ITB_ NH Issue 2024

Winners together

Emilie Seigle with the County Hurdle hero Absurde. He was previously seventh in the 2023 Melbourne Cup and won last summer’s Ebor Handicap

HAY MEADOW, owned, trained and bred by Billy Codd, landed the 4YO Mares Maiden at Ballyragget on 17th March. She is one of only two point-to-point runners to date from her sire’s first Irish crop of 4YOs.

BUCKNA, bred by Close Holding Ltd, won the 4YO Maiden at Kirkistown for Ger Quinn and at £350,000 was the top-priced gelding at the Tattersalls Cheltenham Festival Sale

WORKING

FUTURE PROSPECT, bred by Margaret Treacy, won the 4YO Mares Maiden by 4 lengths at Castlelands for Denis Murphy and sold for £150,000 at the Cheltenham Festival Sale

Epsom Derby winner from the MONTJEU sireline

Triple Group 1 winner by GALILEO

IDAHO VALLEY, bred Willie McCarthy made a winning debut at Tallow last month for Mary Doyle. The same handler’s QUANTUM QUEST sold for £120,000 at the Cheltenham Festival Sale having run a fine third at Borris House on his only start.

Group 1 performer at 2, 3, 4 and 5 years by GALILEO

❝Montjeu’s influence in the winter game is old news, of course, but there was a breakthrough last week for the reputation of Coolmore’s other great son of Sadler’s Wells, Galileo, as a National Hunt sire of sires. Seven of his sons got on the festival scoresheet this year❞

Martin Stevens, Good Morning Bloodstock, 18th March

Contact:

8 It’s Leo

It was an up-and-down month for Leo, who was the surprised (and worthy) recipient of the ITBA industry award

12 State of play

Many of the expected horses from the Willie Mullins juggernaut were successful, but some unexpected names popped up on the scoreboard, too

20 Jumping at speed

Page Fuller of RaceiQ analyses standout Festival performances by data

24 NH stallion statistics

Courtesy of Weatherbys

28 Just Capital

Ronan Groome meets with Ger O’Neill, who stands the recently repatriated NH sire Authorized at his rapidly expanding Capital Stud

36 Agent of change

James Thomas chats with ex-jockey

Jerry McGrath, who has ensured that an unexpected end to his riding career has not held him back from forging a new life as a bloodstock agent

42 High speed

Noel Fehily Racing has grown organically and now lists 31 NH horses in training, James Thomas meets the man behind the organisation

46 New NH sires at stud

We profile the new names on the jumping rosters in Britain and Ireland

54 Young NH sires in Britain

Some exciting names are making a mark with their early crops on the racecourse and in the sale ring

64 Young NH sires in Ireland

Selected stallions with first crop seven-year-olds and younger come under analysis

86 NH stakes-winning sires

Table of stallions who have produced a jumps black-type winner from April 1, 2023 to March 16, 2024

90

NH foal sales

Statistics through 2023

92 NH store sales

Statistics through 2023

94 NH covering statistics

Our unique table showing the size and quality of books seen by British and Irish jumps sires in 2023

98 Photo finish

Protektorat and Envoi Allen upsides at the last in the Grade 1 Ryanair Chase – between them the talented pair have won over £1.6 million in prize-money earnings 20

Emilie Seigle with Absurde by Debbie Burt

Shock and delight

A mixed month for Leo – he enjoyed the ITBA Awards (and was a surprised recipient) but then had to miss Cheltenham due to an unexpected hospital stay

WHAT A ROLLER-COASTER MONTH it has been. Looking back, and even as I document the happenings of this period, there are large doses of disbelief still. There have been incredible highs and some disappointments, both personally and professionally. For certain, there has been little time for boredom, and I will attempt to put into words, and share my feelings, on some of these happenings. Best to start at the top.

Such is the importance of the evening that it is attended by senior members of the Irish government

For many years, more than it is good to recall, I have had the honour of acting as master of ceremonies at the Irish Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association’s (ITBA) National Awards ceremony. It is a personal highlight each year, helping to celebrate the best of the Irish breeding industry. Ten awards are presented for the top equines, Flat and National Hunt, while there are four awards given to people for their personal achievements. Such is the importance of the evening that it is attended by senior members of the Irish Government, their presence showing how valuable the breeding

Amy Marnane receives her Next Generation Award from Cathal Beale of the Irish National Stud

sector is to the economy, delivering as it does significant exchequer revenue, providing employment throughout the island, and also delivering on the green agenda; the success of Irish horses around the world an ongoing good news story.

For those of you who have been to the evening, it is truly spectacular. Some 400 guests attend wearing blacktie, the event is streamed live globally, and the 14 awards are accompanied by superb video footage celebrating the successes and achievements of the recipients. Often, and again this year, there is a high degree of emotion in the room.

This was especially evident at the start of the evening when we paid tribute to the ITBA’s recently deceased chief executive, Una Tormey McElroy.

The ITBA’s Next Generation wing is a vibrant group of young professionals engaged in many aspects of the industry, and in recent years they have a member who is honoured for their work. This year’s recipient Amy Marnane has not only made a name for herself, but she continues to keep her family name to the forefront of the business. Amy’s dad, the hugely popular Con, was the proudest man in the room and emotions were high as everyone recalled Con’s late wife Theresa, who died last year; how proud she would have been.

MY

GREAT FRIENDS Meta

Osborne and Dermot Cantillon were inducted into the Hall of Fame, a special moment for Meta as she joined her father Michael on that roll of honour. This “power couple” have made such a variety of contributions to the breeding, racing and veterinary areas, and they have much still to offer. They were surrounded by family and friends to join in the revelries.

The Wild Geese Award celebrates Irish men and women who have made a significant contribution to the industry away from their native shore. Littleton Stud’s David Bowe was this year’s recipient, the man who has guided the fortunes and successes of Jeff Smith’s farm for a long time now. How appropriate it was that he should be acknowledged so soon after his boss was presented with the Cartier Award of Merit.

The final “human” award is that for Contribution to the Industry, and somewhat unusually it was the only one on that night for which the recipient was not named in advance.

As master of ceremonies I was one of the few who “knew” the name of the winner, and the unusual veil of secrecy was due to the fact that the man getting it would have been too bashful to accept it. As the “supposed” winner was someone I have known all my professional life, I was excited for the presentation.

Amy’s dad, the hugely popular Con, was the proudest man in the room and emotions were high as everyone recalled Con’s late wife Theresa, who died last year; how proud she would have been

Imagine the pure shock when, turning the tables, the awards committee led by Ballyhane Stud’s Joe Foley started to show the tribute footage, and I was announced as the recipient. The following minutes on stage were a complete blur, and it was only in the days afterwards that I got to hear so many kind words spoken about me.

As great as the award itself is, proudly taking centrestage at home, hearing the likes of Kirsten Rausing, Jacqueline Norris, Nick Nugent, Joe Connolly and Matt Dempsey speak of me and my career was truly humbling.

To each of them I offer my sincere thanks, to the ITBA I say this has been the honour of my life to receive, and to the hundreds of people from around the world who offered me congratulations I cannot tell you what they mean to me.

Whatever about my contribution to the industry, I am deeply moved that my peers in this wonderful world of thoroughbred breeding, racing and sales saw fit to recognise my lifetime involvement.

I love the industry, I adore its participants, and I will continue to make the best efforts I can to it in the years ahead. Oh, and who says you cannot keep a secret in this business?

Our man Leo with HRI’s Suzanne Eade and his award for Contribution to the Industry

Missing Cheltenham was literally a pain

The disappointment of the past month was my inability, for just the second occasion in more than four decades with the exception of the pandemic, to attend Cheltenham. This annual pilgrimage to the shrine of jump racing is set in stone in my calendar.

Instead, I languished in a hospital bed, my only access to the racing coverage being on my mobile telephone.

An unexpected dash to A&E instead of a trip to Dublin Port to catch the ferry to Holyhead signalled the end of my hopes to travel to Prestbury Park. My nice room with a view of the Cotswolds replaced by a bed in a public ward of the Tallaght University Hospital.

An elevated infection and severe pain was the cause of my late withdrawal, but thankfully my return to full health is now well advanced.

It is typical of life in Ireland that there are few places you can go, even hospital, where some connection to horses is not immediately evident.

One of the senior nurse managers on the Lane Ward in the hospital was from a well-known family of bookmakers, and she would pop her head in to tell me of her latest winning wager, starting with Grey Dawning. She had foregone a trip to Cheltenham herself in order to attend Aintree instead.

One of the staff nurses told me, after I bemoaned for

It is typical of life in Ireland that there are few places you can go, even hospital, where some connection to horses is not immediately evident

the nth time that I was missing the Festival, that she was a neighbour of Jessica Harrington, and had as a young girl been a keen pony racing participant. Stories such as this are all too common.

A week before my hospitalisation, I was in another such institution to have a small procedure. When I was in the recovery room, the nurse in charge turned out to be a first cousin of Ger Lyons.

That’s Ireland.

These are among numerous examples I could list of how close people in Ireland are to the land, and to someone in the racing or breeding industries. While the world is becoming increasingly urbanised, we are fortunate to have so many in the population who are only a generation or two removed from the land.

Needless to say, I was bombarded each day of my stay in hospital with requests for a tip. As a non-punter I don’t usually concern myself with tipping, but there was no escaping on this occasion.

Mercifully, I did manage each day to give my fellow patients one each-way shot at odds of 5/1 or better, and while none of them won, all managed to place. I could at least hold my head up.

A downside of being confined to bed for the week of Cheltenham was that I had more time than was healthy to be on social media.

Whitsbury on the crest of another wave

AN EARLY START to the season saw the Curragh open the Flat Turf season just after our celebration of St Patrick’s Day, with the first two-year-old race sponsored by Ger O’Neill’s Capital Stud and run in the names of two of his young sires, Alkumait and Castle Star. The race was run just days after the first juvenile race in Europe was staged in France. The winner at The Curragh deserves a special mention on a number of fronts.

Named by Sue Magnier in honour of the Russian composer, pianist, and conductor, Sergei Prokofiev is a Whitsbury Manor Stud sire whose son Arizona Blaze, in the silks of Amo Racing and Giselle de Aguiar, won the opening two-year-old race of 2024 in Ireland. Adrian Murray trains the winner, and last year he sent out Bucanero Fuerte to win the same race.

I hardly need to remind you of what Bucanero Fuerte achieved subsequently. He added the Group 1 Keeneland Phoenix Stakes and Group 2 Gain Railway Stakes to his tally of victories, while he placed in the Group 1 Goffs Vincent O’Brien National Stakes and the Group 2 Coventry Stakes. Could this year’s winner be as successful?

Showcasing and Havana Grey have catapulted Ed Harper’s Whitsbury Manor Stud into another stratosphere in terms of stallions, and while it is early doors yet, the former Ballydoyle inmate Sergei Prokofiev could be another star in the making. Trained by Aidan O’Brien and bought for $1,100,000 as a yearling, Sergei Prokofiev was a group winner at Newmarket as a two-year-old, while the Canadian-bred son of Scat Daddy won a listed sprint in Ireland at three. He went to stud at the very reasonable fee of £6,500.

Sergei Prokofiev has some 121 juveniles to potentially represent him this year, and covered

an average of 150 mares in each of his first three seasons at stud. He must surely be short odds to become the leading first season sire, and the changing face of that title race will engage me and many others for the months ahead.

Where is the biggest challenge to Sergei Prokofiev likely to come from? The obvious choices are Pinatubo and Earthlight. An unbeaten champion at two when he memorably won the Group 1 Goffs Vincent O’Brien National Stakes at the Curragh by nine lengths, Pinatubo has 109 two-year-olds to represent him.

Fellow Darley stallion Earthlight, like Pinatubo a two-year-old Group 1 winner by Shamardal, has 108 juveniles. Both will attempt to emulate the achievements last year of Blue Point. While these three stand out, could there be a dark horse among the likes of Far Above, Ghaiyyath, Arizona, Kameko, Mohaather, Sands of Mali, and Shaman?

The four days left me feeling quite despondent. Negativity about the meeting was everywhere, and while I do not always wear rose-tinted spectacles, I fail to understand why so many professionally engaged in the sport can only see the downside.

For starters, I would like to see less talk about domination. The whole Ireland versus Britain narrative around NH racing is not needed. We are co-dependant on each other, and the fortunes of racing in both jurisdictions are cyclical.

Instead of bemoaning the successes enjoyed by horses trained in one country, or even in one yard, the challenge is for everyone else to raise their game and be the next to reach the summit.

If the sport and industry keeps putting out a negative image of racing, how are we going to attract new blood into ownership?

The onus has to be on the authorities getting the fundamentals in place to make owning a racehorse an attractive proposition. One of the keys to this continues to be prize-money, while also having all stakeholders working towards a common goal.

Having all sectors in Ireland working side by side under the umbrella of Horse Racing Ireland is a tremendous advantage, and while not everything is perfect, the template is a good one.

If the sport and industry keeps putting out a negative image of racing, how are we ever going to attract new blood into ownership?

Taking on a new challenge

While I continue to be contributing editor to The Irish Field, my move away from being the overall editor last year has opened up new opportunities, one of which is being a columnist here.

Another new role that has presented itself, and been accepted by me, is that of independent chairman of the Bloodstock Industry Forum (BIF). This body was established in August 2021 following the Felice Report, commissioned by the British Horseracing Authority, into the buying and selling of bloodstock. The principal manifestation of the BIF’s work since then has been the adoption of the Bloodstock Industry Code of Practice at all Tattersalls and Goffs sales in Britain and Ireland.

BIF is made up of representatives of the main players in the British and Irish bloodstock industry, with members from sales companies, bloodstock agents, owners, consignors, and regulatory and promotion bodies.

BIF’s role is to monitor the effectiveness of the Code of Practice, oversee the structures that support the code, and to make recommendations for actions.

In a world that increasingly demands transparency and good governance, the objective of the BIF has never been more important, ensuring the integrity and reputation of bloodstock sales in Ireland and Britain.

By Sergei Prokofiev, the winner is out of the Equiano mare Liberisque and

Partners

. Arizona Blaze beats Rowdy Yeats in the first juvenile race of the new Irish Flat season.

was bred by Andrew Bengough and

It was a deserved Champion Hurdle victory for State Man, who took his earnings over £1 million with an 11th career success and a ninth at the highest level

State of play

Many “expected” horses won as part of the Willie Mullins juggernaut, but a few different names popped up, too

MANY OF THE WINNERS at this year’s Festival were pretty much preordained results –Galopin Des Champs was the class horse going into the Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup, State Man was never going to be threatened in the Champion Hurdle, Gaelic Warrior was expected in the Arkle Novice Chase, and the beautiful Lossiemouth, sent off the 8/11 favourite, duly picked up the Grade 1 Close Brothers Mares’ Hurdle.

The Prestbury Cup went as expected with 18 training victories going to Ireland and a better than expected nine to Great Britain, while the French and the Irish dominated the breeding ranks with 12 Irish-bred winners, 11 from France and two apiece from

Britain and Germany. France led the way with the Grade 1 winners produced on eight, Ireland bagged five and Germany scored one win, GB did not get register.

Three of the week’s winners came from top quality Flat pedigrees – it would normally be expected that Wertheimer Et Frere (Absurde), Meon Valley Stud (Golden Ace) and the Niarchos Family (Gaelic Warrior) to have bred winners at Royal Ascot rather than Cheltenham in March.

One of those top-quality British-bred winners came in probably the lowest-key races on the card, but it created the largest cheer and had people reminiscing of Cheltenham of days gone by with a buzzing atmosphere around the winners’ enclosure.

Golden Ace, the Jeremy Scott-trained sixyear-old ridden by Lorcan Williams, owned

The Gold Cup king again: Galopin Des Champs returns in triumph for a second year in succession

Photos by Debbie Burt

by

Ian Gosden and by the now local-toCheltenham stallion Golden Horn, won the Grade 2 Ryanair Mares’ Novices Hurdle.

Gosden had purchased Golden Ace as a dual-purpose type for just 12,000gns at the Tattersalls July HIT Sale from Meon Valley. She was originally bred to be a Classic possible imitating the Oaks runner-up Noushkey who is in the pedigree, it meant that she had possibly the best and highestquality pedigree of any of the Festival winners this year.

She was unraced when sold by Mark Weinfeld’s stud farm, and still required time after Gosden’s purchase, the owner wisely giving her another 18 months before she made it to a racecourse for a bumper.

She duly won that in December 2022 sent off 18-1, then took fifth in an Ascot bumper in February and picked up her first blacktype when second in the Grade 2 Goffs UK Nickel Coin Mares NH Flat race at Aintree.

She was 9l then behind Dysart Enos, who would have been sent off favourite at Cheltenham but did not make race day after pulling out lame.

Golden Ace has now run three times over hurdles, twice at Taunton and then at Cheltenham, and is unbeaten, and, as Page Fuller has written on page 20, the mare’s speed wins her the races.

It was a first Festival winner for trainer Jeremy Scott, who has reported that Golden Ace is likely to go to Aintree next.

The filly is by Golden Horn and,

significantly, she is the sire’s first Festival winner. He is standing as a developing dual-purpose sire for the enthusiastic Jayne McGivern’s Dash Grange Stud standing at Overbury Stud, and she was beaming with pride after the race.

The race is often derided for being on the race card at all, but the victory gave a lot of pleasure to connections, and the winners’ enclosure reception that the team received was rapturous and something that had possibly been missing over the previous three days while the Willie Mullins train was in full tilt. It is a concern for all who want to see the NH game prosper the dominance by a few large teams, a dominance that results in largely uncompetitive racing and a dearth of stories upon on which the game prospers and thrives.

Even Patrick Mullins in his Racing Post Festival review

reported that the winners he and his father had at the meeting don’t feel like they used to, and really the Mullins team should not be dominating as it does.

Going back to Golden Horn... the stallion is British-based, is in full active service and is getting winners, three factors which rarely coincide.

He now stands at a fee of £10,000 and presumably could become a more expensive sire now, let’s hope McGivern can resist the riches for the good and the needs of British racing.

Stallion Ocovango fits into that same category – alive, in Britain and progressive –and he was represented by his “terrier like” Langer Dan who won his second Coral Cup.

Post-race trainer Dan Skelton alluded to the individual nature of Langer Dan’s character (he can’t be trained in winter, he likes to do his own thing and has to be kidded along in his gallops) but there is no doubting the tenaciousness with which the horse has gone about winning his races.

Ocovango has also had 18 winners in point-to-points in Ireland this spring and is second on that leading sires’ list so his star should be in the ascendancy as those horses come to run under Rules.

Ocovango and Golden Horn give some

Inothewayurthinkin: wins the Kim Muir and sets up a Festival 2024 chasing double for the mare Sway

Trainer Jeremy Scott receives the plaudits after Golden Ace’s victory

hopes that British NH breeders have quality proven sires within an accessible and easy driving distance for their mares and hopefully the future results can start to lead to an improvement on British-bred results at future Festival.

With a few more decent winners under his belt Telescope could hit that grade too, while with a bit of luck on his side Jack Hobbs could join the gang as well.

With the improvement in the mares’ programme NH breeders are getting a chance to hold on to their fillies and develop a profile for them, but with current financial pressures and such a polarised sale ring, it is a hard path to forge.

The plan for this piece was not for it to be a devotion to British breeding stallion ranks, but some traction has developed for the British-based NH sires. While the Irish-based Walk In The Park did end up as the second-best leading sire by winners behind the veteran Saint Des Saints, who at 26 is amazingly still advertised with a fee and seemingly has found the elixir of life, the Irish stallion no way dominated the racing as his sales results would suggest; it led to many belatedly commentating just how estranged the sales ring is from the racecourse.

The sire of six Grade 1 winners, Walk In

Ocovango has had 18 winners in point-to-points in Ireland this spring and is second on the leading sires’ list

The Park’s first crop since moving to Ireland are now seven-year-olds, and from that first batch included Facile Vega, whose first Grade 1 win came in 2021, while the Frenchbred Jonbon scored at the highest level a year later. His non-Festival appearance was a lose to his sire’s 2024 record.

However, Walk In The Park’s Festival Kim Muir winner Inothewayyurthinkin might be one to add positively to his sire’s profile – an impressive winner at Prestbury Park for JP McManus and Derek O’Connor, the subsequent Racing Post analysis touted him as a future National type.

It has been a strong spring in the Irish point-to-point field for the McManus-

O’Connor axis with many of the early fouryear-old maidens collected by the team.

It means the racing future should well be bright for McManus, who enjoyed a fine Festival anyway with five winners and was the leading owner.

Inothewayurthinkin is out of the Califet mare Sway and she achieved the remarkable achievement of producing two Festival winners, full-siblings, in the same year – her daughter Limerick Lace won the Grade 2 Mrs Paddy Power Mares Chase.

She could be heading to the National before her brother and the market reacted to her success by cutting her price for the big Liverpool event to 25-1 from 40s.

They are both McManus homebreds, the 18-year-old mare Sway purchased from Guy Cherel as a three-year-old with eight runs under her belt having fallen when holding chances in the Grade 2 Prix Bournosienne.

She was sent into training with Jonjo O’Neill and again looked like the winner on her first UK run in the Grade 2 National Spirit Hurdle at Fontwell until falling three out, then took 11th of 17 behind Quevega in the 2010 Grade 2 Festival mare’s hurdle and then went chasing, which, despite her hurdling record, did not result in a fall and she gained two victories but no black-type.

Her recent breeding record has seen her produce a colt by Walk In The Park in 2022, a filly by him in 2023 and she is due to him again this spring. Her 2020 foal has been named Thatsdwayimthinkin and is by an outlier stallion in Getaway.

THE AMAZING Presenting

maintained his dominance in broodmare sire category and is dam sire of three winners – Chianti Classico, winner of the Grade 3 Ultima Handicap Chase, the Grade 1 Queen Mother Champion Chase winner Captain Guinness, and the Grade 3 Plate winner Shakem Up‘Arry. He also had two third-placed results in Grade 1s courtesy of Home By The Lee in the Stayers’ Hurdle, and Conflated in the Ryanair Chase.

The youngest sire to get a placed result at the meeting was The Gurkha, whose sixyear-old mare Luccia finished third in the Champion Hurdle for owner-breeder Pump

Whatever her brother can do, Limerick Lace can match: she wins the Grade 2 Mrs Paddy Power Chase

Her Hurricane Run dam Earth Amber achieved a Grade 3 place in the Sagaro Stakes for Henderson and was bred by the Marquesa De Moratalla from her Dansili mare Too Marvelous.

The Poule D’Essai Des Poulains and Sussex Stakes-winning sire, a son of Galileo, now stands at Roveagh Lodge Stud for €3,500 having started out at Coolmore in

2017 at a fee of €25,000.

They couldn’t be more different.

Sir Alex Ferguson over the years has developed a passion for red wine (of course it had to be red), in particular the eyewateringly expensive £1,000-a-bottle Petrus and reckons he has over 800 bottles of fine wines in three wine fridges in his garage.

And, although Harry Redknapp also

enjoys a glass, it’s never more than two and he hasn’t been to a pub for 40 years.

It’s customary for opposing football managers to meet an hour before a match starts, a chance to discuss tactics, team news, and transfer targets. Not for Ferguson and Redknapp though – whenever they met one of the racing channels would be turned on at 2:15 and a few cheeky bets placed before the

Sir Alex Ferguson (grey suit with the horse): enjoying his Festival victory with joint-owner John Hales after Protektorat’s thrilling Ryanair success

kick-off started at 3:00pm.

It’s difficult to pinpoint exactly when Sir Alex developed his love for racing but Redknapp is crystal clear on his saying “I’ve grown up with racing being a big part of my life. My old nan was the bookie’s runner down our street in the East End and she used to get locked up every day for taking bets.”

Both managers are footballing royalty.

Ferguson reigned supreme across 27 years at Old Trafford, restoring Manchester United to footballing glory and winning 13 championships in the process. Redknapp never won the Premier League but did win an FA Cup with Portsmouth and outside football was crowned the winner of I’m A Celebrity – both men kings in one way or another.

Unsurprisingly, both men ventured into racehorse ownership. Redknapp’s first horse was Slick Cherry, a modest filly trained by David Elsworth and owned in partnership with some Bournemouth players. His best horse on the Flat has been Moviesta who won the Group 2 King George Stakes at Glorious Goodwood in 2014 and finished third in the Group 1 Prix de l’Abbaye at

Spirit Dancer whom he bred himself. That first place prize-money haul of £945,000 added to the £500,000 the son of Frankel picked up last November winning a Group 2 in Bahrain.

And yet despite their differences, fastforward to last week’s Cheltenham Festival and a common bond appears bringing the two men together, both enjoying sheer unbridled and scarcely-believable delight.

Remarkably both men enjoyed their first Festival winners on Day 3 of the Festival –Redknapp’s Shakem Up’Arry scooted home in the TrustATrader Plate after Ferguson had won two races earlier on the card (he would, wouldn’t he?) with Monmiral, winner of the Pertemps Final, and Protektorat, the latter claiming the Grade 1 Ryanair Chase.

Redknapp almost scored an injury time equaliser on the final day, but his The Jukebox Man was headed on the line in the Albert Bartlett.

The enthusiastic Ferguson hailed his Cheltenham success as “his greatest day in

racing”. Redknapp said “To be here now in this position is incredible.

“I’ve been lucky to be able to get into racing as an owner. It is really incredible for me. It was special today – you dream of having a winner at Cheltenham.”

See. They’re not so different after all.

British racing is lucky to have them in the sport, and it is noticeable that they monopolised British success at the meeting.

The pair are true competitors who understand the downs as well as the ups, the nature of sport, and are seemingly in for the long term and happy to have their horses trained on home soil.

They also have the cash that successful careers in football can provide, though it might be debatable that they will put the huge funds to equine purchasing that Kevin Blake seems to believe British-based trainers need to encourage its owners to be doing in order to be successful at the top of the sport.

Both are far too sensible for that.

What a leap: Shakem Up’Arry shows off his athleticism and jumping prowess when winning the Plate Handicap for owner Harry Redknapp (below)

Jumping at speed

A first article produced by Page Fuller from RaceiQ – she provides us with in-depth data analysis of jumping and race pace from some of the highlights of the four-day Festival

AS A STARTING POINT, it doesn’t get better than dissecting our flagship jumps racing meeting, the Cheltenham Festival.

The very nature of NH breeding means it can take a stallion a few years to land a top-level race, but we opened Festival week with one young stallion bagging his first Grade 1 – Shade Oak Stud’s Telescope. The breakthrough victory came courtesy of his six-year-old Slade Steel, whose only two career defeats from six runs

have been behind Ballyburn, subsequent highly impressive winner of the Grade 1 Gallagher Novices’ Hurdle.

Under a typically cool ride from Rachael Blackmore, Slade Steel was produced off the bend and took the lead into the last. His backers must have had their hearts in their mouths as they saw him prick his ears as he approached it and start steadying as he went into the wings.

From our Lengths Gained Jumping Model (see right) the Henry de Bromhead-trained gelding gave away nearly a length and

three-quarters to Mystical Power from this greenness, and yet he still managed to get back up to win convincingly.

The performance was certainly enough to suggest that there is plenty more to come from him.

