Star Of Emaraaty, who won the Group 3 Sweet Solera Stakes.
Pride Of Dubai: put together a good 2020 record
He is also the sire of the Listed Star Appeal Stakes winner and Group 3 Killavullan Stakes second Zaffy’s Pride and Fancy Man, who won the Listed Ascendant Stakes and was second in the Listed Stonehenge Stakes.
Sadly, Pride Of Dubai shuttled for just two northern-hemisphere seasons to Coolmore’s Fethard base from the Hunter Valley.
Stallions by Kodiac are proving to be their father’s sons
Coulsty is another first-season sire who defied expectations, and happily he is still in Ireland at Rathasker Stud.
The son of Kodiac produced four stakes performers in his first crop, two of them stakes winners, a remarkable feat given that he has been represented by just 23 runners at the time of writing.
That strike rate gives him an 8.7 per cent stakes winners-to-runners rate, the best of all the European-based first season sires.
Rathasker Stud’s Maurice Burns has a track record of success, and 2020 will be a memorable year for the right reasons for him and his family. Not only did Coulsty repay their faith, and those of the breeders who supported him, but the stud’s stalwart stallion Clodovil sired a new Group 1 winner – the Prix Marcel Boussac heroine Tiger Tanaka, who also won the Group 3 Prix Francois Boutin and was second in the Group 2 Prix Robert Papin.
Coulsty is a son of Kodiac and he enjoyed a brilliant start to his stallion career with his daughter, the David Loughnane-trained Santosha, successful in the Group 3 Princess Margaret Stakes following on from her third place in the Group 2 Duchess Of Cambridge Stakes.
Coulsty also sired the Listed Premio Repubblicche winner Suicide Squad, the Group 3 Round Tower Stakes third Coulthard, and the Listed Montrose Stakes third Coul Queen from just 23 runners and a first crop of only 45 registered foals.
The highest price achieved was 23,000gns at Tattersalls Ascot Yearling Sale at Newmarket for a colt out of Universal Circus a half-sister to the dam of Rose Of Kildare, sold by Rathasker to Highfield Bloodstock.
Adaay: an honourable second to Mehmas
From small numbers, Coulsty has made the bloodstock industry sit up and take notice, and his fee for 2021 has remained an affordable €4,000.
Whitsbury Manor Stud’s Adaay followed Mehmas – the son of Kodiac siring 21 winners. He failed to get a stakes winner, but did sire the Group 3 third Doctor Strange and two Listed-placed horses.
He had 62 runners who started 230 times – his horses living up to their expected precocity. His fee has been held at €5,000 for 2021.
Prince Of Lir was the talk of the bloodstock world after his son The Lir Jet won impressively on his June debut at Yarmouth. He was sold to Qatar Racing ahead of his Royal Ascot Norfolk Stakes (G2) victory where he beat subsequent Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf winner Golden Pal.
The Lir Jet went onto pick up Group 2 and Group 1 runner-up spots in France.
Prince Of Lir, another son of Kodiac seemingly able to transmit the Tally-Ho Stud’s patriarch’s precocity, also got two Listed-placed runners and overall 12 winners from 33 runners – a 33.33 per cent strike rate.
Kodi Bear developed a similar profile with his first crop – he got 17 winners (fourth on the list) at a 34.69 per cent strike rate and one stakes winner – Cobh, who won the Listed Stonehenge Stakes and finished third in Royal Lodge Stakes (G2).
Rathbarry Stud’s sire also got four Group-placed runners – Scarlet Bear, who was second and third in the Firth Of Clyde Stakes (G3) and the Dick Poole Stakes (G3), Measure Of Magic, third in the Flying Childers Stakes (G2), the Acomb Stakes (G3) third Broxi, and Zetland Stakes (G3) third Mystery Angel.
A surprise from France
Goken was the surprise package – he got winners early with the quicker resumption of racing in France, but his fast start achievements were not eclipsed and the Haras de Colleville sire continued to get winners through the year and stakes horses, too – Go Athletico and Livachope both Group 3 winners.