In the Grade 1 Arkle Challenge Trophy, Found A Fifty (Solskjaer) proved that the fastest horse does not always win the race.

Found A Fifty registered the fastest Top Speed of all the runners we saw all week notching up a massive 36.84mph when charging down the hill, nearly a second

Supreme Novices’ Hurdle winner Slade Steel (pink) leads Mystical Power (8) over the last, the winner was actually headed as they left the hurdle

faster than the 35.94 mph registered by the race winner Gaelic Warrior, whose jockey Paul Townend sat happily in behind the two pace setters.

On turning in, Townend made use of the Maxios six-year-old’s superior staying ability and the gelding won with plenty in hand.

Most horses tend to slow down as they reach the finish line, but the hill seemed to make little difference to Gaelic Warrior and he completed his final two furlongs in 15.55s and 15.67s. In comparison Found A Fifty tired to finish with final furlongs splits of 16.37s and 17.30s.

Festival Day 2 saw the Willie Mullinstrained Fact To File live up to every expectation had of him pre-race. His wellfancied opponent Stay Away Fay failed to

set particularly strong fractions, even with the application of cheekpieces, which meant that Fact To File was able to use his speed to gallop them into the ground up the hill.

He recorded the highest Finishing Speed Percentage of all the chasers through the week – quickening up to 110.16 per cent. This meant he covered the last half a mile about 10 per cent quicker than he did through the rest of the race.

It was an impressive performance on the testing ground, but the progeny of his sire Poliglote do have a 20 per cent strike rate on soft ground (Racing Post) and 19 per cent strike rate on heavy so such a performance should not have been a surprise.

The leading stallion of the meeting was Saint Des Saints, and his progeny boast a

Explaining the data behind the figures

O UR MISSION is to bring a new level of data analysis to horseracing alongside the rollout of sectional data across Britain and Ireland. With the help of GPS trackers that capture 18 data points per second, we can build an in-depth picture of a horse’s movements through a race.

Over time we will be developing a suite of metrics to be able to dig deeper into horses’ performances and understand more about what has happened within a race than our eye initially sees.

But we have used these two stats in this piece and here is how they are calculated.

The difference in jumping the last between Mystical Power and Slade Steel is evident through the data here: the former was much better, but Slade Steel’s class still managed to get him home in front

22 per cent strike-rate on heavy ground easily his progeny’s best ground record. Again it shouldn’t have been a surprise that Monmiral, Protektorat, and Sine Nomine all finished in front and carried the Haras d’Etreham-based 26-year-old stallion to joint-honours as leading sire (by number of winners) of the week.

Thursday was a stand-out with two horses recording very fast times – and the first might be a something of a revelation as it was the Grade 1 Stayers’ Hurdle winner Teahupoo, who posted the fastest Top Speed of any hurdlers over the four-day meeting.

IT IS NOT OFTEN you see a horse win at graded level over 2m, 2m4f as well as 3m, but the son of Masked Marvel was able to use his pace to such effect that he registered a Top Speed of 36.25mph when galloping down the hill.

With his jockey Jack Kennedy using that speed at the perfect moment, it meant the seven-year-old breezed into the race and was in the perfect challenging position turning in, yet without having used too much energy in order to register his first Grade 1 victory over the 3m trip.

The second speed machine on Thursday was the Jermey Scott-trained Golden Ace in the Grade 2 Ryanair Mares’ Novice Hurdle.

The lack of race pace turned the finish into

Finishing Speed Percentage (FSP): uses the sectionals to calculate the speed a horse covers over the last half a mile of a race, as a percentage of its overall race speed.

Lengths Gained Jumping (LGJ) Model: uses speed and position data to measure every horse’s jumping performance.

If you imagine that the average horse jumping a fence records a zero –so that effectively zero is the par figure – we can put a positive or negative number of lengths on every horse’s jump at every fence.

That enables us to evaluate exactly how they’re jumping compared to the rest of the field.

GREY DAWNING (left)

winner of TURNERS NOVICES’ CHASE, GRADE 1

sold Tattersalls Ireland Derby Sale by Castledillon Stud (Agent) to Brendan Bashford Bloodstock for €40,000

STELLAR STORY (right)

winner of ALBERT BARTLETT NOVICES’ HURDLE, GRADE 1

sold at Tattersalls Cheltenham Festival Sale by Monbeg Stables (Donnchadh Doyle) to Gordon Elliott Racing for £310,000

BALLYBURN

winner of GALLAGHER NOVICES’ HURDLE, GRADE 1

sold Tattersalls Ireland November NH Sale by The Beeches Stud to Ian Ferguson for €80,000

SLADE STEEL

winner of SUPREME NOVICES’ HURDLE, GRADE 1

sold Tattersalls Ireland May Store Sale by Jossestown Farm to Galgystown Stables for €30,000

GOLDEN ACE

winner of MARES NOVICES’ HURDLE, GRADE 2

sold Tattersalls July Sale by Meon Valley Stud to Ian Gosden for 12,000gns

LANGER DAN

winner of CORAL CUP

sold Tattersalls Ireland November NH Sale for The Premier Consignment to Ballinaroone Stud for € 12,000

CHIANTI CLASSICO

winner of ULTIMA HANDICAP CHASE, PREMIER H’CAP sold at Tattersalls Cheltenham April Sale by Milestone Stables (Colin Bowe) to Aiden Murphy / Kim Bailey for £105,000

Cheltenham

Cheltenham

UNEXPECTED PARTY

winner of GRAND ANNUAL HANDICAP CHASE sold Tattersalls Ireland Derby Sale by Kilminfoyle House Stud to Tom Malone for € 155,000

SHAKEM UP’ARRY

winner of TRUSTATRADER PLATE sold Tattersalls Ireland November NH Sale by The Beeches Stud to Marsh Farm for € 28,000

LARK IN THE MORNIN

winner of BOODLES JUVENILE HANDICAP HURDLE sold Tattersalls Guineas Breeze Up by Powerstown Stud to Blandford Bloodstock for 130,000 gns

BETTER DAYS AHEAD

winner of MARTIN PIPE CONDITIONAL JOCKEYS’ HANDICAP HURDLE

sold Tattersalls Cheltenham Festival Sale by Bernice Stables (Warren Ewing) to Bective Stud/Gordon Elliott for £ 350,000

with two horses recording very fast times

a sprint and winner recorded the fastest final furlong achieved over the four days – 14.83s, even faster than the 14.90s recorded by State Man in the Champion Hurdle.

It also meant that she clocked the highest Finishing Speed Percentage of the week with

It is a good sign for her now dual-purpose stallion Golden Horn, who was bagging a first Festival winner. His delighted owner Jayne McGivern of Dash Grange Stud was all smiles in the winners’ enclosure and reported that the stallion’s book is full.

We don’t have a cheering monitor, but Golden Ace also received the biggest welcome of the week courtesy of seemingly a large Scott, West Country-based youth following.

Friday saw the return of the mighty Galopin Des Champs – his performance in

In the autumn when we launched our Lengths Gained Jumping Metric we gave

the horse quite a hard time – his style of jumping means he sometimes hangs in the air and can give away unnecessary lengths.

We honed in on this when he was beaten in November’s 2m3f John Durkan Chase – his jumping saw him gave away 16l compared to his victor Fastorslow, and yet he was beaten less than 2l.

Back up to 3m and even his slightly ponderous jumping can’t stop him. The eight-year-old son of Timos has now produced three monster performances this season, and Townend’s positive Gold Cup ride seemed to help his jumping, too.

He gained more than 8l when jumping compared to Gerri Colombe (Elliott reported on Nick Luck on Sunday that his horse needs to “flatten” his technique), and even the loose-running rival Fastorslow didn’t distract Galopin des Champs’ focused run to the line.

Galopin Des Champs’ jumping got better the further he went in the Gold Cup, while Gerri Colombe’s relative inexperience probably caught him out

Speedy lady: Golden Ace (Golden Horn) put in the fastest final furlong of the week

Page Fuller: rode as a professional NH jockey for five years, and this next chapter of her career sees her working as lead editorial analyst for RaceiQ. For more information on the data work carried out by iRaceQ take a look at the X feed @Race_iQ.

Sire of four Grade 1 winners incl.

Il Etait Temps - now winner of two Grade 1’s

3-y-o’s sold in 2023 realised up to €150,000

Five P-to-P horses sold in excess of €100,000

Fascinating Rock

World 10f Turf Champion at 4 years

Sire of five black-type winners/placed

First NH foals realised up to €37,000

Outstanding start with first two crops of runners

Sire of two black-type mares from first crop of 23 foals

2023 Arkle / Derby Sale average - €30,000

16.2hh with size and scope

Very good looking horse. Stamps his stock Standing

The shortest way to the Cheltenham winners enclosure could well be via Ireland...

Just Capital

Ronan Groome chats with Ger O’Neill of Capital Stud, now standing six thoroughbred stallions including the recently repatriated Authorized Photography

courtesy of Capital Stud

THERE WERE TWO GROUPS types of people during the Covid pandemic and it doesn’t take long to realise which group Ger O’Neill belonged.

The County Kilkenny native is best known in the sport horse sector. He has a masterful reputation for producing young horses through his Castlefield Sport Horses operation, which stands stallions and rears horses for competition at the highest level in the sector.

Individually, he has won three Gold medals at the World Breeding Championships for young horses –a monumental achievement.

He has won multiple Nations Cups riding for Ireland, continues to compete at fivestar international shows and has produced horses who have gone on to compete at the Olympics.

When Covid came in and everything slowed down to a near halt, O’Neill wasn’t one to sit around and wait.

“My friend Darragh McCarthy thought we should buy a stallion,” he recalls. “It was just an idea!

“We couldn’t do a whole lot with the showjumping so I suppose it got us thinking of what we could be doing. I had the facilities to stand a stallion so we just went for it really.

“I’ve rode in point-to-points myself and I used to ride out for Mags Mullins. I’ve always followed the breeding of thoroughbreds, not as closely as I am now, but I was always

It definitely wasn’t something we set out to do following a long-term plan, but since we’ve started Capital Stud, it has grown wings and it’s something I really enjoy

Left, the persistent approach from the group of investors brought Authorized back to Ireland, and, right, Ger O’Neill of Capital Stud, showjumper and stallion man

A BRAND PASSIONATE ABOUT THE GREAT BRITISH THOROUGHBRED

GR.1/GR.2 SIRE ON THE FLAT, OVER HURDLES AND JUMPS

Fee: £4,000 1st October FFR

TRUESHAN GRAN DIOSE EDIDINDO

DUAL GR.2 CHASE WINNER AND GR.1 SECOND PLUS MULTIPLE STAKES PLACED OVER JUMPS AND HURDLES.

GR.2 HURDLE WINNER.

PLANTEUR IS ALSO THE SIRE OF 4-TIME LISTED HURDLE WINNER HENRY BRULARD.

A leading NH sire of Gr.1 jumpers Our Conor, Appreciate It, Corach Rambler, Sir Gerhard, Reserve Tank, etc.

Authorized – but they are both exciting and intriguing for that alone and speak of the ambition of O’Neill and Co, who continue to stand Hunting Horn alongside Alkumait, Mirage Dancer and Triple Threat.

Another key in the fast progression of Capital has been outside investment from some of the important personalities in the industry, which is a sure sign of the regard in which O’Neill is held.

McCarthy, the leading point-topoint handler Donnchadh Doyle, fellow showjumper Greg Broderick and Jerry Horan of Paragon Bloodstock are just some of the names in the group who have been more than happy to back the man financially.

“I have known Donnchadh for a long, long time,” O’Neill says. “We would have been in Goresbridge together years ago with showjumpers, and I’d known the Doyle lads for years. Obviously we were on two different paths, Donnchadh was on the point-to-point

road and I was jumping.

“With Triple Threat, I asked Donnchadh if he knew the horse?

“He said he’d bought two expensive stores, that he thought a lot of them and he asked to get involved. Donnchadh has a great knowledge and great contacts in the industry so he’s a great man to have on board.

The day-to-day running is down to us, but then the decisions of buying and selling stallions, what mares are covered and various other things on that scale is a group thing

“I own the majority in most of the stallions and we have different people invested here and there. It’s great to have that support from various people.

“The day-to-day running is down to us, but then the decisions of buying and selling stallions, what mares are covered

and various other things on that scale are group things. They are obviously important decisions, but it has always been done in a nice and easy way – when the lads ring you, you’d always enjoy talking to them.

“It’s a situation in which everybody involved understands the business. They understand the way things develop with stallions and that is key.”

Perhaps the biggest decision yet took place

Hunting Horn: was the first at the farm – the Grade 1 Belmont Invitational third-placed son of Camelot has first crop two-year-olds this year

at the end of last year with the acquisition of the 20-year-old Authorized, who was residing in Turkey.

O’Neill admits it was a long drawn-out process that required persistence and patience just to take the very sizeable risk on the sire of Tiger Roll and current Grand National favourite I Am Maximus.

In O’Neill’s eyes, the reward was too valuable not to explore every avenue to make it happen. The end result has worked out and the group has a stallion at Capital, who, even in the twilight of his stud career, could shake up a sales market that last year was dominated by Blue Bresil and Walk In The Park.

“It all started through a chance meeting with a Turkish man based here in Ireland,” O’Neill recalls. “He came in here to look at a horse and I asked about Authorized and whether he’d think there was any chance to buy him and he said no. But he did put us in touch with someone in the Turkish Jockey Club, but again straight away the answer was no. We even enquired about leasing him but it was no again.

“Eventually after going back and forth they decided they might give us a price, but then we found out we couldn’t get any insurance on him because he is 20.

“So this process went on for six to nine months and at one point we just decided, let’s go over and have a look at him. He looked in good order, so we decided to just go and buy him without insurance.

“There are a few of us involved. Authorized is such a brilliant stallion and the market wants him and it just felt right to bring him back to Ireland. Everybody sort of agreed that if it doesn’t work we wouldn’t talk about it again and just move on!

“But, so far, everything has gone well with mares scanning in-foal, so we’re a bit more relaxed now than we were at the beginning.”

O’Neill was quoted as saying the move to get Authorized was “either cracked or clever.”

He laughs at that assertion now. Perhaps it’s a bit of both – he admits himself that it would be very unusual to buy a stallion without insurance – but as they say nothing ventured, nothing gained.

O’Neill has shown a tremendous nous for the economics of horse trading and development, be it on the sports horse side

Above, Triple Threat, is standing a first season in Ireland at Capital and has a Grade 3 winner over hurdles in France, and, below, the Mill Reef Stakes (G2) winner Alkumait, who has first yearlings in 2024

and now with thoroughbreds, also. One feels he will need all of that intuition and business sense in this project, but he is already seeing the positive signs of having such a wellestablished sire at Capital.

“It’s a little bit of a day-by-day thing, but people have their mares booked in,” he explains. “We haven’t taken a huge amount of mares to be covered. We’d love to have around 100 pregnancies. That would be fantastic. He just covers two mares a day, maybe he’ll get to three but at the moment we’re happy with two and he is happy.

“If we stood him very commercially he’d have a huge book of mares, but we have him on a reasonably high fee and that probably keeps the numbers manageable.

“I think people are genuinely happy that the horse is back in Ireland. Obviously the Irish breeders as well, because there’s a lot of talk about the impact of the French-breds at Irish sales, so to have this sort of stallion in Ireland is a huge help, and will help more for the breeding of the future.

“Authorized three-year-olds are averaging €100,000. There were 13 sold last year for around €109,000 between Ireland and France. The market is very high. People have gone to Turkey and brought them back. There are a few going to the Derby Sale and the bigger store sales this year.

“The market is more challenging I suppose, and people really want quality, so that’s why we were pushed towards Authorized, to have a stallion like him. It means breeders are not worried if they are going to a sale with a foal by Authorized, they know there are going to be customers for it.

“We’ve spoken to a lot of different breeders and some of the best breeders in Ireland have been here to see him, and have also been taken by Triple Threat and Mirage

Dancer and had their mares covered, so you can see the positive effect there as well.”

The impact of French-bred horses on the Irish NH sales markets is pertinent one.

It was discussed in detail at the early spring’s packed-out Irish Thoroughbred Breeders Association National Hunt Breeding Seminar where there was also a strong urge from a panel of well-respected voices for breeders to diversify their selection of stallions, amid the aforementioned domination of Blue Bresil and Walk In The Park stock at last autumn’s foal sales.

THAT, IT HAS TO BE SAID,

is easier said than done, and O’Neill can see it from both sides.

“I think that viewpoint is absolutely right, but the problem is that if you have a group of foals to sell every year and you don’t have customers for them then the fun soon goes out of it and you could go broke,” he says.

“If you don’t have unlimited resources it’s very difficult to stay going. If you don’t breed commercially it is difficult to stay in breeding.

“The breeders are very resilient and they’re good people and they’ll always try to stay going but we all have to think a bit commercially as well as thinking about breeding a racehorse. In the end the market

Castle Star: the son of Starspangledbanner is standing at a starting fee of €5,000

Mirage Dancer: is by Frankel and out of Heat Haze, from the amazing Juddmonte family of Hasili

defines what people breed and who’s going to make money or not.

“That has probably been one of the biggest learnings since I started. There is definitely a certain type of horse who will sell well at the sales, and if a breeder or a stallion owner wants to stand a stallion or cover a mare who is going to breed a racehorse but not necessarily one for the market – that can be quite difficult and challenging at times.

“The sales scene can be a very harsh place.”

WITH THE FAST-SCALE development of Capital Stud coming alongside O’Neill’s already highly successful sport horse operation, and indeed three young children, you’d wonder how he has any time left in the day at all.

“That is a good question!” he asserts. “You get up in the morning and you do all you can do on that day. There is always stuff to do. We have the thoroughbred stallions now and we still have a lot of showjumpers. I’ve 40 horses. Jason Foley, who is based in France at the minute, he rides for me and he was placed in the Grand Prix recently.

“I’ve four different riders riding for me, and then I ride myself when I have time. I’ve probably taken a step back from riding, but that was probably a natural progression.

“We’ve a few horses in training with Philip Rothwell, as well. I’d like to have a couple of horses for the point-to-points and, in general, we’d like to get out and support breeders who’ve used our stallions.

“We’re also really excited about Castle Star standing here. It’s a big year for him and 20 breeding rights have been sold to him. He won his Group 2 at The Curragh on the bridle and he was unlucky not to win a Middle Park – he’s exciting now as a stallion.”

Fast, ever progressing and ambitious. You get the feeling in two years’ time Capital Stud could well be operating at a significantly higher level again, but everything is going well at the moment.

“We enjoy it and when you enjoy your work, it doesn’t really feel like work. We’re keen to keep going forward and hopefully that will be the case over the next few years.”

Authorized: the progeny by the 20-year-old son of Montjeu are a hot dish at the sales

Jerry McGrath’s riding career came to an enforced conclusion after a bad fall at Lingfield in 2021, but the ex-jockey has lost no time establishing himself as a successful bloodstock agent, writes

James Thomas

LIFE AFTER THE WEIGHING ROOM can prove a challenge for some jockeys. Gone is the reassuring structure of the race day schedule, the camaraderie of your colleagues and the adrenaline high of riding thoroughbreds in the heat of competition. Filling the void is no small matter, especially when what comes next is far from guaranteed.

Few have made the transition more seamlessly than Jerry McGrath, who has quickly established himself as a bloodstock agent going places fast. His eye for future talent has been well advertised by the likes of Grade 1 winner Jango Baie and the hugely exciting Sir Gino, to name but two.

The bright start McGrath has enjoyed in his second career is perhaps made all the more striking when contrasted with the way his time in the saddle came to a sudden and violent end.

McGrath had retirement from race riding forced upon him after a fall in a jumpers bumper at Lingfield on January 18, 2021. He was riding Vegas Blue for his boss Nicky Henderson when the evens-favourite ended up short of room on the home turn, clipped heels and, in the ensuing fall, threw McGrath into the path of oncoming runners.

It was such a sickening incident that it is hard not to reflect that, although he suffered a dislocated and fractured left shoulder and hip, it could so easily have been much worse.

“When I was in hospital for those ten days, it was horrendous really,” he says. “The pain was terrible and because of Covid I wasn’t allowed any visitors. That meant my parents couldn’t travel over and Charlotte, my partner at the time and now my wife, wasn’t allowed to visit.

“So I had to deal with the pain of the fall and then the mental side, too, because you couldn’t see anyone close to you, which was very tough.”

But if these events sound traumatic, the memories are recounted remarkably matterof-factly. McGrath says he is not prone to indulging in self pity.

“The way I look at it is that it could have been an awful lot worse,” he continues. “I know for a fact it could’ve been. I’m very good friends with Jacob Pritchard Webb, who was obviously left in a wheelchair from a fall at Auteuil.

“There’s no point feeling sorry for yourself and I’m the sort of person who wouldn’t spend too much time dwelling on things like that. There’s a lot worse things going on in the world.”

Although McGrath’s riding career was cruelly cut short, a move into the bloodstock side of the business was something he had been working towards while still part of the Seven Barrows team.

“The way I look at it is that everything was fastforwarded by five years,” he says. “I never planned on plugging away riding until I was 40 because I didn’t want to be too old going into my next career. A lot of this industry is a young man’s game so I was conscious of there being a right time to get into the agent side of things.”

Jerry McGrath: as a jockey he was always interested in discovering the back stories about the horses he was sitting on Photo: Tattersalls Jockey Club Sales

Agent of change

He continues: “So when I was riding it was always in the back of my head to put down a few foundations for what I might do afterwards. I was doing bits of buying and selling while I was riding and I’ve always been fascinated by pedigrees and where the horses were sourced and who they came from. If I ever rode a horse in a bumper or novice hurdle I nearly knew more about the pedigree than the trainer or owner did – and that’s not a reflection on them, I lived a very boring life!”

Where horses come from is an important part of the equation for any bloodstock agent, as is where they go next. On the latter front, McGrath has been able to call upon the support of his old boss, Nicky Henderson. However, when it comes to recruiting future talent, not to mention spending significant sums of clients’ money, there is no room for sentimentality. Nobody gets to buy horses for Seven Barrows just for old time’s sake.

“There was no agreement and no promises, I had to go out and work,” McGrath says on his recalibrated relationship with Henderson. “I knew if the right horses came along then Nicky would be there to help, and he has done massively. I owe an awful lot to him.”

Henderson may have facilitated a connection with the likes of Joe and Marie Donnelly, whose silks are carried by Sir Gino, and Jango Baie’s owner Anthony Barney, but McGrath still had to find horses befitting connections’ high standards. His eye has been honed not only by his time around the many champions who have passed through Seven Barrows, but by learning at the side of some of the sharpest minds in the business.

“Even before I started doing any sales work I was in Seven Barrows where every horse is good looking and moves well,” he says. “I thought every horse was like that, then you see others and realise the difference. That’s what I look for now though,

a ‘Seven Barrows horse’.

“I spent an awful lot of time with Highflyer Bloodstock and they taught me everything I know when it comes to the sales and what happens there, what you need to look for and what you need to avoid. They were incredible to me, especially Davd Minton. He played a

massive part in all that I’ve learned so far. The amount of good horses they’ve bought is just crazy.”

Buying horses is a high-risk game of snakes and ladders with no set rules. It is clear that McGrath is committed to getting the process right.

“A lot of people think you buy a horse at the sales and that’s it,” he says. “A lot of people think it’s easy; turn up at the sales and put your hand in the air. I was in Wexford at a point-to-point yard the other week and I asked the lads there if they get nervous the night before a sale. They said no because their work is done. The form is in the book, the horses either vet well or they don’t so there’s nothing much they can do then.

“They asked me the same question and I told them that I wouldn’t usually sleep great the night before a sale because I have everything playing over in my head. Whether that’s vettings or conformation or if the horse is any good. And then which client should you be putting the horse to, is it the right horse at the right time? And that’s probably a good thing because at least it

I knew if the right horses came along then Nicky would be there to help, and he has done massively. I owe an awful lot to him”

shows you want it to work.”

Seldom will the sales process turn out as successfully as it has with Jango Baie. The £170,000 Tattersalls Cheltenham February Sale signing was bought on behalf of Anthony Barney, who races under the

Countrywide Park Homes banner. Less than 12 months after his purchase, the son of Tiger Groom landed the Grade 1 Formby Novices’ Hurdle at Aintree, which was previously run as the Tolworth.

Reflecting on his first top-flight success as an agent, McGrath says: “It was incredible, I got an absolutely massive buzz off it. You’re always hearing whispers about horses who are going well, whether it’s in Ireland or France, and Mick Goff had put the horse to me before he’d even run in his point-topoint.

“He was out early even though he was big and weak and he was probably an unlucky loser on the day [ran second at Knockanard] as Derek O’Connor’s ride on No Flies On Him was incredible, he just pounced from the back of the last. I actually enquired about buying Jango Baie privately, even though sometimes you can buy a horse cheaper at the sales, but with him we probably paid about the same. Tony Barney was looking for a few nice horses and he fitted that bill nicely.”

Sir Gino came from a completely different source having been purchased privately after

Jango Baie: McGrath tried to buy the son of Tiger Groom privately after he had won his point, but in the end paid £170,000 at Tattersalls Cheltenham

winning the Listed Prix Wild Monarch for Carlos and Yann Lerner.

Explaining the backstory, McGrath says: “I linked up with Toby Jones, who I’d done a bit of business with before, and told him I’d like to do more with the French angle if I could. I’d ridden out in France a small bit but this was my first time looking to source horses. I didn’t speak a word of French at the time either, which didn’t help!

“We’d actually been told about Sir Gino before he ran and he was very impressive on the day, and obviously he’s a very impressive physical as well, a big, scopey horse. We were happy to get him bought as quickly as we could. It took him a while to adjust to training on an uphill gallop, as a lot of

French horses do, but from day one his work was always very good. He always showed an awful lot of speed and natural ability.”

McGrath’s services have also been utilised by the rapidly expanding Noel Fehily Racing and the agent signed for the group’s dual Grade 2 winner Love Envoi, whose successes include victory in the Dawn Run Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival, at just £38,000.

These banner results have seen McGrath’s client base extend beyond connections from his riding days, having bought for trainers like Chris Gordon and Ben Pauling, and owner Simon Davies, who races under the DahlBury banner.

“Initially everyone I was buying for were

connections I had through my riding,” says McGrath. “When you’re riding you have a great reason to make contacts with trainers and owners. People probably know me from my riding days too, which is a big help because I dread the thought of cold calling and people not having an idea of who you are. But on the back of buying a few nice horses I’ve opened a few new doors.”

Alongside his own talent-spotting duties, McGrath is a part of Goffs’ British-based team. He joined the company as a bloodstock manager shortly after his riding career came to an end.

“At the time that was a massive lifeline –when you’re riding, yes I was self-employed but I was earning a good old living from it,”

Sir Gino: McGrath heard about the son of It’s Gino before he ran and did manage to buy him privately – sadly, he missed his date in the Triumph Hurdle

he says. “I was going from earning a decent enough living to earning nothing, so at the time I was thinking what do I do next?

“The job came up and it was brilliant timing. I’m very grateful to Goffs and I love

working for them. It is a great company and they really look after us.