The son of Kendargent rounded off the year with a 49 per cent winners-to-runners per cent. It is likely that the sire will continue to have the strong support of his farm, and his 2021 fee of €15,000 looks warranted.
Autumn was strong for New Bay
New Bay’s future looks exciting courtesy of his two stakes winners – Royal Lodge Stakes (G2) winner New Mandate and Oh So Sharp Stakes (G3) winner Saffron Beach. Both are types who should improve as three-year-olds with the latter with a Classic campaign planned.
The son of Dubawi rounded the year off with 11 winners and a 36.33 per cent strike rate. He has had a €5,000 fee increase to €20,000 – read all the thoughts about the hopes for his future with John O’Connor of Ballylinch Stud on pages 52-56.
Twilight in the mix too
Twilight Son achieved a top five spot by winners on 17. The Cheveley Park Stud was only behind Mehmas on number of runners - his stock precocious and sound.
His Group 3 winner Aria Importante achieving that winning highlight in July, winning four races in total and going on to finish second in the Gran Criterium (G2).
Territories: interesting sire in the making
Territories, Darley’s Group 1 Prix Jean Prat-winning son of Invincible Spirit, hit the stakes board with Rougir, winner of the Prix des Reservoirs (G3) and third home in the Prix Marcel Boussac (G1), the Italian Listed winner Fulgentia, as well as with Teresa Mendoza, who finished second in the Round Tower Stakes (G3).
He is one of the seven first-crop sires to sire two stakes winners or more.
He also got four Listed placed runners – three in Italy and William Blight, third in the Ascendant Stakes.
His top BHA-rated horse was Royal Scimitar, trained by Clive Cox for Al Mohamediya Racing. He ran just three times and, after winning on his debut, collected fourth placings in the Acomb Stakes (G3) and in the Listed Flying Scotsman Stakes. Territories got three new winners of four races from the beginning of October to November, including Aldaary, who is two from two for William Haggas and was impressive at Leicester, as well as debut winner Star Jewel. The filly looks above average – her novice race 1.2 seconds faster than the second division of the same race.
Territories looks an interesting sire waiting to happen and could be value for breeders as he has been given a small fee reduction to £10,000 from £12,000.
Territories
Second-season sire Night Of Thunder keeps it rolling forward
THE LEADING FIRST-CROP sire of 2019 based on stakes winners kept the bandwagon rolling in 2020, proving that his phenomenal first season was no fluke.
Night Of Thunder is now the sire of 15 European stakes winners from his first two crops of runners, he added eight more stakes winners in 2020 to the magnificent seven from last year.
His best three-year-olds include the Group 3 Jersey Stakes winner Molatham, a first Royal Ascot winner for the 2,000 Guineas and Lockinge-winning stallion, a Classic winner in Auyantepui, who took the Group 2 Oaks d’Italia, while another daughter, No Limit Credit, was second in the Group 2 German 1,000 Guineas and won the Group 3 Schwarzgold-Rennen.
His first-crop also includes the Listed UAE 1,000 Guineas winner and Group 3 UAE Oaks second Dubai Love and the Listed winner and Group 1 Flying Five Stakes second Keep Busy.
Three of his ten Group winners to date are out of mares by Green Desert or his sons and he has two Group winners with sons of Sadler’s Wells as their broodmare sires.
Unsurprisingly, his yearlings were hot property at the sales with a clearance rate of 86 per cent for those offered and an average price of 82,621gns for 42 sold.
Darley switched him from Kildangan Stud to Dalham Hall for his third and fourth seasons, and his fee in 2018 was £15,000.
He had 16 yearlings sell for more than €100,000 in 2020 with the most expensive Pier House Stud’s colt out of Surprise (Anabaa Blue), who made 250,000gns to Shadwell at Book 2.