McGrath appreciates all that Nicky Henderson has done to help him forge his new bloodstock career

“When they offered me the job I didn’t really know what it entailed, but it’s as far from nine to five as you get. At the moment we’re flat out looking at all the store horses for those sales. Prior to that I was out inspecting the breeze-up horses for the sale in April, then it won’t be long before you’re back out looking at yearlings for the Premier Sale. We’re kept busy but thankfully I can work that in with my agenting and it coincides very easily.”

There is no doubt that McGrath was a talented rider, as highlighted by his Cheltenham Festival triumphs aboard Beware The Bear and Une Artiste, while he also registered Grade 2 victories on Constantine Bay, Santini and Verdana Blue. But he has already achieved Grade 1 success as an agent, and it is hard not to feel the best is yet to come.

“When a lot of people stop race riding, they struggle to find something to replace it,” he says. “Thankfully I’ve been lucky to buy some lovely horses for some lovely people, and I’ve had the chance to see plenty of these horses go to the big days. I get a massive kick out of it all and just want to keep doing everything right and going in the right direction.”

Stallion investment: Herostar the full-brother to Jonbon and Douvan

BESIDES HIS OWN AGENCY WORK and his role within the Goffs team, McGrath is also involved with Herostar, the full-brother to Jonbon and Douvan who is standing his first season at stud at Haras de la Vallee Verte. McGrath reports the son of Walk In The Park to have taken well to his new role.

“He’s covered six or seven mares now and the first few are scanned in foal already, which is brilliant news,” he says. “He’s obviously going to have to do it the hard way because he didn’t get to the racecourse, but he’s a full-brother to two champion racehorses and there’s still a lot to happen in the pedigree.”

Despite boasting one of the best jumps pedigrees around, Herostar was sourced from the Arqana Autumn Sale in 2022 for just €6,500.

Taking up the story of how he came to buy such a blue-blooded prospect for such a modest amount, McGrath says: “I’d bought three or four form horses on the day and the sale was going over very late, so it probably got to half seven or eight o’clock in the evening when Toby came up and asked how Jonbon was going.

“I told him he was going to a novice chase at Warwick the following week and that he jumps well at home and that we’d struggle to find something to beat him. Anyway, he turned around and asked if I’d be interested in buying his full-brother.

“I said ‘Definitely, what part of France is he in?’ and he said

‘He’s in the ring in 12 lots’ time!’ He was a late entry into the supplementary catalogue so I’d missed that he was even in the sale.

“We looked at him outside and Toby did a bit of digging and there weren’t any issues so we thought we were going to have to give a lot more for him. I’ve never had so many phone calls about a horse after I’ve bought one.”

McGrath says there was no plan in place when they purchased Herostar – the horse inititally went into training but the decision was taken to call time and send the horse to stud as a completely unique proposition.

“We very nearly gelded him but thankfully we didn’t,” he says. “We tried our best to see if he’d get to the track but it reached a certain point where we thought that because he had such a good pedigree and a bit of size and substance that we should just crack on and go down the Plan B route.

“A lot of breeders in France tend to use stallions who are close by to them, and that’s the beauty with this lad is that he’s standing in Normandy so he’s surrounded by lots of nice studs.

“He’s had a good reception and he’ll cover a few mares from Britain and Ireland too from people who want a bit of angle. The man who owns the stud, José Lardot, bought another four mares at Arqana in February, so he’ll cover 50 or 60 in his first season.

“Toby and I have sourced a few mares to support him as well.”

High speed

Noel Fehily Racing has grown organically – and rapidly. Having started out in 2019 with just a “couple of horses for a bit of fun” it now has over 30 in training, Fehily talks about the unplanned progression

Noel Fehily (right) and Dave Crosse busy making purchasing plans

Photos: Tattersalls Jockey Club Sales

NOEL FEHILY was one of the very best jump jockeys among a golden generation.

He won 1,352 races under NH rules, including 27 Grade 1s. Among the top-notchers he partnered to victory are the likes of Altior, Buveur D’Air, Master Minded, Rock On Ruby and Silviniaco Conti.

Fehily may have retired from the weighing room in March 2019, but his presence is still being felt at the highest level of the sport thanks to his eponymous ownership group. The Noel Fehily Racing syndicate has 31 horses in training spread across 16 different trainers. The outfit has already tasted Grade 1 success and has even enjoyed a Cheltenham Festival winner.

But this rise to prominence was not part of some post-retirement masterplan. Instead, the syndicate has grown organically from a conversation with his old friend and weighing room colleague David Crosse.

“It all came about after I finished riding,” says Fehily. “Basically I retired at the end of March in 2019 and I was having a chat with David Crosse one day and we said we’d do something together.

“He had a little bit of knowledge about syndicates as he’d been involved with some while he was riding so we decided to give it a go with a couple of horses and have a bit of fun. Did I think we’d get to the numbers we’re at now? No, I didn’t. It’s just snowballed from there.”

The omens were there from the start as the syndicate’s first runner, Pride Of Lecale, made a winning start in Fehily’s colours at Market Rasen in November 2019.

However, Fehily says the ambition was always to aim a little higher than humble midweek handicaps.

“Both of us were always keen to try and get a couple of better class horses to take us to better meetings,” he says. “So maybe not loads of numbers, but we were always very keen to try to get better quality horses. It doesn’t always work out but it has a few times.

“We put our hands in our own pockets to start with because we found out very quickly that you can’t sell something you don’t have.

We had to go out and buy the horses before we could sell the shares, so we had to risk our own money to get us started.”

Fehily’s involvement in the syndicate has seen him make a rapid return to the racecourse after his retirement from the saddle. Although there has been plenty to celebrate, being on the other side of the weighing room door has taken some getting used to.

“When I started getting into the syndicate side of things I found going racing a bit strange,” he says. “When you were riding you’d walk into the racecourse and go hide in the weighing room, go out and ride and go back into the weighing room again. At a lot of the racecourses I didn’t even know where the owners and trainers bar was!

“I felt a bit lost when I first started going racing with the syndicate’s horses, which was a bit strange as I’d been to most of the racecourses hundreds of times.”

Fehily was famed for his unflappable temperament during his time as a jockey, but he admits he has not carried that through to his new role.

“I’m probably a lot more nervous watching them than I was riding them,” he says. “You feel more in control when you’re riding them, but there’s not a lot you can do when you’re standing in the stands, so you can feel a bit helpless.”

On the make-up of the syndicate’s members, Fehily says: “There’s plenty of people that David and I would’ve ridden for, but a lot of people who are new to racing too, which is one of the best parts of it.

“Some of the members have never been involved in owning a horse before. If they have a winner, the enjoyment they get out of it is fantastic to see. Some of them might go on to own a horse on their own outright one day, and if we can bring people into the sport then that’s even better.”

January 7, 2023 proved to be a red letter day for Noel Fehily Racing as the team recorded a notable double at Sandown. Love Envoi kicked proceedings off by landing the Listed mares’ hurdle before Tahmuras provided the syndicate with its first top-flight triumph with a clear-cut victory in the Grade 1 Tolworth Novices’ Hurdle.

“That was a fantastic day,” says Fehily. “To win a Listed race and a Grade 1 on the

I felt a bit lost when I first started going racing with the syndicate’s horses, which was a bit strange as I’d been to most of the racecourses hundreds of times

same day was fairly special. The Tolworth is a decent race and to have a horse of Tahmuras’s quality is just fantastic. He’s been a great horse for us since as well.”

Love Envoi has arguably been an even greater servant, winning seven races for the syndicate and taking her owners to the biggest stage in National Hunt racing. She provided Noel Fehily Racing with its first Cheltenham Festival winner with only its second runner at the meeting when landing the 2022 renewal of the Dawn Run Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle.

“She’s been an absolute superstar,” says Fehily. “She’s a really good, tough mare. She’d won her bumper when we bought her at the Tattersalls Cheltenham Sale that was held at Newmarket in 2021 and she’s just gone from strength to strength.

“Just to go to Cheltenham with a runner for the syndicate was massive. She obviously had a chance because she’d won the Grade 2 at Sandown [Jane Seymour Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle] before that, but did I think she’d win? Never in a million years.

“I know how hard it is to win around Cheltenham and she was only our second runner there. It was an absolute fairytale. It was unbelievable to see her owners’ reaction. The enjoyment they got out of it was fantastic. The ride they’ve been on the whole way through with Love Envoi has been amazing. I hope they all appreciate it

because they might be a long time waiting for another one as good as her.”

Love Envoi returned to Prestbury Park

played her part in arguably the most stirring finish of the meeting. She made most of the running and had only Honeysuckle for

Honeysuckle came back and did us. It felt like the rug being pulled from under your feet. But what a super mare Honeysuckle’s been and for the De Bromhead story as well, they were deserving winners on the day. If anyone was going to beat us, I’m glad it was

The team hasn’t always spoken about Love Envoi in such glowing terms, however, as Fehily explains she initially hid her light under a bushel after they purchased her from Sean Doyle through Jerry McGrath for just £38,000 at the Tattersalls Cheltenham

“She’d won her bumper and looked like she showed a good attitude,” he says. “She was a good, solid model and we liked her as an individual when we saw her at the sales.

“She’s a mare who’s never shown an awful lot at home so before she first ran over hurdles we were thinking what have we bought here because she wasn’t showing us anything. But she won that first time at Leicester and has carried on improving from

“She’s been a wonderful mare. I wouldn’t mind finding a few more like her!”

Love Envoi brought the curtain down on her racing career at this year’s Cheltenham Festival with a respectable fifth to Lossiemouth in the David Nicholson Mares’ Hurdle. She is set to begin the next phase of her life after coming under the hammer at the Goffs Aintree Sale on April 11.

“It’s very hard to know what to expect,” says Fehily. “When a horse goes into a sales ring you need two people to take each other on. It’s hard to know how she’ll sell, but I’m hoping she’ll make more than we paid for

While selling Love Envoi may be new territory for Noel Fehily Racing, the syndicate has already shown it is well capable of pulling some smart moves at the sales. The recruitment strategy is something Fehily has placed particular emphasis on.

“The sales is probably the hardest part of the whole process, trying to select the right horses at the right money,” he says.

Fehily and Crosse work closely together sourcing horses for the syndicate

“The price of horses has gone up since we started buying and you’ve either got to go with it or get left behind.

“When we started out, we had trainers who’d mention a horse to us and say ‘He’d do a syndicate’, which used to insult me a little bit. There probably used to be that notion that a horse could just give a syndicate a day out, but I’d like to think we’re getting a better quality horse than that.

“We like a horse with a bit of form who is ready to crack on so we don’t have to wait 18 months to find out if they’re any good or not.

“We’ve bought one or two unraced horses, but they would’ve been horses who were close to running whom we could have a sit on. We’ve probably been luckiest with pointto-pointers, but we’ve bought off the Flat and from France, too. Basically we’ll buy a horse from anywhere if we can see the form and the price is right.”

STEERING A COURSE through the sales is not a new experience for Fehily, who keeps a six-strong broodmare band and raises youngstock at Hagg Hill Farm ten miles southeast of Bath.

“I’ve always been very interested in the breeding and youngstock side,” he says. “I’ve got a few broodmares and buy a few foals every year. I’ve always had a mad interest in the youngsters. Anything I have as youngstock I sell as stores. That’s my passion. I’m not sure I make an awful lot of money out of it, but it’s more of a hobby than anything.”

Fehily identifies Golden Horn, Jack Hobbs, Santiago and Walk In The Park as the sires who are helping him form his latest round of mating plans. There has been no bigger advertisement for the fruits of his labour than Crambo, winner of the Grade 1 Long Walk Hurdle for Fergal O’Brien.

“I bred Crambo with Jared Sullivan and now Jared owns him together with Chris Giles, so I’ve been following him very keenly,” he says.

“The dam was in a sale in France and was in-foal to Saddler Maker who had just died but I was a big fan of his, so I said to Jared we should buy her.

“We did and Crambo was the first foal we bred out of her. Unfortunately we lost the mare a couple of years ago but I have the four-year-old half-sister to Crambo, who’ll go to Fergal after Cheltenham.”

For now, though, Fehily’s focus is firmly on the syndicate. The outfit may have already come a long way in a short space of time, but there is plenty more to look forward to.

“I wouldn’t mind adding a couple more horses, but I’d love to keep it around the numbers we’ve got,” he says on what the future holds for Noel Fehily Racing.

“Maybe at some stage we might dip our toe in the water with a Flat horse or two but at the moment we’re happy sticking with the NH side of it. That will always be our main focus. I definitely didn’t expect it to become such a big thing. We started out with two horses and I thought we might grow to five or six. I never thought for a second that we’d get to where we are now.”

He may not have seen this career path coming, but Fehily clearly relishes remaining a competitive participant in a sport he has

been at the forefront of for over two decades.

“I’d done everything I wanted to do while I was riding, and I enjoyed every minute of it,” he says. “I’d do it all over again tomorrow if I woke up and was 20 years of age. I was 43 when I retired so I’d milked it fairly well and I was ready to stop. I can’t say I’ve woken up any morning since saying ‘I wish I was going racing today’.

“Obviously when you’re standing there leaving the parade ring for the big races, the Gold Cups and the Tingle Creeks, you can’t help but think you’d wish you could have one more go, but as for the rest of it, I’ve done my bit. I did it for 20 years and don’t have a pain or an ache so I count myself very lucky.

“It’s very hard to replace the feeling of riding a big winner at places like Cheltenham, but running the syndicate is as close as I think you’ll get.

“There’s a lot involved in the process because you’ve got to buy the horse, sell the shares, go through the process of getting the horse to the races. There’s a great buzz from that side of it.”

Love Envoi: their first Festival winner is due to sell at the Goffs Aintree Sale on April 11

New names on the NH roster

Classic winner Hurricane Lane heads up the list of new NH stallions standing at stud in Britain and Ireland, a roster that also gained Mac Swiney in February

HURRICANE LANE

Frankel-Gale Force (Shirocco)

Grange Stud

€6,000

The three-time Group 1 winner Hurricane Lane has retired to Grange Stud and boasts the highest possible recommendations for a stud career.

He is by the best stallion in the world and is from a talented, middle-distance family.

He is out of Gale Force by Shirocco, himself a NH influence. She achieved a BHA rating as high as 96 after she put together a career that included three victories over 1m7f to 2m, the best of which came on her last start when she won the Listed Prix Denisy at Saint-Cloud.

She is a half-sister to Seal Of Approval (Authorized), winner of the 1m4f British Champions Fillies and Mares Stakes (G1), and to Instance (Invincible Spirit), third in the Group 3 7f Oak Tree Stakes and dam of Sound Angela, a winner over a mile in 2022 and runner-up in December over 1m1f in Deauville’s Prix Petite Etoile. She has finished second five times at Listed level in races run over trips from a mile to 1m4f.

Hurricane Lane’s own siblings include

Sweet William, a son of Sea The Stars who last autumn finished second to Trueshan in the Doncaster Cup (G2) and third to Trawlerman in the British Champions Long Distance Cup (G2).

His full-sister Frankel’s Storm achieved a BHA best of 95 wining over a mile and 1m4f.

Hurricane Lane was bought by Godolphin at the yearling sales for 200,000gns and won his two-year-old maiden in the autumn over a mile on heavy ground.

As a three-year-old he won his first two starts, including the 1m2f Dante Stakes (G2) and went to the Epsom Derby (G1) to finish a good third behind Adayar and Mojo Star despite losing both of his front shoes.

He went two places better at The Curragh beating Lone Eagle by a neck and followed up in France in the Group 1 Grand Prix de Paris where he beat the Aiden O’Brientrained Wordsworth and William Haggas’s subsequent Group 1 winner Alenquer.

The 1m6f St Leger was an obvious target and the son of Frankel made good that aim finishing ahead of Mojo Star by a comfortable two and a half lengths.

A return trip to France saw him run a fantastic race to take third in the Group 1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe behind Torquator

Tasso and Tarnawa and ahead of Adayar.

He finished best of the three-year-olds –despite racing freely he put in the secondfastest section of the race in the penultimate furlong.

He only ran twice at four with a best effort first time out when third to Broome in the Hardwicke Stakes (G2).

At five, he won the Group 2 Jockey Club Stakes over 1m4f and was retired after coming home last of five in the Coronation Cup (G1) at Epsom.

MAC SWINEY

New Approach-Halla Na Saoire (Teofilo) Anngrove Stud

Private

Mac Swiney’s early stud career has already been one of transition – the son of New Approach was initially retired to stand at the Irish National Stud, but in February it was announced that the six-year-old was on the move to Alistair Pim’s Anngrove Stud with his fee swapped to private from €8,000.

Mac Swiney also nearly had the unique distinction career of becoming the first Classic winner subsequently sold at a UK or Irish online auction when offered by Goffs in January 2023, but he was bought back then by his trainer Jim Bolger.

Bolger citing then he wanted the horse to stay in Ireland as he had a dozen mares he would like to send to him, and in this early second phase of Mac Swiney’s career the trainer has continued to say that he will support the stallion.

And Mac Swiney is Bolger-bred through and through – he produced dam Halla Na Saoire, her sire Teofilo and Halla Na Saoire’s own dam Siamsa. New Approach himself was trained by the master of Glebe House racking up an unbeaten juvenile career record winning two Group 1s and then the Epsom Derby at three.

Mac Swiney raced six times at two years and improved on his debut fifth placing to

record his first win in a Curragh maiden in July over 7f.

Pitched into stakes company next time out he gradually weakened in Leopardstown’s Group 3 Tyros Stakes in a strong field that included Group 1 winners Van Gogh and State Of Rest. He reappeared that same month winning the Group 2 Futurity Stakes over 7f at The Curragh in August staying on strongly at the finish and exacting revenge on the unplaced Van Gogh.

His final two juvenile starts were both Group 1 races – the first of those was the National Stakes at The Curragh won by Thunder Moon with Mac Swiney hampered a furlong out and finished down the field.

The second was a victorious one when, sent to Doncaster for the Futurity Stakes over a mile, he kept on well beating Godolphin’s One Ruler with Baradar further back in third.

six times at Group 1 level, but he kicked off his season in Leopardstown’s Group 3 Derby trial finishing fourth to subsequent Epsom Derby favourite Bolshoi Ballet (Galileo).

Despite staying on over the 1m2f his trainer decided to drop him back to a mile for his next start in the Irish 2,000 Guineas.

He was rewarded handsomely with Mac Swiney made all and held off the fellow Bolger-bred and trained Poetic Flare, winner of the English equivalent and subsequent St James’s Palace Stakes (G1), the pair clear of Irish National Stud’s sire Lucky Vega who was 3l back in third.

Mac Swiney was then sent to Epsom for the Derby and ran a creditable race finishing fourth to Adayar before a sixth place behind Hurricane Lane in the Irish version.

His next two starts saw him unplaced in both the International at York and the Boomerang Mile, but he returned in

Day when third to Sealiway with Mishriff, Adayar, Addeybb and Al Aasy behind in the Champion Stakes (G1).

Mac Swiney raced three times as a fouryear-old and his best placing was fourth to Aikhal in the Group 3 International Stakes at The Curragh over 1m2f. He retired the winner of four races and £624,697.

Mac Swiney’s unraced dam Halla Na Saoire has produced one other winner –named Slaney Street he was trained by Bolger to win two races at two and three years.

Her dam Siamsa (Quest For Fame) also won two races for Glebe House and the best of her three winners was Light Heavy (Teofilo), who won three races at three years, including the Derrinstown Stud Derby Trial (G2), the 1m2f Ballysax

Stakes (G3) and he was also third in the Irish Derby (G1).

Siamsa’s Montjeu daughter Halla Siamsa is dam of five winners the best of whom was the Bolger-trained Parish Hall (Teofilo), joint-third top rated two-year-old colt in Europe in 2011, winner of £428,631 and six races, including the Dewhurst Stakes (G1).

Mac Swiney is in-bred to Galileo who is his grand-sire (as the sire of New Approach) and great grand-sire via Teofilo, the sire of Halla Na Saoire. This rules out such options for breeders.

However, there is no Danehill, Danzig, Green Desert, Kingmambo, Mr. Propsector or Pivotal in the bloodline, which opens up alternative plans for NH breeders with any mares from those lines.

SUBJECTIVIST

Teofilo-Reckoning (Danehill Dancer)

Alne Park Stud

£4,000

Subjectivist ran 20 times from two years to six years for the training combination of Team Johnston, winning six races and placed in a further eight.

The Mascalls Stud-bred son of Teofilo was seen early on the racetrack and ran seven times in his juvenile season winning a 7f Chelmsford maiden by 7l and placing second three times, including when runner-up in Salisbury’s mile Listed Stonehenge Stakes.

At three, he debuted at Royal Ascot in the King George V Handicap and was a good third behind subsequent Group 1 winner Hukum, running on having been hampered inside the final furlong. He took second over two furlongs further in the Bet365 1m6f handicap and then showed his versatility when winning the Listed Glasgow Stakes at Hamilton over 1m3f just 11 days later.

As with many Johnston-trained horses he was kept busy and returned to the track a fortnight later when third in Glorious Goodwood’s Leger Trial, the Group 3 Gordon Stakes.

He ran twice in August that year, unplaced in York’s Great Voltigeur Stakes (G2) then returned to Goodwood to win the March Stakes (G3) over a 1m4f.

He was allowed to take his chance in the final Classic at Doncaster when down the

field behind the winner Galileo Chrome.

He bounced back from that in style – after making all on heavy ground he proved his stamina capabilities winning the first of his Group 1s at ParisLongchamp in the 1m7f Prix Royal Oak from the Group 2 winner and multiple Group-placed Valia.

Kept in training as a four-year-old he had a perfect, albeit short, campaign winning both his two starts.

The first of those was in March at Meydan, where, under an enterprising Joe Fanning ride, he made all to land the valuable Dubai Gold Cup (G2) over two miles.

And even better was to come when he recorded his career highlight next time out at Royal Ascot. Sent off second-favourite behind eventual fourth Stradivarius in the Group 1 Ascot Gold Cup, he travelled strongly and powered home impressively beating Princess Zoe by 5l with the Irish and Epsom Derby winners Santiago and Serpentine further back in seventh and eighth.

Subjectivist wasn’t seen again until almost two years later in 2023 when a down-the-

field February run in the valuable Red Sea Handicap at Riyadh preceded two third placings in the two races he’d won in 2021 – the Dubai Gold Cup and behind Courage Mon Ami in the Ascot Gold Cup.

By the unbeaten juvenile and top sire Teofilo (Galileo), Subjectivist was always likely to come into his own over a distance of ground and his Danehill Dancer dam Reckoning was a winner over a mile at two years and placed three times over 1m2f in the Listed Gillies Stakes, the Festival Stakes and the Hoppings Stakes.

Reckoning is 3Sx4D Sharpen Up and 4Sx4D Northern Dancer.

She was a 55,000gns Tattersalls Book 1 yearling of 2010 who also sold twice at the same venue’s December Mares’ Sale – for 42,000gns in 2013 and then to Subjectivist’s breeder Mascalls Stud for 160,000gns the following year.

In addition to Subjectivist, Reckoning is dam of two additional black-type horses –Sir Ron Priestly (Australia), winner of the Princess Of Wales’ Stakes and the Jockey Club Stakes, both Group 1 races run over

Subjectivist: the dual Group 1 winner by Teofilo is standing at Alne Park Stud for a fee of £4,000

1m4f, and the March Stakes (G3). He also was a runner-up in the St Leger (G1) and third in the Group 1 Goodwood Cup. Her daughter Alba Rose (Muhaarar) had a best performance when third in the Group 2 Rockfel Stakes.

PYLEDRIVER

Harbour Watch-La Pyle (Le Havre)

Beeches Stud

€4,000

New to Coolmore’s Beeches Stud for 2024 is Pyledriver, a winner at two who went on to score a Group 1 double in the Coronation Cup and the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes.

Pyledriver ran 20 times for trainer Willie Muir and, after his winning debut as a twoyear-old in July over 7f at Salisbury, ran in Pattern races in every single subsequent race of his career.

Muir s quoted as saying “Pyledriver is the best horse I’ve ever had anything to do with and gave us so many fantastic days. From day one he never let us down; brilliant temperament, went on any ground, clean winded and super sound.”

The Harbour Watch horse’s race record bears testament to that.

A down-the-field run as a juvenile in August in the Listed Denford Stakes was followed with success in Haydock’s Ascendant Stakes (L) over a mile with fellow new NH sire of 2024 Subjectivist back in fourth place.

On his final start at two he was again unplaced in the Group 2 Royal Lodge with Muir stating that the colt had lost some of its strength having grown throughout the summer.

Pyledriver kicked off his three-year-old season filling the runner-up position in Kempton’s Classic Trial before winning the first of his Group races when taking the King Edward VII Stakes (G2) at Royal Ascot. That was followed by an unplaced effort behind Serpentine in one of the most bizarre Derbys ever witnessed. He put that defeat behind him winning the traditional St Leger trial the Great Voltigeur at York (G2) prior to finishing third to Galileo Chrome in the Classic itself.

Kept in training at four Pyledriver ran

four times in 2021 winning twice and placed second in the other two starts.

The first of those successes was in Epsom’s Group 1 Coronation Cup in which he beat a strong field which included Al Aasy, and the Galileo full-brothers Japan and Mogul and followed that success in November that year dropping back to 1m2f to win the Listed Churchill Stakes at Lingfield.

That victory put him cherry-ripe for his next race in December at Sha Tin’s Group 1 Hong Kong Vase when he finished a brave second, only losing out to Glory Vase in the last 100 yards and picking up £415,486 for his effort in the process.

Pyledriver remained in training at five and once again raced four times that season.

He progressed with each race starting off with an unplaced effort in the Neom Cup at Riyadh, was fourth to Shahryar in the Group 1 Sheema Classic at Meydan before a fine second to Hukum in the Coronation Cup (G1) prior to his second Group 1 victory beating Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner Torquator Tasso at Ascot in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes.

Pyledriver did not race again that season but returned the following year in 2023 winning the Group 2 Hardwicke Stakes at Royal Ascot before a fifth-placed effort behind Hukum on his final start in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes (G1).

Pyledriver achieved an official rating of 124. His deceased sire Harbour Watch had one additional Group 1 winner in Waikuku who won three times at Sha Tin at the highest level including victories over Golden Sixty and Beauty Generation.

Pyledriver’s dam is the 2011 Le Havre mare La Pyle, twice a winner over 1m2f and 1m3f in France. She is herself dam of four winners with Pyledriver her sole black-type horse to date.

BOLSHOI BALLET

Galileo-Alta Anna (Anabaa)

Beeches Stud

€3,000

New to Coolmore for 2024 is homebred Bolshoi Ballet, a dual Group 1 winner by Galileo and who was the farm’s sole representative in the 2021 Epsom Derby

Jeu St Eloi new to Ireland for 2024

JEU ST ELOI, a son of Saint Des Saints, has six-year-olds on the ground for this year from his early stud career in France. He started out at Haras de l’Abbaye and then moved to Haras de Cercy, however all that changed this autumn when the astute team at Rathbarry and Glenview Studs swooped to acquire the 13-year-old for their County Cork-based farm.

Their foresight was immediately rewarded – at this season’s Dublin Racing Festival his son Kargesse won the Spring Juvenile Hurdle (G1) backing up Blueking D’Oroux’s Grade 2 win last autumn at Ascot.