The colt is inbred 4x4 to Allegretta and provided the Morrin brothers with quite the return – he was purchased for 52,000gns by Peter and Ross Doyle from Houghton Bloodstock at the 2019 December Foal Sale.
The most expensive filly from his third crop sold at Book 1 to Sackville Donald, who went to 200,000gns to secure Mount Coote Stud’s half-sister to the Listed Redcar Two-Year-Old Trophy winner Wick Powell, descended from one of Meon Valley Stud’s great foundation mares, Reprocolour. Night Of Thunder’s fee has been increased from €25,000 to €75,000.
Make Believe: making waves
A stallion getting a Classic winner from his first crop really is hitting the jackpot and
in the Group 1 Prix du Jockey-Club winner Mishriff, Ballylinch Stud’s Make Believe had the perfect start to his stud career.
Mishriff defeated a field that included France’s champion two-year-old of 2019 Victor Ludorum, who won the Group 1 Poule d’Essai des Poulains, and the subsequent Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Mile winner Order Of Australia.
Make Believe had been overshadowed by his contemporaries in 2019, but the tough Mishriff, also finished second in Saudi Arabia in February, and followed up Classic glory with a win in the Prix Guillaume d’Ornano (G2).
He is one of five stakes winners so far by the Group 1 Poule d’Essai des Poulains winner, who is also the sire of Rose Of Kildare. Winner of the Group 3 Oh So Sharp and Firth Of Clyde Stakes for Mark Johnston at two, she added the Group 3 Musidora Stakes in 2020 and was second in the Group 2 German 1,000 Guineas.
Unbeaten at two, and a dual Group 1 winner over a mile at three, Make Believe is transmitting that ability to train on from two to three to his progeny.
All of his stakes-winning two-year-olds performed at stakes level at three, while Mishriff and the Group 3 Prix Belle de Nuit winner and Group 2 Park Hill Stakes second Believe In Love improved on their two-year-old form.
Make Believe has an impressive 51 per cent winners-to-runners record, while his 12 per cent stakes winners-to-runners strike-rate places him amongst the top sires operating anywhere in the world.
His yearling sales were headed by the full-brother to Rose Of Kildare, who made 175,000gns sold to Blandford Bloodstock from Oghill House Stud at Book 2.
Make Believe is out of a Green Desert mare, but has no Sadler’s Wells or Danehill in his pedigree.
The rest of the class of 2016
Gleneagles sired 44 winners and five stakes winners through 2020 behind only Night Of Thunder on both counts from this group of sires. His leading performer was Silence
Please, fourth to Miss Yoda in the Preis der Diana (G1).
The first crop by Haras de Colleville’s Galiway exceeded expectations and his second includes leading juvenile Sealiway.
Liberty Beach continued to fly the flag for Highclere Stud’s Cable Bay collecting third spots in the Group 1 King’s Stand and the Group 1 Prix de l’Abbaye. The Invincible Spirit sire was visited by 100 mares in 2020.
Muhaarar had a real flourish in the autumn. He got his first Group 3 winners – Mujba, who won the Horris Hill, always a well-regarded juvenile race, while threeyear-old filly Paix took the Prix du Lutece.
The supplemented Baradar ran well for a Group 1 third in the Futurity Stakes, Alba Rose finished third in the Rockfel
Stakes (G2), the same place also filled by Giulian in the Anglesey Stakes (G3), while Albaflora backed up a Musidora Stakes (G3) second and a Great Voltigeur (G2) fourth with second to St Leger runner-up Berkshire Rocco in the Noel Murless Stakes (L).
Golden Horn’s season had a quiet beginning, but the son of Cape Cross turned it around with a succession of winners, and useful ones, in the autumn, headed by the 108-rated Stag Horn and Lady G, rated 101.
Gold Maze also picked up a Group 3 third, Nemean Lion a Group 2 second, while the André Fabre-trained Godolphinowned and bred Botanik finished a good short-neck second in the Group 1 Criterium de Saint-Cloud.