The autumn also saw Jazzy Senam take second place in the Grade 1 Prix Maurice Gillois at Auteuil. The sire has also produced three Listed winners and has been a leading sire of three-year-olds in France.

By the esteemed stallion Saint Des Saints, he is out the unraced Saint Cyrien mare Ottolina and is a half-brother to dual Auteuil Grade 1 chase winner Oculi and from the immediate family of leading French sire Balko. A complete outcross for most lines, he is standing at a privately listed fee.

In the sale ring stock by the stallion have been bought by the “right” connections.

The pint-to-point winner Saint Kristobel was purchased for £155,000 at the Tattersalls Cheltenham November Sale by Tom Malone and Paul Nicholls, the same pair having gone to €175,000 at the Goffs Arkle Sale for a three-year-old gelding out of Krocodile Rock.

PB Bloodstock/H Kirk/W P Mullins spent €130,000 at the May Arqana Online Vente Du Grand Steeple on the French three-year-old winner Karia Des Blaises, while Nicky Henderson and Highflyer spent £110,000 for the pointto-point runner-up Jasmin Bellevue at the Tattersalls Cheltenham April Sale 2023.

KENWAY

Galiway-Kendam (Kendargent)

Coolagown Stud

€3,000

Kenway is a complete Haras de CollevilleGuy Pariente homebred – the stallion by the breeder’s super sire Galiway, whom Pariente has produced so well mimicking his development of Kendargent, who retired to Colleville in 2010 when he stood at a fee of just €1,000. He has scaled the heights as a sire and dam sire, and is in fact the sire of Kenway’s own dam Kendam.

Galiway, sire of the Group 1 winners Sealiway and Sunway on the Flat, has bred the multiple Grade 1 jumps winners Gala Marceau and Vauban, as well as three Listed winners over hurdles in France. He now stands at a fee of €30,000 having started out at €3,000.

when sent off as favourite for the Classic.

As a two-year-old the son of Galileo wasn’t seen until October but made up for lost time by running three times that month – he ran green in a Newmarket maiden prior to winning a similar race at Leopardstown before placing fifth, beaten just over 2l, in the 1m2f Criterium de Saint-Cloud (G1) on heavy ground.

At three he started the season in tremendous fashion and on his first two starts he recorded the same Ballysax/ Derrinstown Derby Trial Group 3 double as fellow Coolmore sires Galileo, High Chaparral, Yeats and Fame And Glory.

Onto Epsom for his next start the 11/8 favourite was struck into early, but still managed a respectable seventh behind Adayar.

Given a short rest, he reappeared next at Belmont for the Belmont Derby Invitational Stakes (Grade 1) keeping on determinedly to record his first top-level success. He was to race four more times that season with a best-placed finish when fourth in the Saratoga Derby Invitational Stakes (G1).

Kept in training at four, Bolshoi Ballet raced just once, and that wasn’t until November 2022 when fourth in the Listed Churchill Stakes at Lingfield.

He undoubtedly showed connections

that he retained his ability and was kept in training as a five-year-old.

His first start came in April 2023 when third behind stablemate Emily Dickinson in the 1m6f Vintage Crop Stakes (L) at Navan before being headed in the final 100yds next time out at Newbury in the Group 3 Al Rayyan Stakes back at a mile and a half.

He then followed that with a second at Royal Ascot in the Listed 1m2f Wolferton Stakes before a sixth to Hukum in the 1m4f King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes (G1) on unsuitably soft ground.

Bolshoi Ballet’s final start was in August in the Sword Dancer Stakes (G1) back at Saratoga and he put up probably his best performance being only pushed out to win going away by four and a half lengths.

Bolsoi Ballet’s dam is Alta Anna (2005) an unraced daughter of Anabaa.

She is dam of five winners and, in addition to Bolshoi Ballet, his 2015 full-brother Southern France was the winner of four races at three to four years and £500,894 including the Zipping Sandown Classic (G2), the Irish St. Leger Trial (G3), the Yeats Stakes (L).

He was also placed on multiple occasions at Group level including in the Irish St. Leger (G1), the St Leger (G1), and when fourth in the Goodwood Cup.

Kenway was trained by Philip Decouz and ran 38 times for six wins. He ran seven times as a juvenile gathering Listed and Group 3 success over 7f, and ran over the same trip and over a mile at three for a couple of Group 3 placings but no win until the autumn when he won on the All-Weather at Deauville in October over 1m1f. He then rounded the year off with victory at Listed level on the same track over 7f.

His Listed success at four came in April and he collected four more stakes placed results, including at Group 3 level over 1m2f.

He went onto run another ten times between February 2022 and March 2023, but failed to make much of an impression.

He was a sound and consistent racehorse who acted on good and good to soft going.

MOJO STAR

Sea The Stars-Galley (Zamindar)

Whytemount Stud

€3,000

New to Whytemount Stud’s growing roster for 2024 is Mojo Star, a son of Sea The Stars from Juddmonte’s family of Rail Link.

Mojo Star raced nine times across four seasons winning one race and finishing second five times.

The Richard Hannon-trained colt made one start at two years in an October Newbury maiden over a mile, losing out by just a nose at the line.

Bolshoi Ballet: the son of Galileo did the Group 3 Ballysax Stakes / Derrinstown Derby Trial double

Back at Newbury in May he once again took second this time this time over 1m2f behind Manobar.

It was a slight surprise to see him line up for the Epsom Derby next time when he was sent off at 50/1, but the Amo Racing-owned colt raised his game to a whole new level beating all bar Adayar at the line.

Held up in rear, he made good headway 3f out, went second over a furlong from home and stayed on in the final 100yds to finish 4l behind Adayar and with Hurricane Lane 3l back in third, and that was despite being struck into through the race.

Sent to The Curragh for the Irish Derby he finished fifth behind Hurricane Lane, never landing a blow.

Mojo Star broke his maiden next time out when, back at favoured Newbury in August, he was a comfortable winner over 1m4f.

Connections still believed they had a Classic horse and Mojo Star was allowed to take his chance in the St Leger. Once again he ran with immense credit, staying on all the way to the line to be beaten just 2l by old

adversary Hurricane Lane.

His last start in 2021 came in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe when tenth.

Mojo Star was kept in training at four and made just one start. And what a race it was –in a thrilling finish to the Ascot Gold Cup he narrowly lost out to Kyprios with perennial champion Stradivarius in third.

Mojo Star is out of the Zamindar mare Galley, one of Juddmonte’s lesser-lights on the racecourse and placed three times at three years in France.

She has been, however, far much more successful in the breeding shed producing four winners.

In addition to Mojo Star, her other black-type horses are Cape Magic (Cape Cross) winner of a Listed race in Italy and Portage (Teofilo) who took a Listed race at The Curragh.

Her second dam Dockage bred 11 winners from 13 runners, including the July Stakes (G3) scorer Wharf, the Listed winner Mooring, and Docklands, who won five races in France.

She is better known as the dam of French

champion three-year-old and Arc winner Rail Link.

AMHRAN NA BHRIANN

Galileo-Alluring Park (Green Desert)

Knockhouse Stud

€1,500

From the famed nursery and breeding grounds of Lodge Park Stud, Amhran Na Bhriann hails from one of the farm’s leading families.

The seven-year-old son of Galileo is a fullbrother to four winners, and a half-brother to another four. His star sibling is his older sister Was, winner of the Oaks (G1) and placed three times in Group 1 races, while his brother Douglas Macarthur won the 1m2f Derrinstown Derby Trial and was fourth in the Criterium de Saint Cloud.

In 2019 Was produced Concert Hall to a covering with Dubawi and she is a Listed winner of the 1m2f Salsabil Stakes over 1m2f and was third in the Irish 1,000 Guineas. She also took Group 1 fourth placings in the Epsom Oaks, the Moyglare Stakes and the Belmont Oak Invitational.

Amhran Na Bhriann was bought for 1,300,000gns at Tattersalls October Book 1 in 2018 by MV Magnier and made a downthe-field debut in the August of his juvenile year.

He did not reappear until he was three and, after a fourth in a maiden on his seasonal debut, was sent to Epsom for the July-run Derby of 2020, a race in which he performed with credit for one so inexperienced with an honourable fourth place.

After a runner-up spot in a Naas maiden when pulling up lame, subsequently found to be a fracture, he got off the mark first time out as a four-year-old in April at Dundalk over 1m4f, a race he won by 13l

Again he was pitched straight into stakes race company but managed a decent fourth in the 1m6f Listed Saval Beg Levmoss Stakes before he finished down the field in the Ascot Gold Cup (G1) won by fellow new sire Subjectivist.

He broke his Group race duck next time when winning the Curragh Cup over 1m6f by an easy 7l after making all, and that was the last time he troubled the judge.

Mojo Star: being unsaddled after his second placing in the Epsom Derby – the son of Sea The Stars finished second three times at Group 1 level

Boardsmill Sires Serving the UK and Irish breeder since 1935

Poet’s Word Sumbal Court Cave

Multiple Gr.1 winner over 10-12f

Defeated 23 individual Gr.1 winners

Sire of 9 winners from just 14 runners

His only NH runner is a winner and Gr.3 placed

Foals sold for €85,000, €78,000, €75,000, €62,000, etc.

First Boardsmill bred 3YO’s in 2024

Like JEREMY, a Gr.2 winner by DANEHILL DANCER

Out of a Gr.1 Performer by LINAMIX

Sire of a winner and a 2nd from his only two 3YO runners in 2023

Covered 120 mares in both 2021 & 2022 and 110 in 2023

Foals sold for €35,000, €32,000 (x2), €22,000, €16,000, etc.

Proven Gr.1 Sire

3 new Stakes winning chasers this season: JPR One, Meetingofthewaters & Desertmore House

Consistently siring Cheltenham Festival winners

A Top 10 Leading Living Sire for the past 6 seasons

Contact: John Flood +353 (0)87 9066772

or William Flood +353 (0)87 2380583 • www.boardsmillstud.com

Young British NH sires

We run through selected NH sires at stud in the UK with seven-year-olds and younger

Statistics courtesy of Weatherbys NH Stallion Book

ARRIGO

Shirocco-Aiyana (Last Tycoon)

Yorton Farm Stud

£2,000

Year to Yorton Farm Stud: 2021 Arrigo has the pedigree to succeed as a stallion as a member of the leading Monsun sire line, from the family of Galileo and a half-brother to the top-class Adlerflug; his credentials are undoubtedly of the highest calibre.

The son of Shirocco, the sire of the former champion hurdler Annie Power as well as six Group 1 winners on the Flat, including the Classic winners Brown Panther and Windstoss, Arrigo stood his first season in the UK in 2021 having begun his career in his native Germany and his oldest foals are seven-year-olds in 2024.

Bred by Gestüt Schlenderhan, the Group 2 Oppenheim-Union-Rennen winner resembles his sire physically with the same strong shoulder and forearm.

Second in the Group 1 Gran Premio del Jockey Club and Group 3 Bavarian Classic (over 1m2f), he is a half-brother to the German champion three-year-old of 2007 Adlerflug.

By In The Wings, Adlerflug is the sire of Arc hero Torquator Tasso and the 2020 Group 1 Deutsches Derby winner In Swoop, who was second to Sottsass in the Arc.

Their Last Tycoon dam Aiyana was a winner at two and three in Germany and has also foaled the Listed winner Andorn by Monsun and is the second dam of Zoffany’s Mehl-Mulhens Rennen (G2) winner Knife Edge.

Arrigo has had 23 starters from 41 foals of racing age with seven winners of 28 races to date. He had 30 foals on the ground in 2023

Second dam Alya was runner-up in the Preis Der Diana (G1) and is sister to the dynasty-founding matriarch Allegretta.

The daughter of Lombard, the German St Leger winner and twice Horse of the Year, she is a full-sister to another German St Leger winner in Anno and Listed winner Arionette.

She is also a half-sister to the Group 2 winner and Group 1 second Anatus and Andronikus, a Listed winner.

Arrigo’s pedigree has two lines of Northern Dancer through The Minstrel, who is the damsire of Shirocco, and Try My Best, the sire of Arrigo’s broodmare sire Last Tycoon.

Despite this influence, he is free of Sadler’s Wells so is an option for mares by his sons and grandsons.

Annie Power, Shirocco’s most famous offspring, is out of an Old Vic mare, as are the Grade 2 winners Good Time Johnny and Brideswell Lad, and the Grade 3 winner and

Grade 1-placed Shewearsitwell.

The Grade 2 winner Dysart Diamond and the Listed winner Off Your Rocco have Accordion as their broodmare sire, while Grade 2 Rendlesham Hurdle winner Third Wind is out of a Beat Hollow mare.

The Grade 2 Dovecote Novice Hurdle winner Highway One O Two is out of a Supreme Leader mare and Shirocco’s Gold Cup runner-up and Cheltenham Festival winner Minella Rocco is out of a mare by Alleged so daughters of Flemensfirth and Shantou are options for Arrigo.

The mares Arrigo has covered in France and Germany included Kauto Abana, whose dam Kauto Karolyna is a full-sister to the legendary Kauto Star.

Arrigo has had 23 starters from 41 foals of racing age with seven winners of 28 races to date. He had 30 foals on the ground in 2023.

BANGKOK

Australia-Tanaghum (Darshaan)

Chapel Stud

£3,000

Year to stud: 2022

The first son of Australia to retire to stud in Britain, Bangkok descends from the blue hen Fall Aspen and has an outstanding pedigree as well as all the necessary attributes required by a successful sire.

Bred by David and Diane Nagle at the world-renowned Barronstown Stud, Bangkok was the joint second-most expensive yearling from the first crop of the dual Derby winner Australia making 500,000gns to Alastair Donald on behalf of

King Power Racing at Book 1.

Bangkok won his maiden at Doncaster over 1m2f on his first start at three, defeating subsequent Dante Stakes winner Telecaster. On his next start, his first at stakes level, he won the Group 3 Classic Trial at Sandown beating another subsequent Group 1 winner, this time Technician who was also bred by the Nagles and would win the Prix RoyalOak (G1).

Considered a live chance in the Derby, Bangkok couldn’t handle Epsom and beat just Telecaster home. However, he showed his true colours on Ascot’s more forgiving track to finish second behind Japan in the Group 2 King Edward VII Stakes. He was also a close second to Zaaki in the Group 3 Strensall Stakes at York and that horse would go on to become a multiple Group 1 winner in Australia. Bangkok’s final start of his three-year-old season was in the Qatar Derby just prior to Christmas, in

which he took second.

He started his four-year-old season by winning the Listed Winter Derby Trial at Lingfield and was third in the Group 3 Winter Derby itself. Back on Turf for the Group 1 Prince of Wales’s Stakes he was fifth behind Lord North and seventh in the Eclipse.

After a visit to the Middle East, he returned to Lingfield for a repeat of his Winter Derby Trial success before going on to finish fourth to Armory in the Group 2 Huxley Stakes at Chester and fourth to Sir Ron Priestley in the Group 2 Princess of Wales’s Stakes before gaining a deserved success in the Group 2 York Stakes and ended his career in the Group 3 Winter Hill Stakes at Windsor.

In all, Bangkok won and placed in eight stakes races.

Bangkok has an outstanding pedigree and it is quite simply a stallion’s family;

Bangkok: the son of Australia had 22 foals in his first crop and covered a bigger book of mares in 2023

he is a half-brother to the Group 1 winner Matterhorn (Raven’s Pass), the Belmont Derby Invitational Stakes (G2) runner-up The Foxes (Churchill), the Group 3 winner Tactic (Sadler’s Wells) and the Listed winner Yaazy (Teofilo). He is also a half-brother to the Listed-placed Zahoo, dam of the Group 3 winner Convergence and to Mujarah, the dam of European champion miler Ribchester.

His dam Tanaghum was second in the Listed Harvest Stakes and is a Darshaan half-sister to the Group 2 Premio Lydia Tesio winner Najah. They are out of the Irish 1,000 Guineas winner Mehthaaf (Nureyev).

Methaaf is a half-sister to the July Cup winner, champion sprinter and sire Elnadim, and to Only Seule who is the dam of the Group 1 winner Occupandiste, herself the dam of Group 1 winner Mondialiste and second dam of Group 1 winner and sire Intello.

Bangkok’s third dam Elle Seule won the Group 2 Prix d’Astarte and is a daughter of Exclusive Native and blue hen Fall Aspen, who is the second dam of Dubai Millennium.

Other stallions under the Grade 1-winning daughter of Pretense are Timber Country, Fort Wood, Harbour Watch and Charnwood Forest.

His sire Australia has had five Group 1 winners, including the Breeders’ Cup Mile winner Order Of Australia, the Grand-Prix de Paris victor Broome, Mare Australis (Prix Ganay), the filly Ocean Road, who won the Gamely Stakes at Santa Anita, and the 2020 St Leger winner Galileo Chrome.

His first crop numbered 22 foals and they averaged £4,472 last year. Bangkok covered 31 mares in 2023.

CAPRI

Galileo-Dialafara (Anabaa)

Willow Wood Farm in 2024

£2,500

Year to stud: 2020

A striking looker with the pedigree and race record to excite in equal terms, Capri’s oldest crop are three-year-olds but he has already moved from Coolmore’s Grange Stud to Willow Wood Farm for the 2024 season.

The handsome grey is a dual Classic

The most expensive son of Capri to come to market so far is the three-year-old half-brother to the Peter Marsh Chase winner The Dutchman sold for €62,000

winner defeating Cracksman and Wings Of Eagles in the Irish Derby and Crystal Ocean and Stradivarius in the St Leger. He was also a classy juvenile, landing the Group 2 Beresford Stakes at two for Aidan O’Brien.

Bred by Lynch Bages and Camas Park Stud, Capri ended a juvenile season that included a Listed win and defeat of the Melbourne Cup winner Rekindling in a Galway maiden with a third place to Waldgeist and Best Solution in the Group 1 Criterium de Saint Cloud.

He remained in training at four and won the Group 3 Alleged Stakes over 1m2f at Naas on his seasonal reappearance. His best performance of the season in Group 1 company was his fourth place over the same trip in the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes behind Cracksman and Crystal Ocean, and ahead of Group 1 winners Rhododendron and Verbal Dexterity.

At five, he took third in the Listed Saval Beg Stakes over 1m6f behind subsequent Melbourne Cup winner Twilight Payment and then filled the same position in the 2m Group 3 Loughbrown Stakes.

The nine-year-old is one of nine stakes winners from 27 runners, including his full-sister Passion and full-brother Cypress Creek, bred on the successful Galileo-Anabaa cross.

Europe’s champion three-year-old stayer of 2017 is a grandson of the Group 2 Prix de Malleret winner and the Group 1 Prix Vermeille second Diamilina, a daughter of the hugely influential sire Linamix.

The top class NH stallion Martaline was a son of Linamix, while the Group 1 Prix du Cadran and dual Group 1 Prix RoyalOak winner Vazirabad, the Classic winner Blue Bunting, the Group 1 winner Ectot and his Group 1-winning half-brother Most Improved are amongst the top class horses with Linamix as their broodmare sire. Bauer, who was second in the Melbourne Cup for

Luca Cumani and comes from the same family as Capri, is also out of a Linamix mare.

Capri’s first crop averaged €15,902 at the sales with eight foals making at least €25,000.

They were headed by Baroda Stud’s €38,000 colt sold at the Goffs December NH Sale, who was bought by Kieran Shields and is the third foal out of a winning half-sister to the Irish St Leger winner and the Grade 1 Punchestown Champion Hurdle winner Wicklow Brave.

In 2022 that figure for his foal average dipped just slightly to €11,693 with a top price of €37,000 given by Ian Ferguson for a colt foal out of the Kris Kin mare Kris Krystal at the Goffs December NH Sale.

At the Tattersalls Ireland November NH Sale Bridge Consignment paid €30,000 for the colt sold by Ballinroone Stud out of Bourbonnaise (Mansonnien).

Last year, his third crop held steady with the average at €11,357 with the top price of €32,000 for Glen Stables’ half-sister to the Grade 3 winner and the Grade 1-placed Lifetime Ambition. Swanbridge Bloodstock bought the daughter of Listed winner Jeanquiri, a full-sister to Grade 1 winner J’Y Vole at the Goffs December NH Sale.

The most expensive son of Capri to come to market so far is the three-year-old half-brother to the Peter Marsh Chase winner The Dutchman, who was sold for €62,000 at the dispersal of Kieran Lennon’s Springhill Stud at Tattersalls Ireland in November.

Capri sired 109 foals in his first crop, 70 in his second and he has 39 registered yearlings. Capri covered 33 mares last year.

DARTMOUTH

Dubawi-Galatee (Galileo)

Shade Oak Stud

£3,000

Year to stud: 2018

The Royal Ascot winner Dartmouth, whose eldest foals are eight-year-olds of 2024, offers NH breeders access to the exciting Dubawi-Galileo cross that has produced leading sire Night Of Thunder and 2024 first-season Flat sire Ghaiyyath.

The Group 2 Hardwicke Stakes winner and King George third is one of three blacktype winners so far out of Galatee, a member of Galileo’s first crop and winner of the Group 3 Blue Wind Stakes.

She has also foaled the Group 2 Grand Prix du Chantilly and Prix du Conseil winner Manatee (Montjeu), who stands at Whytemount Stud, and the Listed-winning Dubai Destination filly Gaterie, whose son Warren Point by Dubawi was a dual Listed winner last year.

Dartmouth’s full-sister, Desert Breeze, is the dam of last season’s Gordon Stakes winner and St Leger (G1) third Desert Hero (Sea The Stars).

Galatee is a half-sister to the dam of Australian Group 2 winner Aylmerton.

Bred by The Queen, Dartmouth hails from a wonderful Wildenstein family. His second dam Altana is a half-sister to the champion Arcangues and to Group 3 winner Agathe, who is the dam of champion Aquarelliste and the Group 1 winner and sire Artiste Royal, and the second dam of the 1,000 Guineas winner Cape Verdi.

Altana is also a half-sister to the dams of the Group 1 winner Angara and the Group winners Actrice, Breton Rock and Forgotten Voice. It’s also the family of 2022 Irish Champion Stakes (G1) winner Luxembourg.

Dartmouth’s sire and broodmare sire both work exceedingly well with mares by Monsun and, with that sire line currently one of the pre-eminent in Europe, Dartmouth is a very attractive option for Monsun mares.

Dubawi has a 22 per cent stakes winners to runners rate with his runners out of Monsun’s daughters, headed by the triple Group 1 winner Wild Illusion and her full-brother Yibir, successful in the Breeders’ Cup Turf.

To date, Dartmouth has sired 222 foals of whom 90 are of racing age and 23 starters, with two winners who have notched up seven wins between them.

His best performer is Naval College who

is a dual Listed winner in Australia following his 185,000gns purchase by Sackville Donald at the Tattersalls Autumn HIT Sale of 2022.

At the sales last year Dartmouth’s foals sold at an average price of £11,394 and his three-year-old stores averaged £10,533.

His highest-priced store last year was Lulham Bloodstock’s gelding out of Unika La Reconce, who made £42,000 to GF Bloodstock at the Doncaster Goffs Spring Store Sale.

He had a filly foal make €24,000 at the Goffs December NH Sale – Ballincurrig House Stud’s daughter of the Grade 1 winner J’Y Vole, bought by Yorton Farm.

He has 31 yearlings on the ground and covered 29 mares in 2023.

FRONTIERSMAN

Dubawi-Ouija Board (Cape Cross)

£2,000

Overbury Stud

Year to stud: 2019

An impeccably bred son of Dubawi who is a half-brother to Derby winner Australia out of the seven-time Group 1 winner Ouija Board, Frontiersman, he has the page for the book.

The Listed Godolphin Stakes winner, who was runner-up to Highland Reel in the Group 1 Coronation Stakes, has made a promising start with his runners.

Bred by Ouija Board’s owner-breeder Lord Derby, the ten-year-old is also a half-brother to Australian Group 3 winner Voodoo Prince. Frontiersman raced in the Godolphin blue silks for Charlie Appleby and made his debut at three, winning over 1m2f on his second start.

In all, he ran five times that year and won twice.

On just his third start at four, he was pitched into Group 1 company and produced possibly the best performance of his career when running second to the global Group 1 winner Highland Reel and finishing ahead of Group 1 winners Hawkbill and Journey, as well as Group 2 winners Idaho, Red Verdon, Prize Money, the Group 3 winner and Derby runner-up US Army Ranger, the Listed winner and Group 1-placed Elbereth, and the Listed winner Air Patrol.

Later that summer he won the Godolphin Stakes, a 1m4f Listed race at Newmarket,

defeating subsequent Group 1 winner Best Of Days, and he was placed in the Group 2 Princess Of Wales’s Stakes and the Group 3 Geoffrey Freer Stakes.

Frontiersman made two starts in Meydan at five and was placed both times, as runnerup to Hawkbill in the Group 2 Dubai City of Gold Stakes and fourth to Vazirabad in the Group 2 Dubai Gold Cup on the World Cup card. He ran 16 times and was only out of the first four on three occasions.

His Galileo half-brother Australia won three times at the highest level and was third in the 2,000 Guineas before commencing a promising stallion career that has yielded 21 Group black-type winners, 38 black-type winners headed by St Leger winner Galileo Chrome and the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Mile hero Order Of Australia, and three other Group 1 winners Ocean Road, Mare Australis and Broome.

Ouija Board died at the age of 21 and among the seven top level trophies collected by Lord Derby’s homebred daughter of Cape Cross were consecutive victories in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf.

Her dam Selection Board is a Welsh Pageant full-sister to the Grade 1 Arlington Million and Queen Elizabeth II Stakes winner Teleprompter and a half-sister to Rosia Bey, the dam of Group 1 winners Roseate Tern and Ibn Bey and second dam of Red Camellia, a Group 2 winner who has been an influential broodmare for Cheveley Park Stud.

It is also the family of last year’s European

champion three-year-old Ace Impact.

Frontiersman is an excellent choice for daughters of Galileo and his stallion sons. As mentioned earlier, Dubawi has an excellent record with various branches of the Sadler’s Wells line and daughters of Kayf Tara, Milan, Old Vic, Singspiel, In The Wings, Adlerflug, Soldier Hollow et al would also suit Frontiersman on pedigree.

Black Sam Bellamy could be a good fit as he is a full-brother to Galileo.

Frontiersman covered 47 mares in 2023 and has 33 yearlings on the ground.

He has sired a total of 177 foals with 38 of racing age, seven of them have raced and three are winners.

He has had a bumper winner (Madame La Papillon) and a hurdles winner from the few runners he has had so far from this first crop running under NH Rules. He has also had three winners on the Flat.

Last year his foals averaged an impressive £22,164 with his store sale average even more pleasing at £56,637, with the most expensive Rathmore Stud’s half-brother to the graded-placed hurdler Bothar Dubh who made €64,000 to the Pavilion Syndicate at the Goffs Arkle Sale.

Rathbarry Stud purchased his top-priced foal of 2023, a colt who is a half-brother to two winners and out of a half-sister to the multiple Group 2 winner Lord Du Sud.

Consigned by Mill House Stud at the Tattersalls Ireland November National Hunt Sale, he made €25,000.

Frontiersman’s progeny results (Flat and NH) www.nhstallions.co.uk

JACK HOBBS

Halling-Swain’s Gold (Swain) Overbury Stud

POA

Year to stud: 2018

Jack Hobbs, trained by John Gosden to win the 2015 Irish Derby, was the first Irish Derby hero since Fame And Glory to retire directly to the NH breeding ranks.

Bred by legendary jockey Willie Carson and his late wife Elaine, Jack Hobbs was sold for 60,000gns to Blandford Bloodstock at the 2013 Tattersalls October Book 3 Sale.

He had the misfortune to be of the same Classic crop as stable companion Golden Horn whom he chased home in both the Group 2 Dante Stakes and Derby. In between those two runs he was purchased by Godolphin for whom he comfortably won the Irish Derby, beating Storm The Stars, Highland Reel and Oaks winner Qualify.

Freshened up after a summer break, Gosden sent him to Kempton for the Group

3 September Stakes which he won easily before his third place behind Fascinating Rock and Found in the Group 1 Champions’ Stakes at Ascot.

Injury problems meant he ran just twice at four, again taking the third step on the podium in the Champions’ Stakes, this time behind Almanzor and Found with Group 1 winners My Dream Boat and The Grey Gatsby in fourth and fifth.

Kept in training at five, he started the season with a triumphant return to the winners’ enclosure after the Group 1 Dubai Sheema Classic, defeating Group 1 winners Highland Reel, Postponed and Seventh Heaven. He ran twice more that year, both times finishing down the field at Group 1 level and he was retired to Overbury Stud for the 2018 season.

He is one of four winners out of Swain’s Gold and the best runner she has produced so far. Her other black-type performer is Niceofyoutotellme, a son of Hernando who

was third in the Group 3 Brigadier Gerard Stakes for Ralph Beckett the same season Jack Hobbs won the Irish Derby.

As a son of Halling out of a Swain mare, Jack Hobbs offers breeders a complete outcross with a pedigree clear of inbreeding within the first five generations and with just one line of Northern Dancer.

Halling is already the sire of Coastal Path, who was on his way to becoming an influential NH sire before a testicular problem forced his retirement from stud duties at the age of 15.

He is the sire of a quartet of Willie Mullins-trained Grade 1 winners Asterion Forlonge, Bacardys, Franco De Port and Saint Roi.

Jack Hobbs has received strong support from breeders in his first five seasons at stud with a first crop of 106 foals and 90 foals registered in 2020 and those numbers rose again with 97 in 2021 and 105 in 2022. He has 93 yearlings registered and covered 140 mares in 2023.

He has had 74 starters so far for 16 winners of 19 races – The Gadget Man has won two races on the Flat for Ralph Beckett and was sold at the Tattersalls Autumn HIT Sale for 310,000gns to agent Guy Mulcaster and Australian-based trainer Chris Waller.

His first crop includes I’m A Lumberjack, who was third in a Listed bumper at Newbury earlier this season for Alan King.

Four of his first crop have sold for sixfigure sums following impressive point-topoint performances.

Intense Approach (€9,000 Goffs UK January 2020) became Jack Hobbs’ first Irish point-to-point winner in February 2023, winning a 2m4f maiden at Farmaclaffley for trainer Warren Ewing and jockey Dara McGill. The four-year-old was subsequently sold at the Tattersalls Festival Sale to John McConnell Racing for £210,000.

Ewing also sold the second most expensive pointer by Jack Hobbs, Reflection Of You, who won the four-year-old mares maiden at Loughanmore on debut in October and subsequently made £140,000 to Lucinda Russell and Paul McIvor.

At the Tattersalls Cheltenham December Sale, Matt Coleman and Jonjo O’Neill went to £130,000 for Jack To Bat who had been

Jack Hobbs’ point-to-point runner-up Whinney Hill was bought by Gordon Elliott Racing for £140,000 at this year’s Tattersalls Cheltenham Festival Sale

second in a four-year-old maiden at Borris House for Aidan Fitzgerald, while at the 2024 Tattersalls Cheltenham Festival Sale Whinney Hill was bought for £140,000 by Gordon Elliott Racing.

Jack Hobbs’ foals averaged £15,871 in 2023 with the average for his stores at £29,757.

KINGSTON HILL

Mastercraftsman-Audacieuse (Rainbow Quest) Nunstainton Stud

£3,000

Year to stud: 2016

The St Leger and Racing Post Trophy winner stands his third season in the UK having moved from Coolmore to the north of England, and Nunstainton Stud in Durham in 2022.

Kingston Hill was a Group 1 winner at two and three, and hails from the Danehill Dancer sire line with the excellent Rainbow Quest as his broodmare sire.

His first crop are now six, but as he began his stud career at Coolmore’s main base in Fethard and only transferred to Castlehyde Stud in 2020, his purely NH-bred crops are a few years away from making the track.

His pedigree is a mix of speed and stamina influences. Kingston Hill is out of

the Rainbow Quest mare Audacieuse, who won the 1m2f Group 3 Prix de Flore at Saint Cloud and is a half-sister to the Group 3 Acomb Stakes winner and Group 1 Dewhurst Stakes fourth Waiter’s Dream (Oasis Dream).

Another of her half-brothers is the Listed Challenge Stakes winner Lord Jim, while her half-sister Intellectuelle is the second dam of Captain Conan, winner of the Grade 1 Tolworth Novices’ Hurdle and three Grade 1 novice chases.

Second dam Sarah Georgina is by Persian Bold and was fourth in the Group 3 Princess Margaret Stakes at two. She is a half-sister to the Group 1 Poule d’Essai des Pouliches and Prix de la Foret winner Danseuse du Soir who is the dam of the Group 1 winner Scintillo.

Kingston Hill has attracted plenty of mares and is the sire of 524 foals with 59 winners from 153 starters and total earnings of almost one million pounds..

His best performer to date is his first graded race winner – last season’s Grade 2 Coolmore NH Sires Kew Gardens Hurdle winner No Looking Back. The gelding ended last season with a third to Facile Vega in the Grade 1 Champion Novice Hurdle at Punchestown,

With a Listed race placing is five-year-old gelding Shinji, who was third in a Listed Newbury bumper last season for trainer Martin Keighley.

In the sales ring last year his foals averaged £6,000 and his three-year-old stores achieved £22,685.

At the 2023 Cheltenham February Sale, his Tallow-winning four-year-old gelding Butcher Hollow made £200,000 bought by Hamish Macauley and Bryan Cooper.

At the same sale company’s December Sale, Highflyer Bloodstock spent £70,000 on De Kingpin, a half-brother to Sizing Tennessee and Mount Idah who had finished second in a four-year-old maiden for James Doyle.

LOGICIAN

Frankel-Scuffle (Daylami)

Shade Oak Stud

£4,000

Year to stud: 2022

A Classic-winning son of Frankel from a typically strong Juddmonte family –Logician is out of a half-sister to Bated Breath – and he stands his third season at Shade Oak Stud in 2024.

The seven-year-old went through his three-year-old season unbeaten, beginning with a debut success in Newbury maiden over 1m2f for trainer John Gosden, who increased the scale of the challenge faced by Logician with each run.

Victory in a Newmarket novice followed on his second start and he returned to Newbury for a 1m4f handicap after which his record reads three wins from three starts.

Gosden decided to test the horse’s mettle in the Group 2 Great Voltigeur Stakes at York on his next run and he passed with a comfortable success over a field which included Nayef Road.

Sent off odds-on favourite for the St Leger, he defeated Sir Ron Priestley, Nayef Road, Sir Dragonet and Technician to secure the final Classic of the season and European champion three-year-old stayers’ honours.

A couple of months after his Classic triumph, Logician had to undergo surgery to treat life-threatening peritonitis and pleurisy and his joust with illness left its mark on the grey. He returned to race almost exactly a year after his St Leger victory, winning a

Kingston Hill’s Grade 2 winner No Looking Back (left), winner of the Limerick Hurdle

conditions race over course and distance.

He was retired as a five-year-old purchased by Shade Oak Stud.

Logician is a full-brother to Collide, a Listed winner in France who was also Listed-placed in Australia.

They have a Champs Elysees half-sister Suffused, who won three Grade 3 contests in the US and was second in the Grade 1 EP Taylor Stakes.

Dam Scuffle was third in the Listed Snowdrop Stakes at Kempton and is a Daylami half-sister to the Group 1 Dubai Duty Free winner and sire Cityscape, and the Group 2 winner and multiple Group 1-placed sire Bated Breath.

Scuffle has produced six winners with her first six foals and is also a half-sister to Tarentaise, the unraced dam of the Group 2 Meydan Sprint winner and the Group 1 King’s Stand Stakes second Equilateral.

His second dam Tantina was twice a Listed winner at Goodwood and is a Distant View half-sister to the Chilean Listed winner Colonialism, and to the dam of Gimcrack Stakes (G2) winner Ajaya and Group 3 winner Extra Elusive. The family stretches to the European champion two-year-old Xaar and the blue hen mare Best In Show.

Mares by Monsun and his sons Shirocco, Manduro, Maxios, Getaway, Schiaparelli, Gentlewave and Masterstroke could all really suit Logician.

Logician is inbred 5x5 to Blushing Groom through Rainbow Quest and Nashwan, and is also 4x4 to Miswaki, who is the broodmare sire of both Galileo and Daylami. He is 4x5 to both Danzig and Northern Dancer.

His first crop are yearlings and number 139. As foals they averaged £9,615 for 14 sold and Logician covered 168 mares in 2023.

MARMELO

Duke Of Marmalade-Capriolla (In The Wings)

Norton Grove Stud

£2,000

Year to stud: 2020

One of two sons of the late Duke Of Marmalade at stud in Great Britain, the Group 2 winner Marmelo has an ideal race record and staying pedigree to make a lovely NH stallion.

Bred by Deepwood Farm Stud, Marmelo won or was placed in 16 of his 22 starts in Europe and Australia. Trained by Hughie Morrison, he was unraced at two and broke his maiden at the third attempt as a threeyear-old.

After that success he finished second in the Listed Prix Michel Houyvet over 1m7f, then third to Doha Dream in the Group 2 Prix Chaudenay and rounded off the campaign with second in the Listed Prix Vulcain at Deauville.

As a four-year-old he defeated Bateel in the Group 3 Prix de Barbeville on his seasonal reappearance and later that season claimed the first of his two victories in the Group 2 Prix Kergorlay.

He was also second to Breeders’ Cup Turf winner Talismanic in the Group 2 Prix Maurice de Nieuil before his first trip to Australia where he contested the Group 1 Caulfield and Melbourne Cups.

At five, he took second to Vazirabad in the Group 2 Prix Vicomtesse Vigier and then the Listed Grand Cup at York before going one better than the previous season in the Prix Maurice de Nieuil.

He finished his European season in the runner-up position in the Prix Kergorlay (G1) and, returning to Australia for a second

successive year, he ran Cross Counter to a length when second in the Melbourne Cup.

Kept in training as a six-year-old, he retained all his ability with two wins from five starts.

Those victories came in the Group 3 John Porter Stakes and his swansong, the Prix Kergorlay. He also contested the Prix Maurice de Nieuil for the third time and was second behind Way To Paris.

Marmelo is a half-brother to the Group 3 Henry VII Stakes winner Vent Du Force and to the Italian Grade 3-winning chaser Atalan and they are three of the eight winners out of Capriolla.

She is an In The Wings half-sister to the Lingfield Derby Trial winner Saddler’s Quest by Saddler’s Hall and to the French Listed-winning fillies Seren Hill and Quiz Mistress. Capriolla is also a half-sister to the dam of Group 3 Prix Thomas Byron winner Circumvent and the Group-placed Tioga’s Pace and Devious Company.

Marmelo’s Nathaniel half-brother made 58,000gns at Book 2 where he was purchased by Jamie Piggott from Selwood Bloodstock.

From his first three seasons at stud, Marmelo has 27 foals and covered 10 mares last year.

Midnights Legacy: the Alne Park Stud sire won three times over hurdles and five races on the Flat

MIDNIGHTS LEGACY

Midnight Legend-Giving (Generous) Alne Park Stud

£3,000

Year to stud: 2023

Midnight Legend was of the most successful British-based NH sires of recent years and stood at David and Kathleen Holmes’ Pitchall Stud. It was the couple’s long-held ambition that he would be able to sire a son capable enough to follow in his hoofprints and earn a place at stud.

The appropriately-named Midnights Legacy is the product of that quest and the stallion began his stud career last year at Dan and Grace Skelton’s Alne Park Stud where he covered 16 mares.

Although he didn’t win a black-type race, Midnights Legacy was a durable sort and had a decent career on both the Flat and over hurdles, winning under both codes.

On the Flat he raced 19 times for five wins and three placings including when winning the second of his two starts as a juvenile in a 1m3f Bath maiden, his first two starts at three, both in handicap company, and a decent handicap at Epsom on Derby Day as a four-year-old.

At four, his first NH start was a winning one in a Plumpton novice hurdle as was his first chase start the following season in a 2m event at Ludlow in March. He was still plenty quick enough to head back to Epsom that summer, once again on Derby Day to land the Northern Dancer Handicap. He retired the winner of eight races and with six placings from 26 starts under both codes.

His first dam Giving (Generous) was also a winner at two and she placed three times at four in France.

She produced a pair of Listed-winning hurdlers – Midnight’s Gift, who is also by Midnight Legend, and Giving Glances, who is by Midnight Legend’s former stud mate Passing Glance.

His second dam Madiyla was a winner at three and is dam of the Listed winner Burn The Breeze, and of Lethals Lady, winner of the Prix Aymeri de Mauleon (L) at Toulouse.

Her legacy will, however, be remembered as the dam of Katchit, the three-time Grade 1 -winning hurdler of the Champion Hurdle, the Triumph Hurdle and the Anniversary Novice Hurdle at Aintree.

Pether’s Moon’s first crop are now seven-year-olds and he has sired 78 runners and 34 winners with three Listed performers the pick of the crop so far

Sire Midnight Legend was sire of 28 NH black-type winners, and his progeny were well known for toughness and a will to win.

PETHER’S MOON

Dylan Thomas-Softly Tread (Tirol)

Yorton Farm Stud

£2,500

Year to stud: 2016

The Group 1 Coronation Cup winner is one of seven individual Group/Grade 1 winners by the Arc winner Dylan Thomas, the first horse to win successive renewals of the Group 1 Irish Champion Stakes.

Pether’s Moon was bred by Michael Daly and bought for €52,000 by Peter and Ross Doyle at the 2011 Tattersalls Ireland

September Yearling Sale.

Trained by Richard Hannon, he made two starts at two finishing runner-up by a neck over a mile on the second of them. He ran seven times at three at trips varying from a mile to 1m6f and won three, first over a mile while his second success came over a 1m4f.

The most important victory was his first at stakes level in the Listed Floodlit Stakes at Kempton. He was also placed three times from 1m2f up to 1m6f.

He ran up a sequence of four placed results in Group company on his first four starts at four, including behind Telescope and Hillstar in the Group 2 Hardwicke

Stakes at Royal Ascot, before defeating the Group 1 St Leger winner Encke in the Group 3 Glorious Stakes at Goodwood.

Pether’s Moon won the Group 2 Bosphorus Cup and the Group 3 Cumberland Lodge Stakes, beating Group 1 Dewhurst Stakes winner Parish Hall, during his four-year-old season.

Owner John Manley kept Pether’s Moon in training at five and was rewarded with a breakthrough Group 1 success in the Coronation Cup.

That triumph was the final act of a 21-race career in which he failed to finish in the first three on just four occasions, demonstrating remarkable consistency across a variety of distances.

He is out of the Group 3 Gladness Stakes and Listed Tyros Stakes winner Softly Tread (Tirol) so his dam showed precocity to win a Listed race at two and was successful over 7f at three. She is one of two winners produced by the Listed Trigo Stakes second Second Guess who is by Ela-Mana-Mou.

Pether’s Moon is another outcross option for NH breeders – Sadler’s Wells is entirely absent from his pedigree.

He is inbred 5x5 to the great Natalma through his grandsire Danehill and with the known affinity of the Galileo line with Danehill line sires, he is a valid option for mares by Galileo and his stallion sons.

There have been ten winners from 18 runners by Dylan Thomas out of Galileo mares, headed by the Listed winner Ralston Road.

Two of Dylan Thomas’s Group 1 winners had Sadler’s Wells as a broodmare sire, while the Australian Group 2 winner and the Group 1-placed Not Listenin’tome was out of a mare by Encosta De Lago, a son of Sadler’s Wells full-brother Fairy King, so mares by Sadler’s Wells and his sons are an obvious choice for Pether’s Moon.

Peintre Celebre and the Nureyev line could also work as two more of Dylan Thomas’s top level winners were out of Nureyev mares

Pether’s Moon’s first crop are now sevenyear-olds and he has sired 80 runners and 35 winners with three Listed performers the pick of the crop so far.

Pether’s Moon’s best performer to date, his daughter Anneloralas, won an Auteuil three-year-old hurdle for Gabriel Leenders

and was placed in the Listed Prix Robert Weill and Prix Fiferlet. She was bought at the 2019 Yorton Sale and is out of Kahyasi mare Loralas, a half-sister to two Listed placed jumpers. She cost £19,000 and has won over £80,000.

Pethers Moon is also the sire of Lunar Discovery, who was third in the Listed Abram Mares’ Novice Hurdle at Haydock for trainer James Moffatt, and of Moon Chime, third in the Listed bumper at Cheltenham in November for Graeme McPherson and David Killahena.

His top-priced store horse so far is the two-year-old gelding out of Azza. He was bred by Jean and James Potter and NBB Racing went to £75,000 for him at the Goffs UK Yorton Sale of 2021.

At the same sale, Tizzard and Doyle spent £50,000 on a three-year-old gelding out of Karla Jane (Unfuwain), while Alan King and Highflyer Bloodstock paid £42,000 for the

yearling gelding out of Fabrika, a winning Presenting full-sister to the Listed-winning chaser Chilli Filli. His second dam Daprika is a half-sister to Geos and Kapgarde.

His store sale average in 2023 as £5,750.

TELESCOPE

Galileo-Velouette (Darshaan)

Shade Oak Stud

£3,000

Year to stud: 2016

Bred by the David and Diane Nagle at their renowned Barronstown Stud, Telescope was trained by Sir Michael Stoute for Highclere Thoroughbred Racing and his career received the careful nurturing that has been the hallmark of his trainer’s approach.

The colt made his racecourse debut in the September of his juvenile year, finishing second over 7f before stepping up to a mile and winning a Newmarket maiden.

Successful on his seasonal reappearance at three, he was then second in the Group 3 Rose of Lancaster Stakes ahead of Noble Mission before winning the Group 2 Great Voltigeur Stakes.

At four, he won Royal Ascot’s Hardwicke Stakes (G2) and performed well in defeat at Group 1 level giving Taghrooda a stone in the King George but managing to get within 3l of the filly in second, while he was also third to Australia and The Grey Gatsby over the 1m2f of the Juddmonte International.

He was also twice runner-up to Noble Mission – in the Gordon Richards Stakes and the Huxley Stakes both Group 3 contests.

Telescope ended the season taking fourth place behind Main Sequence and Flintshire in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Turf.

He ran three times at five, adding the Listed Aston Park Stakes to his career wins and was beaten a head into second in the Group 2 Jockey Club Gold Cup finishing 18l clear of Pether’s Moon in third.

Telescope is by Galileo and out of the Darshaan mare Velouette, thus bred on a cross that has an impressive 19 per cent black-type winners-to-runners rate.

Velouette is an unraced half-sister to the Group 1 Dubai World Cup winner, the Champion Stakes second and the Derby third Moon Ballad, who also won the Group 2 Dante Stakes. She is also a half-sister to the Nashwan mare Velvet Lady, who is the dam of Grade 2 Elite Hurdle winner Purple Bay (Dubawi).

His second dam Velvet Moon is a daughter of Shaadi and won the Group 2 Lowther Stakes at two so there is potential for speed in Telescope’s genes along with the obvious stamina influences of Galileo and Darshaan and the stouter elements of his dam’s family.

Velvet Moon is a half-sister to the Cheltenham Festival-winning hurdler Buena Vista (In The Wings), and their Group 1 Derby Italiano and Premio Presidente della Repubblica-winning full-brother Central Park and full-sister Mellow Park, winner of the Group 3 Lancashire Oaks. They are out of the Relkino mare Park Special.

Telescope’s oldest runners are six and he has sired 39 winners of 78 races from 189 runners.

Telescope’s best runner so far is his

Slade Steel: became the first Grade 1 and Festival winner for Shade Oak Stud’s Telescope

breakthrough Festival Grade 1 winner Slade Steel. The six-year-old gelding built on his Grade 2 Navan Novice Hurdle win with success in the Grade 1 Supreme Novices Hurdle at Cheltenham for trainer Henry De Bromhead and Robcour.

Also from that crop is Harvard Guy, who won a pair of Listed handicap hurdles at Navan for Eddie and Patrick Harty and JP McManus, and was second in the Grade 3 novice hurdle at Clonmel in February.

He is also the sire of I Spy A Diva, third in the Listed mares’ novice hurdle at Cheltenham last April for Kim Bailey.

His foal sale average last year as £6,195 and his stores averaged £17,304.

His most expensive sale came at Goffs Punchestown last year where Tom Malone and Jamie Snowden went to €155,000 for Dromahane four-year-old mares maiden winner Bellas Bridge, sold by Blackhall Stables.

WALZERTAKT

Montjeu-Walzerkoenigin (Kingmambo)

Chapel Stud

£2,500

Year to stud: 2017

The brilliant Montjeu, sire of four individual Derby winners, has left an indelible legacy as a sire of NH stallions.

His own greatest accomplishment as NH sire was the brilliant Hurricane Fly, but his stallion sons Authorized, Fame And Glory, Jukebox Jury and Motivator have all become Grade 1 sires in that sphere. Progeny by Walk In The Park, sire of the likes of Jonbon, Douvan, Min and Facile Vega and currently heading the NH champion sires’ table, is one of the most sought-after stallions at the sales. Masked Marvel, his St Leger-winning son, has made a promising start to his stud career, too, with two Grade 1 winners, both 2017 geldings namely the Grade 1 Stayers’ Hurdle winner Teahupoo, and Sel Jem, winner of four races, including the Grand Steeple-Chase de Paris last year at Auteil and first or second in all of his eight starts.

His daughter Maskada, who is out of the Saint Des Saints mare Mandina, won the Grade 3 Grand Annual at The Festival. He is also the sire of Grade 3 winners Marvel De Cerisy, Junta Marvel and La Danza.

Since retiring Walzertakt has a total foal crop of 169 of which 30 have started with 12 winners of 22 races

The Group 2 winner Walzertakt is a halfbrother to a Deutsches Derby winner and was bred by Gestut Schlenderhan.

Waltzertakt won four of his 21 starts over three seasons with his best season coming in 2015 when he won the Group 2 Prix Maurice de Nieuil, beating Bathyrhon and Spirit Jim, and the Group 3 Prix Gladiateur. He was also third to Alex My Boy in the Group 2 Prix Kergorlay.

He is a half-brother to Wiener Walzer whose two Group 1 victories included the Deutsches Derby. Their Galileo half-brother Port Douglas won the Group 2 Beresford Stakes for Ballydoyle and Coolmore and Port Douglas is a full-brother to Boulevard, who was third in the Group 2 Premio Frederico Tesio and the Group 3 Prix Gladiateur. Walzertraum, their half-brother by Rahy, won the Group 3 Bavarian Classic.

Walzertakt is one of seven winners out of the German champion older mare Walzerkoenigen, who won the Premio Emilio Turatti (G2) and the Euro Cup (G2), and the Group 3 Prix Chloe.

The daughter of Kingmambo was also second in the Grade 1 Flower Bowl Invitational and third in the Falmouth Stakes over a mile.

Walzerkoenigen is out of Great Revival by Keen, a full-brother to Diesis and Kris who was placed in the St James’s Palace Stakes.

Great Revival is a half-sister to the European champion two-year-old filly Play It Safe, who won the Prix Marcel Boussac, and to the Grade 1 Washington DC International Stakes winner and sire Providential.

He is bred on the same Montjeu-

Kingmambo cross as Camelot, who is the sire of the ill-fated Grade 1-winning juvenile hurdler Sir Erec.

Camelot has two Group 1-winning daughters out of Danehill mares and his Vertem Futurity (G1) and Irish Champion Stakes winner Luxembourg has Danehill Dancer as a broodmare sire, which would make Walzertakt an attractive prospect for mares by Jeremy.

Interestingly, Sir Erec had Galileo as his broodmare sire, creating 3x3 inbreeding to Sadler’s Wells and 4x5 to Mr Prospector.

With the proliferation of sons of Sadler’s Wells and Galileo in the NH stallion ranks, plenty will be encouraged to attempt that with Walzertakt.

The 15-year-old retired to stud in 2017 and spent his first season at Haras de la Hetraie before moving to Haras de la Croix Sonnet.

His first crop are now six-year-olds and he has had five winners of 14 races from 16 runners so far.

Since retiring, Walzertakt has a total foal crop of 169 of which 30 have started with 12 winners of 22 races. His best so far have come in France headed by the Grade 3 Prix Morgex second and Listed Prix Bayonnet Chase runner-up Klitchko De Belair.

The Venetia Williams-trained Zertakt, winner of three races and £62,222 was bought at the 2022 Arqana Summer Sale for €195,000.

Wal Cassandre is the winner of three chaeses, including Lion d’Angers’ Prix Telayou, while Jazz d’Arc was successful on his sole start for Guillaume Macaire in a three-year-old conditions hurdle.

Of the few to have run in Britain or Ireland so far, the French-bred Jilaijone, trained by David Pipe, won a juvenile hurdle and has been placed on eight further occasions.

The top price for a store horse by Walzertakt in Britain or Ireland remains €60,000 for Takt De Touques bought by Ian Ferguson / Caherty Stables at Goffs Land Rover Sale in 2022.

The most expensive foal by him to sell in Britain was at last November’s British National Hunt Breeders’ Showcase when Peter Molony of Rathmore Stud went to £25,000 for a colt out of the Listed-placed Gold For Tina, a Lando half-sister to Max Dynamite.

Young sires in Ireland

Selected National Hunt stallions with first crop seven-year-olds

Statistics courtesy of Weatherbys NH Stallion Book

AFFINISEA

Sea The Stars-Affianced (Erins Isle)

Whytemount Stud

POA

Year to stud: 2017

As a Sea The Stars three-parts brother to Group 1 winner and established NH sire Soldier Of Fortune, the appeal Affinisea holds for NH breeders was immediately apparent when he retired to the O’Neill

family’s Whytemount Stud.

Bred by Jim Bolger’s Redmondstown Stud from the first crop of world champion

Sea The Stars, Affinisea topped the Goffs November Foal Sale when selling for €850,000 to his sire’s owner-breeder.

He made a winning racecourse debut at four over 1m4f for John Oxx and narrowly failed to make it two wins from two starts when second over 1m6f at Killarney

as a five-year-old.

Affinisea has an outstanding pedigree that has been nurtured by Jim Bolger over successive generations – in addition to boasting an Irish Derby and Coronation Cup-winning sibling, he is also a three-parts brother to Group 3 Meld Stakes and Listed Silver Stakes winner Heliostatic, who is at stud in Argentina.

Carriglawn, their Rock Of Gibraltar

Settle Down Jill, by Affinisea, won her point in February. She was purchased by Ryan Mahon / Dan Skelton for £120,000 at the Cheltenham Festival Sale

half-brother also won the Listed Silver Stakes, and they are out of Affianced, a daughter of Erins Isle and winner of the Curragh’s Debutante Stakes when it was a Listed race.

Affianced is a half-sister to the Group 1-winning two-year-old Sholokhov, the sire of Gold Cup winner Don Cossack and leading 2m chaser Shishkin.

Another half-sister, the Listed winner Zvaleta, is the second dam of the Group 1 Dewhurst Stakes winner Intense Focus and third dam of Skitter Scatter, winner of the Group 1 Moyglare Stud Stakes.

In his first season at stud, Affinisea covered 123 mares but that number has increased in each of the subsequent three seasons with his book accommodating 201 mares in 2020 on the strength of the quality of his foals.

In 2021 he was the busiest stallion in Europe covering 325 mares and that figure was surpassed further in 2022 year when he saw 382. It was a more manageable 268 in 2023.

Affinisea’s runners so far are headed by Noel Meade’s Grade 1 Spa Novices Hurdle and Grade 1 War Of Attrition Novices Hurdle second Affordale Fury.

Also from that first crop are the Listed bumper-winning mares Avakate and Only By Night, who went on to win a maiden hurdle for Gavin Cromwell.

From his first three crops he is the sire of 28 winners of 41 races from 73 starters and he has 279 foals of racing age.

At the sales last year his foals averaged €14,977, while his store sale average was €27,172. Those figures were €16,226 and €29,619 respectively in 2022.

His top-priced store of 2023 was Liss House’s half-brother to Grade 2 Prestige Novices Hurdle winner Hillcrest. Out of the multiple graded-winning hurdler Shop DJ, he made €85,000 to Paul Holden at the Tattersalls Ireland Derby Sale.

His top-priced lot so far is the point-topoint winner Brook Bay, who was bought by Wasdell Properties / JJ O’Neill for £380,000 at the Goffs Point-To-Point Sale in December 2022

At the same sale O’Neill, this time with Stoud Coleman Bloodstock and Colin Russell, spent £110,000 on the

aforementioned Only By Night. She finished third at Warwick before her transfer to Gavin Cromwell.

Classic Anthem, sold by Rob James Racing, made £200,000 to Peter and Ross Doyle and Tizzard at the 2022 Aintree Sale, while Durcan Bloodstock bought the fouryear-old filly Molly Sanderson at the 2022 Festival Sale for £120,000.

At the Tattersalls Cheltenham January Sale, Kim Bailey purchased the five-yearold Seatoit, who had been second in a Punchestown bumper in December, for £120,000.

AUSTRIAN SCHOOL

Teofilo-Swiss Roll (Entrepreneur)

Clongiffen Stud

POA

Year to stud: 2020

A Teofilo half-brother to one of the most famous and popular chasers of the decade, Austrian School’s kinship with Tiger Roll is not the only reason why this 16.2hh bay was snapped up for stud duties – he has a further pedigree to recommend him.

Dam Swiss Roll has produced black-type performers on the Flat, as well as her Cheltenham Festival and Grand National-winning son. The daughter of Entrepreneur was second in the Listed Vintage Crop Stakes and her Dubawi son Ahzeemah was a high-class stayer for Godolphin winning the Group 2 Lonsdale Cup and the Group 3 Nad Al Sheba Trophy, and finishing second in the Group 1 Irish St Leger to Voleuse De Coeurs.

Austrian School was a classy performer and earned an official rating of 110 during his four-year-old season. Forward enough to win on his debut at two over a mile for Mark Johnston in August, he also won over 1m2f that season. At three, he made a winning seasonal reappearance over 1m6f and was second in the Listed Glasgow Stakes over 1m6f. His final start that year came in the 1m6f Listed Noel Murless Stakes when a close third.

The following year he won on his seasonal bow once more and was third to Dee Ex Bee in the Group 3 Henry II Stakes at Sandown and second in the Listed Rose Bowl Stakes.

A remarkably consistent horse, Austrian

School ran 18 times and won four races, finishing out of the first four on just three occasions.

His dam Swiss Roll is a full-sister to Berenson, who was second in the Group 1 National Stakes at two and is a half-sister to Group 3 Park Express Stakes winner Pollen, the dam of the Japanese Group 3-placed Pollentia.

Swiss Roll’s three-year-old full-brother to Austrian School made 155,000gns to Peter Brant’s White Birch Farm at 2020’s Tattersalls October Yearling Sales.

Austrian School retired to Clongiffen Stud in 2020 and is an option for mares free from Sadler’s Wells blood considering he is inbred 3x3 to the dominant sire of our times.

He had 17 reported foals in his first crop and 18 in his second; his first foals include a filly out of Mariah Mooney, a half-sister to the Grade 1 Leopardstown novice chase winner Mariah Rollins, who is also the dam of Pendra, a Grade 3-winning chaser and second-placed in the Grade 1 Tolworth Novice Hurdle.

Haarth Of Gold, an unraced Alhaarth half-sister to the Grade 3-winning mare Listen Dear from the family of Grade 1 Finale Hurdle winner Tempo d’Or, has a two-yearold filly by Austrian School, and she made €3,500 as a foal.

Austrian School has eight yearlings on the ground and Stroud Coleman bought the only one of them who sold as a foal going to €9,000 at the Tattersalls Ireland November National Hunt Sale for Clongiffen Stud’s filly out of Zariyama, a Pivotal half-sister to the multiple Grade 2 winner and Grade 1-placed Zanahiyr.

CRYSTAL OCEAN

Sea The Stars-Crystal Star (Mark Of Esteem)

Beeches Stud

€8,000

Year to stud: 2020

Crystal Ocean’s foals have caused quite the stir in the sale ring and his progeny continue to be in high demand as he faces his first test at the store sales.

His NH sale average for his first crop was an impressive €35,688 with the session-topping €120,000 foal from Tattersalls Ireland, the standout amongst

Trained by Sir Michael Stoute, Crystal Ocean was never once out of the first three in 17 career starts, all bar two of which were Group races

some meaty auction prices.

Foal prices stayed strong the following year and his 2022 average was €25,644 with a top price of €75,000 given by Ian Ferguson at Goffs December NH Sale for the colt out of Presenting Juno (Presenting).

At the Tattersalls Ireland November NH Sale, Joey Logan bought the colt out of the Yeats mare Hour Before Dawn for €72,000, while Sabrina Harty gave €70,000 for the colt out of Whistle Dixie (Kayf Tara) sold by The Beeches Stud.

In 2023, his average dipped to €21,480

with the most expensive, the halfbrother to Cheltenham Festival winner Blodge, making €65,000 to Ben Case and Kevin Ross at the Tattersalls Ireland November NH Sale. Sold by Burgage Stud he is a grandson of the Grade 1 winner Bilboa.

At the Goffs December NH Sale that price was almost matched by Nicky Bertran de Balanda, who paid €62,000 for a filly out of the Listed winner Cap Soleil by Kapgarde. She was sold by Rathmore Stud on behalf of Ballykilty Farm.

Bred by the late Renee Robeson and raced in the colours of her brother Sir Evelyn Rothschild, Crystal Ocean was an incredibly consistent racehorse. Trained by Sir Michael Stoute, Crystal Ocean was never once out of the first three in 17 career starts, all but two of which were in Group races. One of those was his debut over 7f at two, when he was second by just a neck in a Newbury maiden.

At three he finished third in the Group 2 Dante Stakes to the more experienced Permian and Benbatl. He occupied the same position behind Permian in Royal Ascot’s Group 2 King Edward VII Stakes before breaking through the glass ceiling in the Group 3 Gordon Stakes. He went down fighting to Capri in the St Leger, a trait that would come to define some of his greatest performances over the following two seasons.

Given time to mature, Crystal Ocean developed into one of the best horses in the world at four and five. He ran off a treble of Group wins in his first three starts at four and was second to Poet’s Word in the Group 1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes, losing out by a neck with the pair pulling 9l clear of the field. He was second to Cracksman in the 1m2f Group 1 Champions’ Stakes, beating Group 1 winners Capri, Rhododendron and Verbal Dexterity.

As a five-year-old he was involved in some of 2019’s most memorable European races, starting off his campaign with his second successive victories in the Group 3 Gordon and Aston Park Stakes before finally getting his head in front in the Group 1 Prince of Wales’s Stakes, defeating Group 1 winners

Magical, Waldgeist, Sea Of Class, Deirdre, Zabeel Prince and Desert Encounter. In a thrilling renewal of the Group 1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth II Stakes, he and Enable battled most of the way up Ascot’s home straight with the mare just getting the better of him by a neck.

It was a similar scenario in the Group 1 Juddmonte International at York with the two-year younger Japan, who had to dig deep into his reserves to see off Crystal Ocean by a head, getting 7lb from his elder.

Crystal Ocean is a three-parts brother to the dual Group 2 Pride Stakes winner Crystal Capella (Cape Cross) and a half-brother to the Grade 1 Canadian International winner Hillstar. He is also a half-brother to the Listed Newbury Fillies’ Trial winner

Crystal Zvezda.

With Darshaan as the sire of Mark Of Esteem and Be My Guest the sire of his second dam Crystal Cavern, he has noted NH stallion credentials and his own sire Sea The Stars is a half-brother to Galileo, who has 20 sons at stud who have sired at least

Crystal Ocean: his first Irish-bred three-year-olds hit the store horse sale ring this spring

one Group/Grade 1 winner.

His most expensive foal so far is the Mariga family’s colt out of Daydream Beach, a Mahler half-sister to Royal Bond winner Airlie Beach from the family of the 2021 Grade 3 mares’ hurdle winner Our Girl Salley. He was purchased by Kevin Ross and Ben Case for €120,000.

From his first two crops Crystal Ocean has 610 foals, and he covered 335 mares in 2023.

DEE EX BEE

Farhh-Dubai Sunrise (Seeking The Gold)

Arctic Tack Stud

POA

Year to stud: 2022

Trained by Mark Johnston, Dee Ex Bee ran 21 times, won four races, and was placed second or third 12 times. Dee Ex Bee was a consistent runner and was unlucky to bump into first Kew Gardens and then Stradivarius.

As a two-year-old he won on his first start at Goodwood over 7f in August, finished third at Listed level in September, won at Epsom over a mile in October and at the end of the season finished second in the 1m2f Zetland Stakes to Kew Gardens.

His appreciation for Epsom continued as a three-year-old – he was second in the racecourse’s Listed Blue Riband Stakes on his first start in April, was second in the Chester Vase (G3), before he ran the race of his career in the Epsom Derby (G1) when just a length second to Masar.

He finished down the field in the Irish Derby but bounced back when third to Kew Gardens in the Grand Prix de Paris (G1), second to Cross Counter in the Gordon Stakes (G3), fourth in the Group 1 St Leger (once again behind Kew Gardens), and then third to Iquitos in the Grosser Preis von Bayern (G1).

At four, he won on his first two starts – on his first try over 2m in the Sagaro Stakes (G3) and then over the same distance in the Henry VII Stakes at Sandown.

He took on Stradivarius in the Gold Cup (G1) at Royal Ascot, and was just a length down at the line, shortening that distance to just a neck in the Goodwood Cup (G1).

He rounded the year off with a thirdplaced finish in the Prix du Cadran (G1),

Dee Ex Bee’s first crop numbers 78 foals and they made a good first impression at the sales averaging €13,886

behind Holdthasigreen and Call The Wind.

His sire Farhh has not really had the opportunity to prove himself due to fertility problems, but his progeny are headed by the Group 1-winning miler King Of Change, who is out of an Echo Of Light mare and is standing this year at Starfield Stud at a fee of €5,000.

Dee Ex Bee hails from a leading stallion family – his unraced dam Dubai Sunrise is full-sister to the champion and leading sire influence Dubai Millennium, of course, the sire of one of the world’s best stallions, Dubawi.

His third dam Fall Aspen, a two-time Grade 1 winner, was dam of the sires Hamas, Fort Wood, Timber Country and grand-dam of Elnadim.

Dee Ex Bee’s first crop numbers 78 foals and they made a good first impression at the sales averaging €13,886.

Three made over €30,000 at the Goffs December NH Sale with the top price at €37,000. Bobby O’Ryan bought Pat Kinsella’s colt out of Pat’s Oscar, a winning Oscar half-sister to Grade 2 winner Hiddenvalley Lake.

Dee Ex Bee covered 157 mares last year.

FIFTY STARS

Sea The Stars-Swizzle Stick (Sadler’s Wells)

Sunnyhill Stud

€3,000

Year to stud: 2022

From 36 starts, Fifty Stars won seven races, was placed 10 times and picked up race

earnings over £1,500,000.

He ran throughout his career in Australia, having been bought as a yearling by John Foote at the Tattersalls October Book 2 Sale 2016

He did not run at two, and began his racing career in May 2018 winning on his career debut over 7f and rounding the year off on his fourth start with success in a Group 3 over the same distance.

He ran 11 times in 2019, mainly over 7f and a mile, and while he did not trouble the judge at Group 1 level, he collected two Group 2 races in succession – Flemington’s mile Blamey Stakes and the 7f Ajax Stakes at Rosehill.

He finished mid-division on his next five starts before he finished second in the Group 1 Cantala Stakes over a mile, beaten just a short-head.

The following February, after he finished second on that year’s debut, he made it two in a row in the Blamey Stakes and then collected his Group 1 when winning the Australia Cup at Flemington.

Spelled then through to the southernhemisphere spring season, he ran from October 2020 to September 2021 in nine Group 1s, four Group 2s, once in a Group 3 and once in a handicap without success, but with three runner-up results, including in the McKinnon Stakes (G1) behind Arcadia Queen and in the A D Hollindale Stakes (G2) to the talented British-bred Zaaki, who is now a multiple Group 1 winner.

A sound horse he was repatriated to Ireland to stand at Sunnyhill Stud as a jumps sire, the farm keen to capitalise on the fact that he is a half-brother to Whiskey Sour, winner of the Future Champions Novice Hurdle (G1) at Leopardstown.

His second dam Viz (Darshan) was dam of Viztoria (Oratorio), a joint champion juvenile filly of 2012 in Ireland, while third dam For Example is dam of Forbearing, placed second in the Rose of Lancaster Stakes (G3), the Winter Hill Stakes (G3) and a three-time hurdle winner.

She is grand-dam of King Of Camelot, who finished third in the Prix de Conde (G3).

Swizzle Stick is an unraced daughter of Sadler’s Wells so it does rule out mares by him or his immediate descendants.

A

Danehill Dancer half-brother to Crystal Ocean, who from his first crop of 51 runners has had four winners of eight races from 14 starters, Hillstar is an exciting young sire for Garryrichard Stud

His first crop of foals numbers 43 and they averaged €11,520 at the sales with a top price hit of €26,000 at the Goffs December NH Sale for the first foal out of the Grade 2-winning hurdler Lady Breffni (Yeats). She was sold by Tinnakill House to Ballinaroone Stud.

Fifty Stars covered 75 mares last year.

GALILEO CHROME

Australia-Curious Mind (Dansili)

Starfield Stud

POA

Year to stud: 2021

The first son of dual Derby winner Australia to retire to stud, Galileo Chrome had 44 foals born in 2022 and added 31 more in 2023.

As well as being Australia’s first stallion son, Galileo Chrome also has the distinction of being the first Group 1 winner by the impeccably bred sire.

Raced once at two, Galileo Chrome pieced together an unbeaten three-year-old season starting with a maiden success over 1m2f at The Curragh where the vanquished included subsequent runaway Derby winner Serpentine.

His first attempt at stakes level gave him victory in the 1m5f Listed Yeats Stakes, an impressive performance which convinced connections to let him take his chance in the Group 1 St Leger at Doncaster, a decision that was rewarded with a thrilling success over Berkshire Rocco and Pyledriver with Irish Derby winner Santiago in fourth.

The five-year-old point-to-point winner Melbourne Shamrock by Hillstar, under inspecting eyes at the Tattersalls Cheltenham January Sale

Bred and raced by Mohamed Ali Meddeb, who will be lending his star stayer significant support in his stud career with some choice mares, including the dam of the Group 1 National Stakes winner Al Riffa, who has yearling and two-year-old colts by Galileo Chrome.

Galileo Chrome hails from the outstanding Lanwades Stud family founded by Alruccaba.

His dam Curious Mind is a Dansili half-sister to a pair of Listed Cocked Hat Stakes winners in Private Secretary and Michelangelo, who was also third in the St Leger.

They are out of the Listed-placed Intrigued, a Darshaan full-sister to the Listed Ballymacoll Stakes winner Approach, who is the dam of Group 1 Grand Prix

de Saint-Cloud and Prix Jean Romanet winner Coronet (Dubawi) and Midas Touch (Galileo), who won the Group 2 Derrinstown Stud Derby Trial and was second in the Irish Derby.

Intrigued’s Danehill half-brother Aussie Rules won the Group 1 Poule d’Essai des Poulains and Grade 1 Shadwell Turf Mile for Coolmore. They are out of the Alzao mare

Last Second, who won the Nassau Stakes and Sun Chariot Stakes when they were both Group 2 contests.

Last Second is a half-sister to the Group 3 Doncaster Cup winner Alleluia (Caerleon), who is the dam of Group 1 Prix Royal-Oak winner Allegretto (Galileo), and she in turn is the dam of the Listed Aphrodite Stakes winner and Group 2 second Cabaletta.

She is also a half-sister to Listed Oyster Stakes winner Alouette, a daughter of Darshaan, who was also third in the Group 1 Moyglare Stakes at two and is the dam of the Group 1-winning Alzao full-sisters

Albanova and Alborada, a dual winner of the Champion Stakes.

Another of Last Second’s half-sisters is Jude, a daughter of Darshaan who failed to win on the track but has made a lasting impact as a broodmare with no less than six daughters earning black-type. They are headed by the Sadler’s Wells full-sisters

Yesterday, winner of the Irish 1,000 Guineas, and the Group 1 Moyglare Stakes winner Quartermoon, who was also placed in three Classics and is the dam of four black-type performers, including the Group 1 Pretty Polly Stakes winner Diamondsandrubies. Quartermoon is also the second dam of Group 2 winner and Group 1 placed Eminent by Frankel.

Galileo Chrome is inbred 4x5 to Northern Dancer and 5x4 to his son Danzig so they are far enough back that they will only appear in the fifth generation of his foals’ pedigrees and Sadler’s Wells will be back in the fourth generation.

His first foals averaged €6,940 at the sales which dipped to an average of €5,571 for his second crop. The best price for any of his offspring remains the €22,000 achieved by Russellstown Stud’s half-brother to Hurricane Georgie at the Tattersalls Ireland November NH Sale in 2022.

Riverside Stud bought the half-brother to the Midlands National winner.

HILLSTAR

Danehill Dancer-Crystal Star (Mark Of Esteem)

Garryrichard Stud

€1,500

Year to stud: 2016

A Danehill Dancer half-brother to Crystal Ocean who from his first crop of 51 runners has had four winners of eight races from 14 starters, Hillstar is an exciting young sire for Garryrichard Stud.

The untimely demise of Jeremy, whose success came towards the end of his sire Danehill Dancer’s stud career, has transformed Danehill Dancer stallion sons into a hot commodity for NH stud masters.

The Grade 1 Canadian International winner Hillstar was one of the first to retire to an Irish NH stud, the Hickey family’s Garryrichard in Wexford, after the brief but brilliant career of the star-crossed Our Conor and Jeremy’s deaths in 2014.

Hillstar’s pedigree is top notch and has only improved in the intervening years thanks to his younger half-brother Crystal Ocean’s Group 1-winning exploits.

Hillstar represented the same connections as the world champion and was a high-class racehorse in his own right. Unlike Crystal Ocean, he won at two and went two places better than his sibling when winning t he Group 2 King Edward VII Stakes at Royal Ascot.

On his next start Hillstar finished third to Novellist and the Irish Derby winner Trading Leather in the Group 1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes and ahead of Cirrus Des Aigles and Red Cadeaux.

At four, he won the Grade 1 Canadian International at Woodbine, beating the fourtime Grade 1 winner Big Blue Kitten. He also won the Group 3 Newbury Arc Trial and was second in the Hardwicke Stakes and Princess of Wales’s Stakes, both Group 2 races.

He was second to the Group 1 winner Brown Panther in the Group 3 Ormonde Stakes and occupied the same position in the Rose of Lancaster Stakes, also a Group 3.

Hillstar’s best result at five was a third place in the Group 3 Cumberland Lodge Stakes at Ascot.

From his first crops of racing age, Hillstar is the sire of Listed Henrietta Knight Mares’ Bumper third Hillfinch, and Sherodan who was second in the Listed novice hurdle at the Galway Races last summer for Peter Fahey and owner-breeders Peter and Sandra McCarthy. As well as Another Choice, a seven-year-old gelding placed third in the Listed Dunraven Arms Novice Hurdle, they are his best runners to date.

His 2021 store horse average was €18,800 and in 2022 it was €15,794.

His best result has been the €230,000 that Gordon Elliott and Aidan O’Ryan paid for Lough Owel, the full-brother to Another Choice, at the 2023 Goffs Punchestown Sale.

Mags O’Toole paid €60,000 at the 2021 Goffs Land Rover Sale for the gelding out of Luanna, an unraced Luso mare from the

family of Lord Of The River. He was sold by Peter Nolan Bloodstock.

At the Tattersalls Cheltenham January Sale, Emmet Mullins went to £125,000 for Melbourne Shamrock, who won a five-yearold maiden for Matty Flynn O’Connor.

The son of Lucy Murphy had cost Ballycrystal Stables €70,000 at the Tattersalls Ireland Derby Sale.

HUNTING HORN

Camelot-Mora Bai (Indian Ridge) Capital Stud Private

Year to stud: 2021

By Camelot, who hails from the influential Montjeu line, what makes Hunting Horn of particular interest is his female family – his dam Mora Bai is an Indian Ridge half-sister to High Chaparral. His best NH offspring has been Altior and he was an excellent stallion siring Group 1 winners in both hemispheres with his best son So You Think is becoming a consistent sire of top-class horses in Australia.

Hunting Horn is a closely-related to the Group 2 Beresford Stakes winner David Livingston by Galileo, who was also third in the Group 1 National Stakes.

Their dam Mora Bai is a full-sister to Treasure The Lady, who was Listed-placed and is the second dam of last season’s Group 3 Leopardstown 1,000 Guineas Trial winner Love Locket, and the Listed winner Raakib Alhawa.

Mora Bai is also a half-sister to Chenchikova, the dam of the 2020 Group 1 Prix de Diane and Nassau Stakes winner Fancy Blue, the Listed winner and Group 1 Dewhurst Stakes third Smuggler’s Cove and Casterton, a Listed winner in France. She is also a half-sister to Black Bear Island, by Sadler’s Wells, and winner of the Group 2 Dante Stake, who was second in the Grade 1 Secretariat Stakes.

The family is a fine Aga Khan pedigree and second dam Kasora, by Darshaan, was bred by His Highness out of the Group 2 winner Kozana, who was placed in the Group 1 Prix du Moulin at a mile and the 1m4f Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.

A daughter of Kris, she produced four black-type performers at stud, including the

Group 1-placed Khoraz.

From Camelot’s first crop, Hunting Horn was a Group winner in both hemispheres claiming the Group 3 Hampton Court Stakes at Royal Ascot at three and the Group 2 Moonee Valley Gold Cup as a four-year-old.

He ran twice at two, placing on both occasions at the start of a 25-race career that included third in the Grade 1 Belmont Derby, fourth to Old Persian in the Dubai Sheema Classic, fourth in the Grade 1 Man O’War Stakes and the same place in the Group 1 Prince Of Wales’s to Crystal Ocean, Magical and Waldgeist.

His maiden victory at three came over 1m2f and at the expense of Latrobe, also by Camelot, while his Group race wins were at 1m2f and 1m4f and he was placed in Group 1 contests at both those distances.

Hunting Horn covered 80 mares in his first year at stud and his first-crop foals averaged €10,055. The best prices achieved was at the Goffs December NH Sale when Matt O’Connor went to €27,000 for Capital Bloodstock’s colt out of Flash Flossy.

At the same sale, Conna Stud sold a Hunting Horn colt out of Roussillon Red to Brian Flynn for €22,000. None of his second crop have come on the market.

He covered just 16 mares in 2022 but that increased in 2023 to 25 mares.

IDAHO

Galileo-Hveger (Danehill)

Beeches Stud

€3,000

Year to stud: 2019

A full-brother to the globe-trotting seventime Group 1 winner Highland Reel, from a top class family and a Royal Ascot winner on the track, it’s easy to see why Idaho has been popular with breeders.

He has already sired his first four-yearold maiden winner with the victory of Idaho Valley at Tallow in early February for Mary Doyle and Baltimore Stables. He is one of 137 members of Idaho’s first crop.

Successful on debut at two, and pitched straight into Group 1 company on just his second start by Aidan O’Brien, Idaho was a high-class performer from the start of a career that took him around the world.

Placed behind Harzand in both the Derby

and Irish Derby, Idaho was an authoritative winner of the Group 2 Great Voltigeur Stakes and was sent off favourite for the St Leger at Doncaster in which he suffered a nasty spill.

At four he was a comfortable winner of the Group 2 Hardwicke Stakes at Royal Ascot and then finished third to Enable and Ulysses in the Group 1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes. Sent on his travels, his next four starts were all in Group or Grade 1 company and he went from New York to Paris to Woodbine and then Tokyo with fourth in the Grade 1 Canadian International at 1m4f his best result.

His first start at five was in Dubai for the Group 1 Dubai Sheema Classic and he next popped up at Chester where he easily won the Group 3 Ormonde Stakes over 1m5f.

In that last year his best performances came in his two third places behind Stradivarius in the Group 1 Goodwood Cup and York’s Group 2 Lonsdale Cup, both around 2m.

Idaho has an impressive pedigree and is bred on the excellent Galileo-Danehill cross that has produced Group 1 winners and leading stallions Frankel and Teofilo, as well as his full-brother Highland Reel whose first crop last year yielded eight winners from 29 starters and are three-year-olds of 2023.

Idaho is also a full-brother to Cape Of Good Hope, who won the Group 1 Caulfield Stakes, and the Group 3 Ballysax Stakes winner Nobel Prize. Idaho’s full-sister Cercle De La Vie is the dam of new Sumbe stallion and Group 1-winning juvenile Angel Blue (Dark Angel).

Another sibling is the Group 1 Storm Queen Stakes and Victoria Oaks second Valdemoro.

Their dam Hveger was placed in the Group 1 Australasian Oaks and is a full-sister to the Australian champion and five-time Group 1 winner Elvstroem, and a half-sister to another Australian champion, the threetime Group 1 winner Haradasun. They are out of Circles Of Gold, winner of the Group 1 AJC Oaks and a half-sister to the second dam of Group 1-winning sprinter and good sire Starspangledbanner.

His first crop of foals went under the hammer in 2020 and averaged €10,575 for 17 sold, his second crop averaged €6,800 and in 2022 averaged €3,993. His fourth

Idaho: the full-brother to Highland Reel has 137 four-year-olds on the ground for this season

crop of foals average €3,000.

His first crop averaged €15,613 at the store sales last season with the most expensive of them being the Tullycanna Stables gelding out of West Elite, the unraced Westerner half-sister to Oscar Elite from the family of Gold Cup winner Lord Winderemere. Kevin Ross Bloodstock went to €60,000 for him at the Goffs Arkle Sale. He had cost €20,000 as a foal from Lisnagar Paddocks at the December NH Sale.

The most expensive foal by Idaho sold so far is a half-brother to the Grade 2 Paddy Mullins’ Mares Handicap Hurdle winner and the Grade 1 Fairyhouse Mares’ Novice Hurdle third Alletrix. He made €28,000 to Richard Frisby at Goffs December NH Sale from the Beeches Stud and was sold by Frisby for €33,000 to Tom Keating at last year’s Goffs Arkle Sale.

His second crop was topped by a €16,000 colt out of Rose Cottage, an unraced Flemensfirth sister to the Grade 3 winner Emily Gray and the Grade 3-placed Pride Of The Parish. He was sold at Tattersalls Ireland November NH Sale by the Beeches Stud to Lulham Bloodstock for €16,000.

Idaho has 137 four-year-olds, 123 three-

year-olds and 89 two-year-olds. There are 19 yearlings by him and he covered 40 mares in 2023.

IN SWOOP

Adlerflug-Iota (Tiger Hill)

Beeches Stud

€3,500

Year to stud: 2022

The talented son of Adlerflug did not run as a two-year-old but made his three-year-old debut a winning one over 1m3f in May at Lyon Parilly. He was sent off race favourite so had not been hiding his talent in his home work.

He was stepped up quickly to Group 2 company in the Prix Greffulhe over the same course and distance and finished just a length and a quarter behind the race winner, despite lacking a bit of room in the last furlong.

Connections maintained their ambitious approach and he ran in the Grade 1 Deutsches Derby, which he won by threequarters of a length.

It is a race that with the benefit of hindsight is looking amazingly strong – in

There are 111 foals in In Swoop’s first crop and they averaged €11,119 at the sales last year

second was the subsequent 2021 Arc winner Torquator Tasso (also by Adlerflug), third (but disqualified) was Grocer Jack, the multiple Grade 1 and Grade 2 winner who was sold for a sale-topping 700,000gns at 2021’s Tattersalls Autumn HIT Sale.

In Swoop then finished second to Mogul in the Grand Prix de Paris (G1) and filled the same position putting in his most memorable performance when a neck runner-up to Sottsass in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.

An Arc challenge was firmly on the cards as four-year-old, and his early runs in 2021 looked as though he had retained all of his ability – he won the Group 3 Prix d’Hedouville, the Grade 2 Grand Prix de Chantilly and then finished fourth in the Grade 1 Grand Prix de Saint Cloud. Sadly, that was to be the last race in the horse’s career as injury intervened.

By Adlerflug, who was sadly lost as a 17-year-old as he was starting to make a real mark, In Swoop boasts a cracking Germanproduced pedigree.

He is out of the Preis der Diana winner Iota and is a full-brother to Ito, the German champion, winner of the Grosser Preis von Bayern (G1) and also a multiple Group 2 winner and Group 1 placed.

In addition to In Swoop, Adlerflug’s leading performers include the Arc winner and new sire Torquator Tasso, the multiple Group 1 winner Iquitos, successful in the Grosser Preis Von Baden (G1) and sire of Deutsches Derby runner-up Mr Hollywood in his first crop, the Grosser Dallmayr Preis-Bayerisches Zuchtrennen (G1) winner Mendocino, Ito, winner of the Wettstar Grosser Preis Von Baden (G1) and the Grosser Preis Von Bayern (G1), and the Tattersalls Gold Cup (G1) winner Alenquer. His second dam Iora (Konigsstuhl) is dam of the Group 3 winner Illo (Tertullian), Ioannina, a Listed winner and Group 1 third, and to Iowa, dam of the Group 2 winner

Itoba (Areion). It is also the further family of Iran, the top-rated German miler of 2009, and Iberus, the third top-rated German two-year-old of 2000.

Sadler’s Wells and Danehill are in In Swoop’s third generation so there is room for mares from those lines. On the Flat, Adlerflug has also done well with mares by Monsun, Areion, Toylson and by Mount Nelson, while from his few jumps runners he has had winners from mares by Arctic Tern, Protektor and Platini.

There are 111 foals in In Swoop’s first crop and they averaged €11,119 at the sales last year. The most expensive of them was a colt out of the unraced Milan mare Castlevennon, from the family of Ballyadam. He was sold by Daniel Doran to Sid Bloodstock for €28,000 at the Tattersalls Ireland November NH Sale.

In Swoop covered 216 mares in 2023.

KEW GARDENS

Galileo-Chelsea Rose (Desert King) Castle Hyde Stud €3,000

Year to stud: 2021

A handsome son of Galileo with a Group 1-winning dam and a stakes-winning juvenile himself, Kew Gardens was amongst the busiest new stallions at stud in 2021 when he covered 198 mares.

Bred by David and Diane Nagle at their renowned Barronstown Stud nursery, Kew Gardens ran five times at two for Aidan O’Brien winning the Listed Zetland Stakes at Newmarket in a track record time by more than 3l from Dee Ex Bee, who went on to finish second in the Derby. Kew Gardens was also second in the Group 3 Champions’ Juvenile Stakes at Leopardstown and won his maiden over a mile on his second start.

At three, he won the Group 2 Queen’s Vase at Royal Ascot on his first start over 1m6f, stretching more than 4l clear of his pursuers.

That victory set him up for Group 1 glory

in the Grand Prix de Paris at Longchamp, the first of his two triumphs at the highest level at three. He added the St Leger comfortably from Lah Ti Dar with Dee Ex Bee and Old Persian further back. Kew Gardens was also third to Old Persian and Cross Counter in the Group 2 Great Voltigeur Stakes.

Remaining in training at four, he performed at the highest level losing by a nose to Defoe in the Group 1 Coronation Cup and finishing runner-up to Search For A Song in the Irish St Leger. His final race was memorable for halting the unbeaten run of champion stayer Stradivarius by a nose in thrilling finish to the Group 2 British Champions’ Long Distance Cup.

He is one of three Group winners out of the Moyglare Stakes winner Chelsea Rose, a daughter of Desert King, so he is bred on a version of the Galileo-Danehill cross.

His full-sister Snow won the Group 3 Munster Oaks and their older Tamayuz halfsister was a Group 3 winner and was second in the Group 1 Prix Maurice de Gheest.

Chelsea Rose’s Red Ransom colt Hamlool was second in the Listed Lingfield Classic Trial and her winning Invincible Spirit daughter Pale Orchid is the dam of Free Eagle’s first crop Listed Caravaggio Stakes winner Justifier.

Chelsea Rose trained on to win the Ballyroan and Dance Design Stakes (both Listed contests then) and to be placed in the Group 1 Pretty Polly Stakes and Premio Lydia Tesio.

Her dam Cinnamon Rose is by Trempolino, and out of the Green Dancer mare Sweet Simone, who is the dam of Group 2 Prix Eugene Adam winner River Warden and Sweettuc, who won the Grade 3 Hoist The Flag Stakes.

Kew Gardens stands out due to his inbreeding to the great mare Special.

She features in the fourth and fifth generations of his pedigree through her daughter Fairy Bridge, dam of Sadler’s Wells, and son Nureyev who is a threeparts brother to Sadler’s Wells and is the broodmare sire of Desert King.

Kew Gardens is also 4S x 5D x 5D to Northern Dancer but two of those lines won’t appear in the first five generations of his foals’ pedigrees.

He had 108 foals born in his first crop and

achieved an average price at the foal sales of €8,598. Niall Bleahen spent €24,000 on a colt out of the Westerner mare Western Diva at Fairyhouse in November, while the stallion’s daughter was the second-best price of €20,000 at the same sale. She is out of the Martaline mare Cathodine Cayras from Adamsfield Stud and was bought by White Gold Stud.

His second crop has 49 registered yearlings and at last year’s foal sales they averaged a higher price than his first crop at €9,167.

The best price achieved was €14,000 for Gabrielle Whitty’s colt out of Irish Lass, a winning Getaway half-sister to Royal Bond heroine Airlie Beach. Clonbonny Stud sold the April-born colt at the Tattersalls Ireland November NH Sale.

KHALIFA SAT

Free Eagle-Thermopylae (Tenby)

Lacken Stud

€2,000

Year to stud: 2022

Runner-up to Serpentine in the 2020 Derby, Khalifa Sat comes from a high-class staying family.

The son of Free Eagle is a threeparts brother to Unsung Heroine (High Chaparral), who won the Give Thanks Stakes (G3) and was second in the St Leger. He is

Manatee sale averages

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also a half-brother to Ghostmilk (Golan), who was Listed-placed in Australia.They are out of Thermopylae, a Tenby full-sister to the Listed Singapore Gold Cup winner Carry The Flag and a half-sister to the Gran Premio di Milano (G1), the Hardwicke Stakes (G2), the Princess of Wales’s and John Porter Stakes (G3) winner Posidonas.

Thermopylae is also a half-sister to Nomothetis, the dam of Italian 2,000 Guineas winner Spirit Of Desert and second dam of the Minstrel Stakes and the Somerville Tattersalls Stakes winner Larchmont Lad.

Khalifa Sat’s second dam Tamassos is a half-sister to the Juddmonte International winner and Coronation Cup second Ile De Chypre and to the classy hurdler Halkopous, who won the Fighting Fifth, the Bula Hurdle and the West Yorkshire Hurdle for Venetia Williams.

Khalifa Sat was bred by Declan Phelan and the Irish National Stud and sold for €20,000 at the Goffs November Foal Sale. As a yearling he made €40,000 at Goffs Orby to Andrew Balding, who trained him for Ahmad Al Shaikh.

Khalifa Sat ran twice at two winning his maiden over 1m2f at Goodwood on his second start. At three he came out and won the Listed Cocked Hat Stakes on his seasonal reappearance before his Epsom second spot.

Khalifa Sat had one more run when

behind Mogul in the Group 3 Gordon Stakes.

He is inbred 4S x 5S x 5D x 4D to Northern Dancer through Sadler’s Wells, Danzig, Nijinsky and the aforementioned Dance In Time and also has Mill Reef 6S x 5D.

He has 29 foals in his first crop and they averaged €4,500 at the sales. The highest price was achieved at the Goffs November Foal Sale where Pipe View Stud sold a colt out of the Daylami mare My Silver Bullet for €8,500 to Khalifa Sat’s racing owner Ahmad Al Shaikh.

MANATEE

Monsun-Galatee (Galileo)

Whytemount Stud

€2,000 for a colt, €1,000 for a filly

Year to stud: 2022 (transferred to Ireland) Relocated to Ireland in 2022, Manatee’s oldest crop are six-year-olds of this year from his time previously spent in France and his first Irish foals are yearlings..

The Group 2 Prix de Conseil du Paris and Grand Prix de Chantilly winner is one of three black-type winners so far out of Galatee, a member of Galileo’s first crop and winner of the Group 3 Blue Wind Stakes.

She has also foaled the Group 2 Hardwicke Stakes winner and King George third Dartmouth, who stands at Shade Oak Stud, and the Listed-winning Dubai Destination filly Gaterie. Galatee is a half-sister to the dam of Australian Group 2 winner Aylmerton.

Bred by Darley, Manatee hails from a wonderful Wildenstein family. His second dam Altana is a half-sister to the champion Arcangues and to the Group 3 winner Agathe, who is the dam of champion Aquarelliste and Group 1 winner and sire Artiste Royal, and the second dam of 1,000 Guineas winner Cape Verdi.

Altana is also a half-sister to the dams of Group 1 winner Angara and Group winners Actrice, Breton Rock and Forgotten Voice, who won the Dovecote Hurdle and is a half-brother to the dam of the current Derby favourite Luxembourg.

Manatee won four of his 13 races over three seasons and was placed in a further six contests, including the Group 2 Prix Vicomtesse Vigier. He was also fourth in

young ire stallions

consecutive runnings of the Group 1 Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud for André Fabre.

He retired to Haras du Hoguenet where he stood for five seasons prior to his acquisition by Ronnie O’Neill.

Manatee covered relatively large books of mares in France and to date has had 47 starters with 11 winners of 17 races. His best performer to date is Juste Milieu runner-up in the Listed Prix Antoine de Palaminy in February for Guillaume Macaire at Pau. He’s posted decent sales results and has averaged €24,000 and €33,906 three-year-old store prices in the last couple of years.

Manatee is the best of the three runners by Monsun out of Galileo mares and his pedigree is free of inbreeding in the first five generations.

Manatee has sired 27 winners so far, with Juste Mileu boasting black-type with a Listed second place at Pau and Jaminska third to Queen’s Gamble in the Listed Byerley Stud Mares’ Hurdle at Taunton over Christmas for Jane Williams.

His stores averaged €40,924 last year with the most expensive a €62,000 Tattersalls

Ireland Derby Sale purchase for Suirview Stables from Glen Stables. French-bred Kaiser De Chanay is a half-brother to Auteuil Listed winner Gelboe De Chanay and the

Grade 2 third Eragon de Chanay.

At the Goffs Arkle Sale, Highflyer Bloodstock and Warren Greatrex spent €52,000 for Koapey, Ballincurrig House Stud’s full-brother to Juste Millieu.

Manatee has 45 yearlings in his first Irishbred crop and they averaged €8,900 at the sales. He received 62 mares in 2023.

MEKHTAAL

Sea The Stars-Aiglonne (Silver Hawk)

Knockmullen Stud

€2,500

Year to stud: 2019 (transferred to Ireland from France in 2023)

Having started his stud career under his owner’s banner at Haras de Bouquetot, the Group 1 winner Mekhtaal embarks on his second season at stud in Ireland at Knockmullen House Stud.

A €300,000 Arqana August yearling sold by joint-breeder Haras du Mezeray to Mandore International, the son of Sea The Stars has both the pedigree and race record to succeed and is an attractively-priced addition to Ireland’s young NH sires rank.

Mekhtaal made a successful debut for trainer Jean-Claude Rouget when winning an early season 1m2f maiden at Saint-Cloud

in March as a three-year-old.

Returned to the track a month later he placed second to Lascar in a Maisons-Laffitte conditions race over the same distance before heading to Deauville in May where he comfortably won the Prix Hocquart (G2), making all to land the 1m2f contest.

That run was good enough for him to take his place in the Jockey-Club but he was never put into the race and finished midfield behind champion Almanzor.

Kept busy by his trainer he contested another Group 1 in July when fourth to Helene Charisma in the Grand Prix de Paris having met trouble in running. He was to have one further run at three when second to Sky Kingdom in the Prix du Prince d’Orange (G3) back at Maisons-Laffitte.

Kept in training at four he kicked off his campaign with a fine second placing to Cloth Of Stars in the Group 2 Prix Harcourt prior to his career highlight next time out – dropping back to 1m1f he won the Prix d’Ispahan (G1) with sire-sensation Zarak down the field.

He failed to win through the remainder of the season but was transferred to the US and trainer Graham Motion for two runs as a five-year-old, finishing runner-up on both occasions, in the Grade 2 Nijinsky Stakes at Woodbine then just missing out to Johnny Bear in the Grade 1 Northern Dancer Stakes at the same track.

Mekhtaal is out of the 1997-born Silver Hawk mare Aiglonne. She won four races between 1m2f and 1m4f, including the Prix Fille De L’Air (G3), the Listed Prix Panacee and was also third in the Group 3 Orchid Handicap.

She is dam of 11 winners an, in addition to Mekhtaal, her other black-type horses include the dual Group 3 winner Aigue Marine (Galileo), Normandy Bridge (Le Havre), winner of the Group 3 Prix Thomas Bryon, Prix Hocquart (G2) winner Democrat (Dalakhani) and Apophis (Rainbow Quest), who was third at Listed level.

Mekhtaal is from the immediate family of White Muzzle, Fair Question and Elfaslah. He has had two winners and four placed horses in France from a few runners, including the impressive dual hurdle winner Allied Power, successful at Clairefontaine and Dieppe from just two starts.

This yearling filly by Old Persian and out of Lady West was bought by Gerry Hogan for €47,000 at the Tattersalls November NH Sale Photo courtesy of Tattersalls Ireland

MOGUL

Galileo-Shastye (Danehill)

The Beeches Stud

€3,000

Year to stud: 2022

Successful over 1m4f at the highest level and a Group 2-winning juvenile, Mogul is bred on the outstanding Galileo-Danehill cross that produced the 2021 champion sire Frankel, as well as Teofilo, who is the sire of more than 20 individual Group 1 winners,

Mogul got off the mark on his second start at two in a mile maiden at The Curragh before he was sent into Group 2 company for the Champions Juvenile Stakes at Leopardstown, which he won before ending his juvenile season with fourth to subsequent 2,000 Guineas winner Kameko in a rearranged Vertem Futurity Trophy on Newcastle’s All-Weather track.

Covid disrupted the 2020 Flat season and Mogul was forced to make a delayed seasonal debut in the King Edward VII Stakes (G2) at Royal Ascot in which he was fourth to Pyledriver.

The topsy-turvy nature of that season meant that the Derby was run on July 4, and Mogul finished sixth to runaway winner Serpentine.

Stepped up to 1m6f for the Group 3 Gordon Stakes at Goodwood on his next start, Mogul returned to winning ways, defeating subsequent Ascot Gold Cup hero Subjectivist. He couldn’t follow up in the Great Voltigeur Stakes (G2) in which he finished third of four but in the Grand Prix de Paris (G1), which was run in September 2020, he succeeded his older full-brother Japan as the winner of that 1m4f Group 1.

His immediate victim that day was Deutsches Derby winner In Swoop, who would follow up that performance with a close second to Sottsass in the Arc.

Mogul went to the Breeders’ Cup and was beaten just 3l by Tarnawa in the Grade 1 Turf before heading on east to Hong Kong for the Group 1 Vase at Sha Tin, in which he defeated champion and horse of the year Exultant to win his second Group 1 over 1m4f.

Kept in training as a four-year-old, Mogul was campaigned at the highest level with his best performance coming when a good third to Mare Australis in the

Kevin Ross Bloodstock paid €60,000 for the Old Persian half-brother to the Grade 1Supreme Novices Hurdle winner Slade Steel, consigned by Ballincurrig House Stud

Group 1 Prix Ganay at ParisLongchamp.

Bred by Newsells Park Stud, Mogul cost MV Magnier 3.4m guineas at the 2018 Tattersalls Book 1.

His year-older full-brother Japan was also a dual Group 1 winner and beat Crystal Ocean in an epic tussle for the Juddmonte International.

Their older full-sister Secret Gesture won the Group 2 Middleton Stakes and was placed five times at the highest level, including in the Oaks.

He is also a full-brother to the Group 3 winner Sir Isaac Newtown and a half-brother to the Austalian Listed winner and the Group 3-placed Maurus by Medicean. His unraced Sadler’s Wells three-parts sister Shabyt is the dam of 2021 Listed winner Shandoz by Golden Horn and the Listedplaced Shaherezada by Dutch Art.

The amazing sales mare Shastye produced sales of over 14m guineas for Newsells Park Stud, while on the track she was second in the Listed Pontefract Castle Stakes and boasts an excellent pedigree. Her Linamix half-brother Sagamix won the Arc, while her Highest Honor half-brother Sagacity was a two-year-old Group 1 winner.

She is also a half-sister to the Group 2 winner Sage Et Jolie, dam of the Group 1 Prix d’Ispahan winner and sire Sageburg and her winning Linamix half-sister Saga D’Ouilly produced two Listed winners and the granddam of 2021’s Group 1 Middle Park and Prix Morny winner Perfect Power.

Crossing Mogul with daughters of Soldier Hollow would create 3x4 inbreeding to Sadler’s Wells, which is a little further back than crossing a son of Galileo with a daughter of Montjeu. That particular cross has produced Group 1 winners for both Frankel and Teofilo so crossing Mogul with Soldier Hollow mares could prove successful. Another avenue open to him will be the

abundance of Monsun mares in the NH broodmare herd in Ireland and the UK.

He has 99 registered yearlings in his first crop and covered 200 mares in 2023.

His first crop averaged €6,327 at the sales in 2023 with the top price of €16,000 for the colt out of the Listed-placed chaser Pretty Reckless, who was bought by Lakefield Farm from The Beeches Stud at the Tattersalls Ireland November NH Sale.

MIRAGE DANCER

Frankel–Heat Haze (Green Desert)

Capital Stud

POA

Year to stud: 2022

Mirage Dancer hails from the amazing Juddmonte family of Hasili being out of her daughter, the dual US Grade 1 winner Heat Haze (Green Desert), a close sister to two-time Grade 1 winner Intercontinental, Cacique, also a dual Grade 1 winner, Champs Elysess, a three-time Grade 1 winner, who was developing into a NH sire until his untimely death, as well as the champion Banks Hill, the leading sire Dansili and the Grade 3 winner Delux.

Mirage Dancer ran 40 times and was with Sir Michael Stoute in Europe for whom he won on his sole start as a juvenile. At three, he collected placed results in the 1m2f Hampton Court Stakes (G3) and the Group 2

Great Voltigeur Stakes.

In the May of his four-year-old season, he won at Listed level over 1m4f at Goodwood before a good second to Best Solution in the Princess Of Wales’s Stakes (G2) and then won the 1m4f Group 3

Glorious Stakes from Red Verdon.

As a five-year-old in 2019 he continued to run to placed efforts in Group company before the decision was made to send him Down Under for a Melbourne Cup.

young ire stallions

He kicked off with a third placing in the 1m4f Group 1 Caulfield Cup before finishing mid-division in the big Group 1 in November.

He remained in Australia, put in some good placed efforts over middledistance trips before gaining victory in the Metropolitan Handicap (G1) in October 2020. In ran in 14 further Group and stakes races until his last start in October 2021.

His first crop of 87 achieved an average of €13,413 with the most expensive a filly out of Bonbonniere, a Martaline half-sister to Irish Grand National winner Burrows Saint. She was bought by Kevin Ross from Mountain View Stud at Tattersalls Ireland.

His book increased to 199 mares in 2023.

OLD PERSIAN

Dubawi–Indian Petal (Singspiel)

Glenview Stud

POA

Year to stud: 2021

Old Persian is a Group 1-winning son of Dubawi from one of the greatest families to have raced over the past 40 years.

Old Persian’s dam-sire is Singspiel, a Group 1-winning son of In The Wings who is no stranger to NH breeders and those interested in producing top-class middledistance horses and stayers on the Flat.

In The Wings himself sired triple Grade 1 Stayers’ Hurdle hero Inglis Drever, while his son Winged Love produced the dual Tingle Creek winner Twist Magic. Singspiel is the sire of Irving, who won two renewals of the Grade 1 Fighting Fifth Hurdle, and the Grade 2 winners Junior and Prima Vista.

The In The Wings’ sire line has excelled in Germany where his son Soldier Hollow, sire of Grade 1-winning hurdlers Arctic Fire and Saldier, is the outstanding stallion.

His dominance was challenged by another son of In The Wings in the late Adlerflug, who was German champion sire in 2020 with his son In Swoop claiming the Deutsches Derby and running Sottsass very close in the Arc. Torquator Tasso, who was second to In Swoop in the Deutsches Derby went on to win the 2021 Arc for Alderflug.

Old Persian’s female family traces back to Pasadoble, his fourth dam who was a Listed winner in France but excelled as a

broodmare, foaling the champion racemare and broodmare Miesque to Nureyev.

At stud, Miesque produced the Group 1 winner and top-class sire Kingmambo, the triple Group 1 winner East Of The Moon.

Miesque is also the second dam of the Group 1 Prix du Jockey-Club winner and young sire Study Of Man (Deep Impact).

Now eight, Old Persian is a Darley homebred who was third on debut at two and won his next two starts, both over mile, that season.

At three he progressed from victory in a 1m2f handicap at Newmarket to winning the Listed Fairway Stakes over course and distance before emulating his relative Permian with victory in the Group 2 King Edward VII Stakes at Royal Ascot.

He added the Group 2 Great Voltiguer Stakes in which he defeated Group 1 winners Kew Gardens and Cross Counter before finishing fifth in the St Leger itself.

Shipped to Dubai he began his four-yearold season with success in the Group 2 Dubai City Of Gold Stakes before making the breakthrough at Group 1 level in the Dubai Sheema Classic over the Japanese-trained

Cheval Grand and Suave Richard with Hunting Horn and Magic Wand in fourth and fifth.

Back in Europe he was a narrow third in the Group 1 Grosser Preis von Berlin behind French King before Canadian success in the Grade 1 Northern Dancer Turf Stakes over 1m4f. He made two starts at five in the Group 1 Grand Prix de Saint Cloud won by Way To Paris and the Group 2 Princess Of Wales’s Stakes.

Old Persian has 111 reported foals in his first crop and 97 in his second. He saw 117 mares last year.

His foals averaged €9,625 in 2022 with a top price at the Tattersalls November NH Sale of €47,000 given by Gerry Hogan Bloodstock for a colt sold by Ballincurrig House Stud out of a Westerner half-sister to The Big Bite and from the family of Cooldine. Persian Force’s average crept up to €10,071 in 2023 and, again, the best price was at Tattersalls Ireland. Kevin Ross

Bloodstock paid €60,000 for a Persian Force half-brother to Grade 1 Supreme Novices Hurdle winner Slade Steel consigned by Ballincurrig House Stud.

Mighty Bandit: the son of Order Of St George is now in Jim and Claire Bryce’s ownership after the Andy and Gemma Brown Dispersal when the four-year-old was purchased for €420,000

ORDER OF ST GEORGE

Galileo-Another Storm (Gone West)

Castle Hyde Stud

€6,500

Year to stud: 2019

The first crop of the Ascot Gold Cup winner set sales rings ablaze from the start and that was repeated when Mighty Bandit, who won a juvenile hurdle at Punchestown to become his sire’s first winner over hurdles, made €420,000 at the Caldwell Construction Dispersal in early February.

Tessa Greatrex of Highflyer was buying on behalf of owners Jim and Claire Bryce, and then, for the same connections, purchased the point-to-point winner Buckna for £350,000 at the Tattersalls Cheltenham Festival Sale reporting then (in a rainy winners’ enclosure at Cheltenham) that she liked what she was seeing of the stallion’s stock.

The most expensive of Order Of St George’s foals to sell so far has been Ballyreddin Stud’s half-brother to Listed bumper winner Tetlami, who made €90,000 to Mags O’Toole on behalf of Aiden Murphy at the Tattersalls Ireland November NH Sale 2020.

That colt was one of four by the sire to sell for more than €50,000 at the 2020 Tattersalls Ireland NH Foal Sale.

At the Tattersalls Ireland NH November Sale in 2021, his top price of €58,000 was given by Alan Harte Bloodstock for Ballyreddin Stud’s half-brother to Labaik.

The price was matched by Glenvale Stud, which bought the half-brother to Mister Blue Sky, while Henrietta Knight went to €52,000 for Limekiln Stud’s colt from the cracking family of Offshore Account, The Listener, Yorkhill and Gallant Oscar.

At Goffs December NH Sale in 2022, Cottage Bloodstock spent €58,000 on a colt out of the Astarabad mare Asta Belle at the Goffs December NH Sale.

Order Of St George’s most expensive filly foal in 2022 was the daughter of Colleen Donnoige (Beneficial) bought by Rathmore Stud for €40,000 at Goffs.

Order Of St George’s foals averaged €15,825 in 2022 which dipped to €14,194 while his three-year-olds averaged €29,599 at the 2023 store sales.

The top price of €90,000 matched that of

Poet’s Word covered 257 mares in 2023 and his first Irish-bred crop will debut at the store sales this spring

his most expensive foal and was recorded at the Goffs Arkle Sale. Highflyer Bloodstock, on behalf of Nicky Henderson, bought the half-brother to Listed Prix Violin Handicap Chase winner Motu Fareone offered by Arglo House Stud.

The stallion has had two point-to-point winners to date – in addition to Buckna, Future Prospect won a Castlelands point-topoint by 4l for Ballyboy Stables.

He was also sold at the Tattersalls Cheltenham Festival Sale with Gerry Aherne / Bronson Racing going to £150,000.

As well as large numbers of mares covered – in 2020 Order of St George had 167 foals born, 137 in 2021, 200 in 2022 and 169 last year – the sire has attracted high-class mares in his early seasons at stud.

As a racehorse, Order Of St George was from the top drawer – his second victory in the Irish St Leger was hailed on these pages as one of the greatest staying performances of modern times.

That was the third of his three Group 1 victories having won his first Irish St Leger by 11l and the Ascot Gold Cup by 3l.

Despite having the stamina to win and finish second in the 2m4f Ascot Gold Cup, he also had speed and played his part in the

unprecedented clean sweep of the Group 1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe for his sire Galileo and trainer Aidan O’Brien, finishing third to Found and Highland Reel who were both Group winners over shorter trips.

He was also fourth to Enable the following year, ahead of the Group 1 winners including Brametot, Iquitos, Winter, Zarak, Seventh Heaven and Capri.

Order Of St George was a tough and sound horse who demonstrated remarkable consistency to only once finish outside the first four in 25 starts over four seasons.

His overall record reads 13 wins of which 11 came in stakes races, six seconds and a third.

His pedigree marks him out as something special, coming from an excellent female line.

He is one of six foals out of Another Storm to earn black-type – the others include the Grade 3 winner Angel Terrace, Asperity, the winner of the Group 3 Prix Paul Moussac, and the Listed winner Sehoy.

Another Storm is daughter of Gone West and Storm Song, the US champion two-yearold filly of 1996.

Order Of St George covered 235 mares in 2023.

Poet’s Word: first runners

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POET’S WORD

Poet’s Voice-Whirly Bird (Nashwan)

Boardsmill Stud

€6,000

Year to stud: 2019 (2020 to Boardsmill)

Poet’s Word began his stallion career at Shadwell’s Nunnery Stud in Norfolk before his switch to the Flood family’s Boardsmill Stud in 2020 after just one season as a Flat stallion. The change from Flat to NH made a marked difference to his book size, indicative of the disappointing shift away from high class middle-distance horses on the Flat.

His first crop foals are now four-year-olds and there are only 20 of them registered, but 11 of them have raced and eight have won, which is a very healthy strike rate.

His first Irish-born crop of Boardsmill foals numbers 196 and he got another 174 in 2022 and has 217 yearlings on the ground.

He also has the major attraction of being entirely free of Sadler’s Wells blood, making him an attractive proposition, especially as he is inbred 5x3 to the great Shirley Heights.

Poet’s Word also offers a different sireline, he is a grandson of the brilliant Dubawi, who has worked to great effect with Galileo mares to produce top class racehorses, including the exciting stallion Night Of Thunder.

With all of these pedigree pointers, without even looking at his own female family and his race record, it’s easy to see why he attracted such large books of NH mares in Ireland.

That female family is top notch – he is out of the Nashwan mare Whirly Bird, who was third in the Listed Harvest Stakes and is also the dam of Malabar by Raven’s Pass, who won the Prestige Stakes and the Thoroughbred Stakes, both Group 3 contests at Goodwood, and was fourth in three Group 1 races, including the 1,000 Guineas.

She is also the second dam of Beckford, who won the Group 2 Railway Stakes at two and was second in the both the Phoenix Stakes (G1) and National Stakes (G1).

Whirly Bird is a half-sister to Ursa Major (Galileo), a Group 3 winner who was also fourth in the St Leger. Her Sadler’s Wells half-sister Inchiri won the Listed Galtres Stakes and is the dam of South African Group 3 winner Hawk’s Eye. Inchberry, a Barathea half-sister to Whirly Bird, was fourth in the Oaks and is the dam of

Australian Group 3 winner Divine Unicorn.

Second dam Inchyre is a half-sister to Inchinor, who was putting together a good stud career prior to his early death. Inchyre is also a half-sister to the Listed winners Incheni and Ingozi, the latter is the dam of Grade 1 E P Taylor Stakes winner Miss Keller and the second dam of Harbour Law.

Ingozi’s daughter Oshiponga is the dam of the Group 2 and 3 winners Hatta Fort, Spirit Of Appin and Blue Bayou and the second dam of Group 3 winners War Story and Agent Murphy, who was also second in the Group 1 Irish St Leger.

Poet’s Word is a son of Poet’s Voice, who was a classy miler and won the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth II Stakes over that trip at three. He also won the Group 2 Champagne Stakes at two and the Celebration Mile, also a Group 2, as a three-year-old.

At four, he was second in the 1m2f Group 2 Jebel Hatta and third in the Joel Stakes. He died at the age of 11 and Poet’s Word is the best of his runners.

Trained by Sir Michael Stoute, Poet’s Word had a profile typical of his trainer’s classy middle-distance horses.

Bought for €300,000 as a yearling, he ran once at two and moved up through the ranks at three. He ran five times during his threeyear-old season, winning a 1m2f maiden and an 1m3f handicap as well as recording a second place finish in a 1m2f 0-105 handicap at Doncaster’s St Leger meeting, which earned him a rating of 104.

At four, he began with victory in another handicap before his first try at stakes level resulted in second to Deauville in the Group 3 Huxley Stakes.

Stepped up to 1m4f for the Group 3 Glorious Stakes, he made the breakthrough to win comfortably before an impressive brace of second places in his first two runs in Group 1 company behind Decorated Knight in the Irish Champion Stakes and Cracksman in the Champion.

He fulfilled that promise as a five-year-old becoming one of the best middle-distance performers in Europe turning tables on the Cracksman in the Group 1 Prince Of Wales’s Stakes and defeating Crystal Ocean to win the Group 1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes.

Poet’s Word also took second in the

Group 1 Dubai Sheema Classic and he ended his career with second in York’s Group 1 International Stakes.

His first foals were well received and averaged €19,201 in 2021, which remained just about the same for 2022 at €19,401. That dropped to €15,604 for his third crop.

Five foals by him have made over €50,000 so far, two of them out of Dinaria Des Obeaux, including the most expensive Poet’s Word foal sold so far. That was at Tattersalls Ireland in November 2021 when Joey Logan paid €85,000 for the colt out of the Grade 2 winner.

At Goffs in December 2022 Kevin Ross and Ben Case went to €75,000 for the colt’s year-young full-brother. That sale also saw the 2022 top price for a Poet’s Word foal, which was the €78,000 paid by Gerry Hogan Bloodstock for the filly out of the Grade 1 winner Glens Melody (King’s Theatre) sold by Ballincurrig House Stud.

Poet’s Word covered 257 mares in 2023 and his first Irish-bred crop will debut at the store sales this spring.

RICH HISTORY

Dubawi-Polished Gem (Danehill)

Kedrah House Stud

On Application

Year to stud: 2022

It did not really happen for Rich History on the racecourse – in five starts in Ireland for owner-breeder Moyglare Stud he failed to finish better than sixth place.

Transferred to Qatar and ownership of owner Hamad Ahmed Hassan Al Malki Al Jehani, he won twice over 1m1f and 1m2f and picked up a handful of placed efforts.

Rich History is a son of Dubawi and gained a place at stud due to his wonderful pedigree, long nurtured by Moyglare. His dam Polished Gem won at two and she has gone on to produce seven black-type winners, headed by Search For A Song (Galileo), a joint champion European threeyear-old of 2019 and three-year-old stayer in Ireland, the accolades given after her two Irish St Leger victories.

Her closely related brother is Free Eagle, a joint-champion older horse in Ireland Europe and winner of the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes (G1). He started out as a Flat sire at

the Irish National Stud, his best runner the Epsom Derby third-placed Khalifa Sat, who is out of a mare by Tenby. He is now getting some jumpers and Coltar out of a Red Ransom mare, and See The Eagle Fly, out of a Verglas mare, are heading that division to date. He is now at Anngrove Stud.

Polished Gem is also dam of the multiple Group 2 winner Custom Cut, top-rated older mile in Ireland for 2015, Sapphire, winner of the British Champions Fillies/Mare Stakes (G2) and dam of the Group 2-placed Kiss For A Jewel (Kingman).

Falcon Eight, her 2015 gelding by Galileo, was a Listed winner and Group 3 Loughbrown Stakes placed and has won over hurdles.

Polished Gem is out of the Irish 1,000 Guineas winner Trusted Partner, the dam of Dress To Thrill, winner of the Grade 1 Matriarch Stakes, and of Archive Footage (Sadler’s Wells), who won three times over hurdles, including a Grade 1 at Leopardstown. She is also dam of three further hurdle winners and the dam of Indian Pace, who won the Galway Hurdle (G1).

Rich History’s third dam is the US champion Talking Picture, dam of Easy To Copy (Affirmed), a champion older stayer in

Ireland in 1985.

It is also the further family of Unaccompanied, winner of the December Hurdle (G1) and the Spring Juvenile Hurdle (G1), Plinth, a Grade 2 winner over hurdles and multiple Grade 1 placed, and Heaven Help Us, runner-up in the Future Champions Novice Hurdle (G1).

The farm offered a Rich History half-brother to Grade 2 Kelso Novices Hurdle winner Mount Mews at the Tattersalls Ireland February National Hunt Sale and he made €14,000 to Martin Cullinane. He covered 106 mares in 2022 and 103 in 2023.

SANTIAGO

Authorized–Wadyhatta (Cape Cross)

Castle Hyde Stud

€5,000

Year to stud: 2022

Santiago’s first foals made quite the impression at the sales averaging €17,790 and earning their sire a slight fee increase to €5,000 for this season.

Top of the charts was Kilbarry Lodge Stud’s colt out of Alighting, a Listed-placed Kayf Tara half-sister to the multiple Grade 1 winning chaser Don Poli. He made €65,000

to Charles Shanahan and Glenview Stud at Tattersalls Ireland in November.

Con O’Keeffe also sold the second-most expensive Santiago foal at that sale, a colt out of Kilbarry Lady who is a winning granddaughter of Tropical Lake. Dick Frisby went to €48,000 for the foal.

The Irish Derby winner Santiago ran three times as a juvenile, finishing second in his first two maidens until breaking his duck on September over a mile at Listowel.

In the interrupted Covid year he made his three-year-old debut a winning one in Royal Ascot’s 1m6f Group 2 Queen’s Vase before heading to The Curragh for the Irish Classic which he won by a head.

A step up to 2m at Goodwood for the Cup saw him finish a two and a quarter lengths third to Stradivarius before he concluded the year with a fourth place finish in the St Leger.

At four, he collected a fourth placing in April’s Group 3 1m6f Vintage Crop Stakes, a second placing in the Group 2 Yorkshire Cup, was down the field in the Cup at Ascot before rounding things off with a good fourth to Trueshan.

His sire Derby winner Authorized, a son of Montjeu, has become a significant NH sire, whose leading performers include the dual Aintree Grand National winner Tiger Roll, the Stayers’ Hurdle (G1) winner Nichols Canyon, the talented Goshen and Zamdy Man.

Montjeu is sire of the late Fame And Glory, whose progeny are performing so well, as well as the currently leading sire Walk In The Park. His best so far is the Grade 1 winner Douvan and his dual Grade 1 winner Jonbon.

The dual Champion Bumper and Future Champions Novices Hurdle (G1) winner and Supreme Hurdle (G1) runner-up Facile Vega is out of the leading mare Quevega (Robin des Champs).

Santiago’s Galileo brother won the Group 3 Eyrefield Stakes last season and his Frankel half-sister La Joconde was third in the Group 1 Prix Vermeille and the Group 1 Yorkshire Oaks.

His Cape Cross dam Wadyhatta is a half-sister to Montamarris (Le Have), third in the Prix du Jockey-Club (G1), to the dam of Tantheem (New Approach), winner

Santiago: his first foals averaged €17,790 last winter and he is standing this spring at €5,000

Sumbal’s pedigree is an interesting mix and although there is plenty of Northern Dancer in there, he is 5x5 to him and 5x5 to his son Lyphard, he is free from all Sadler’s Wells blood

of the Prix de Cabourg (G3), to the Listedplaced Saraaba (New Approach) and to the dam of Glounthaune (Kodiac), a Group 3 winner of the Killavullan Stakes (G3) in 2021.

Under his third dam is the Prix Jean Prat and Prix Jacques Les Marois (G1) winner Tamayuz, the Group 3 winner Nuqoosh (Machiavellian), the Listed -placed Thamarat and the dam of the Muhaarar’s Group 1 winner Eshaada.

His fourth dam is the Group 3-winning mare Allez Les Trois, dam of Anabaa Blue, and a daughter of Allegretta and a half-sister to Urban Sea.

Santiago has 98 yearlings and covered 245 mares in 2023.

SILAS MARNER

Muhtathir-Street Kendra (Kendar)

Knockmullen House Stud

Year to stud: 2017 (transferred to Ireland for 2022)

€1,800

A son of the leading French-based jumps sire Muhtathir, Silas Marner ran 22 times, won seven races, was placed four times and won just under £200,000.

After two runs as a three-year-old when fourth and then second, he got off the mark on his second run as a four-year-old over a mile on heavy ground at Saint-Cloud. He stepped up next time to Listed level when he finished fourth, getting his first stakes victory two runs later at Craon over a mile and on the very soft. He backed that up on the AllWeather in December at Deauville, the start of a four-race winning run that culminated in a Group 3 victory as a six-year-old in the Prix Edmond Blanc at Saint-Cloud again over a mile and on the soft.

Campaigned then at stakes level, he did not troubled the judge (but ran well when sixth of 14 in the Group 1 Prix Maurice de Gheest) until second in the back in the Prix

Luthier at Deauville and then when winning a conditions race at Chantilly over a mile.

He was certainly a horse for races as his next run saw him placed third back in the Prix Edmond Blanc and then win a Listed race at Longchamp over a mile. That June he was a third in the Group 3 Prix Bertrand du Breuil the last time he was competitive.

He was the ninth foal out of his dam Street Kendor and is a half-brother to seven winners to the Listed-placed 1m1f performer Saronis, Sara Baras, the German Listedplaced hurdler Eighth Avenue and a fullbrother to the Listed-placed middle-distance runner Chasse Maree.

His winning dam Street Kendra is a halfsister to the Group 2 Prix Vicomtesse Vigier, the Group 3 Prix de Barbeville and Group 3 Ormonde Stakes winner Stretarez, andto the Group 3 Prix de Lutece winner Street Shaana, who is dam of a two-time French Listed-winning hurdler.

He has had four winners over hurdles in France, three of whom have also been placed on a number of starts.

SUCCESS DAYS

Jeremy-Malaica (Roi Gironde) Kilbarry Lodge Stud

€3,000

Year to stud: 2020

The 2021 victories of Appreciate It in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle, Black Tears in the Mares’ Hurdle and Sir Gerhard in the Champion Bumper, as well as Belfast Banter’s win in the Grade 3 County Hurdle, emphasised just how big a role Jeremy could have played in NH breeding had he not died at the young age of 11.

This year’s Gold Cup third Corach Rambler added the Grand National to the sire’s list of achievements and he is also the broodmare sire of the champion filly Blue Rose Cen.

Jeremy’s son Success Days could be the

one to carry on his sire’s good work from Kilbarry Lodge, where he is currently standing his fourth season.

Success Days was a remarkably tough and sound racehorse who ran 30 times during the course of his six-season career.

He announced himself as a Derby contender with victories in both of Ireland’s most successful trials – the Ballysax Stakes and the Derrinstown Stud Derby Trial –both 1m2f Group 3 contests but he finished down the field in the Blue Riband itself. Given a break, he came back to run in the Group 1 Grosser Preis von Bayern but ran too keenly.

At four he was unlucky to come up against Group 1-winning mares Zhukhova and Found in his first two starts, finishing second to the former in the Listed Alleged Stakes and the later in the Group 3 Mooresbridge Stakes.

He was third to Fascinating Rock and Found in the Group 1 Tattersalls Gold Cup and then turned the tables on Fascinating Rock with victory in the Group 3 Royal Whip Stakes when the future Melbourne Cup winner Moonlight Magic was third.

He ran six times at five and won the Group 2 York Stakes from Mondialiste and was placed in the Group 3 Alleged Stakes and International Stakes. He travelled to Australia in early 2018 for the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth II Stakes and returned to Ireland where he was second in the Group 2 Mooresbridge Stakes and ended the season with a third place in the Listed Trigo Stakes. Kept in training as a seven-year-old, he ran five times and his best result was third to Forest Ranger in the Group 2 Huxley Stakes at Chester.

In total, he won six races during his career, including four stakes races, and finished second or third on 11 further occasions. After his 7f win at two, all of his other victories were at around 1m2f.

Success Days was bred by Robert Ng and Dermot Farrington out of the Roi Gironde mare Malaica and trained by Ken Condon. Malaica was a classy juvenile with podium positions in the Albany Stakes and the Prix Miesque and she is a half-sister to the Group 3 Fort Marcy Stakes winner Olympico.

His second dam Carmel is an unraced Highest Honor mare, which is where he gets his grey colouring, and she is a half-sister

to Group 1 Prix Ganay winner Execute, who was twice runner-up in that race also. She is also a half-sister to the Group 2 Grand Prix d’Evry winner Tot Ou Tard and Ing Ing, who won the Group 3 Prix Quincey. Her unraced half-sister Sissysis is the dam of French Listed-winning hurdler Magneli.

His pedigree includes three lines of Northern Dancer through Danzig, Danseur Fabuleux, who is the dam of Jeremy’s broodmare sire Arazi, and Fairy King, the full-brother to Sadler’s Wells who is the sire of Success Day’s damsire Roi Gironde.

He also has two lines of Sharpen Up, 4 x 5, through Mira Andonde, who is the dam of Danehill Dancer and Sharpo sire of his third dam Sharpo.

Success Days had 38 foals in his first crop, including a filly out of Dona Katharina, who is a winning hurdler and full-sister to the multiple Grade 1 winner Outlander, the Grade 2 winners Western Leader and Ice Cold Soul, the Listed winner Mart Lane and the Grade 2-placed Now McGinty. Now a yearling, she is the most expensive by Success Days selling for €70,000 to Stroud Coleman Bloodstock at the Tattersalls Ireland November NH Sale.

The stallion’s filly out of Ittasal fetched €52,000 when sold as a yearling at the 2022 Goffs Sportsman’s Sale to KJ Condon and RPG Bloodstock, consigned by Rossenarra Stud. She has been named Sirene Success.

At Goffs UK in January 2022, Ian Ferguson bought a Success Days colt out of the Kayf Tara mare Night At Tara for £17,000.

Success Days’ book size doubled for his second season and he has 57 foals in his second crop and breeders continue to be please with them – his third crop is by far his largest to date at 93.

His first crop foals averaged €22,357 but realised €11,430 in 2022. His top-priced foal in 2022 was the colt out of Kilbarry Angel bought for €38,000 by Stroud Coleman at the Tattersalls Ireland November NH Sale. He was sold by Kilbarry Lodge Stud.

In 2023 his average price was €7,365 with a top price of €23,000 for a half-brother to Robinnia out of Dreams And Songs, a placed daughter of Karello Bay. He was sold by Mountain View Stud to Orchard Stud at Tattersalls Ireland in November.

Success Days received 68 mares in 2023.

SUMBAL

Danehill Dancer-Alix Road (Linamix)

Boardsmill Stud

€2,500

Year to stud: 2019

Sumbal is by Jeremy and out of a daughter of Linamix – enormous positives for his stud career.

Sumbal was bred by Aleyrion Bloodstock and, as befits a six-figure yearling, he is a handsome looker with an attractive profile.

He was bought by David Redvers at Arqana and was trained initially by FrancoisHenri Graffard for Qatar Racing. Unraced at two, he was unbeaten in his first three starts at three, victories that included the Group 2 Prix Greffuhle before finishing fifth to New Bay in the Group 1 Prix du Jockey-Club on his next start. He was also second in the Group 3 Prix du Prince d’Orange that season.

As a four-year-old he was second to Garlingari in the Group 2 Prix d’Harcourt and Group 3 Prix Exbury, both over 1m2f and he ran twice more in France before he was switched to England and the yard of David Simcock.

His best result in England was fourth place in the 1m4f Group 3 St Simon Stakes.

He is a half-brother to the Listed Grand Prix du Nord winner Lily Passion and Lavender Lane, who was third in the Group 2 Prix de la Nonette and Group 2 Prix de Malleret.

His dam Alix Road was a three-time winner and was also second in the Group 2 Prix du Conseil de Paris and third in the Group 1 Prix Saint-Alary.

She is a half-sister to the Listed Prix du Courcelles winner Fils De Viane and to Princesse de Viane, dam of Group 3 Prix de la Nonette winner Viane Rose, who is the dam of two Listed winners in Japan.

Sumbal’s pedigree is an interesting mix and although there is plenty of Northern Dancer in there, he is 5x5 to him and 5x5 to his son Lyphard, he is free from all Sadler’s Wells blood. He is also inbred 4x5 to the influential Caro through Lettre d’Amour, second dam of Danehill Dancer, and Miss Carina the dam of Linamix’s sire Menez.

Sumbal has nine registered three-yearolds from his first season in France and 20 two-year-olds from his season at Anshoon Stud.

Vadamos: his best so far jumping has been King Of Kingsfield, placed three times in Grade 1

He has nine first crop foals, 20 from his 2020 covering year and 72 born in 2022 with 69 more born in 2023.

His foal average improved from €6,917 in 2021 to €9,200 in 2022. His top price so far is €35,000 given by Mulryan Bloodstock at Fariyhouse last autumn for the Boardsmill Stud-offered filly out of Smart Talk (Hubbly Bubbly).

Also at Fairyhouse, Marys Choice’s colt was bought by Ralahine Stud for €32,000, while at this year’s Tattersalls Ireland February Sale Boardsmill Stud purchased the colt out of the Presenting mare Kenzie.

His foal average was €8,850 in 2023 with a top price of €32,000 at the Goffs December NH Sale – Aidan O’Ryan purchased Ashmore Farm’s colt out of Humble Glory for €32,000.

Sumbal covered 110 mares in 2023.

VADAMOS

Monsun–Celebre Vadala (Peintre Celebre)

Coolmore

€5,000

Year to stud: 2017

The transfer of Vadamos from Tally-Ho Stud

to Coolmore’s Grange Stud before his second crop ran, raised a few eyebrows among commentators who were desperate to see a son of Monsun get the chance to shine as a Flat stallion.

However, the switch made enormous sense – Vadamos is a Group 1-winning miler by Monsun so theoretically should bring speed to some of the more stoutly bred mares amongst the NH broodmare population and he was already covering NH mares so the demand for breeders to use him was there.

Vadamos has a similar profile to Maxios – both horses won the mile Group 1 Prix du Moulin and are sons of Monsun with the influence of Nureyev on their dam’s side.

Vadamos is out of the Peintre Celebre mare Celebre Vadala, while Maxios is out of the Nureyev mare Moonlight’s Box.

The two stallions are impressive physical specimens with good looks to go with their pedigrees and proven ability.

That ability to inject an element of pace into NH pedigrees might be seen in Vadamos’s relative success as a first season Flat sire. Overshadowed by his former stud

mate Mehmas, Vadamos still managed to quietly compile 17 individual Flat winners headed by Spycatcher who was second in the Group 3 Acomb Stakes to Gear Up, and that horse went on to win the Group 1 Criterium de Saint-Cloud.

As a five-year-old Spycatcher won the Group 3 Prix de Ris-Orangis and was second in the Prix Maurice de Gheest and third in the British Champions Sprint last season. From the same crop as Spycatcher came Luisa Casati, who won the Listed Daisy Warwick Fillies’ Stakes at Goodwood last season for Tom Ward.

In New Zealand, where Vadamos shuttled to Rich Hill Stud, he is the sire of the Group 1 Arrowfield Stud Plate and the Group 2 Avondale Guineas winner and Group 1 New Zealand Derby second La Crique, as well as Group 3 Wellington Stakes winner Devastate and the Listed winners Grace’s Secret and Art De Triomphe.

His six-year-olds with NH pedigrees include half-brothers to Marsh Warbler, who won the Grade 1 Finale Juvenile Hurdle, Nicky Henderson’s Listed Summer Cup Handicap Chase winner Brave Eagle, and the Grade 3 handicap hurdle and chase winner Rock The Kasbah, who is out of a halfsister to Top Novices’ Hurdle winner Royal Shakespeare.

His best performer over jumps so far is King Of Kingsfield, who has been placed three times in Grade 1 company – the Royal Bond Novice Hurdle, the Brave Inca Novice Hurdle and the Champion Bumper at Punchestown – for Gordon Elliott and Gigginstown House Stud.

Vadamos’ first four-year-old point-topoint maiden winner Matata won on debut at Tallow last February for Barry Court Stables and was sold to Highflyer Bloodstock for £75,000 at the Tattersalls Cheltenham February Sale. Trained by Nigel TwistonDavies for Simon Munir and Isaac Souede, he was second in the Grade 2 Lightning Novices’ Chase at Lingfield in January.

That crop did well at the store sales with an average of €33,000 headed by the €105,000 purchase by Kevin Ross Bloodstock of a half-brother to Australian Listed winner Future Score at the Derby Sale 2021.

At the Goffs Land Rover Sale, Bobby

O’Ryan bought the Vadamos half-brother to Grade 1 David Nicholson Mares’ Hurdle winner Black Tears for €50,000 from Glen Stables.

In 2022 his foals averaged €33,000 and his three-year-old stores €20,491.

At the 2022 November NH Sale, Timmy Hillman bought the colt out of the Diamond Boy mare Don’t Hesitate for €64,000, the sire’s top-priced sale ring progeny in 2022, and remains the most expensive foal by Vadamos to date.

His store sale average in 2023 was €27,413 with the top price of €53,000 for Graigue Farm’s gelding out of Davvero, an unraced Marju sister to Italian Group 3 winner Remarque from the family of Sky Lantern. He was bought by Charlie and Francesa Poste at the Tattersalls Ireland Derby Sale.

That price was almost matched by Ballincurrig House Stud’s gelding out of Dreamtide at the Goffs Arkle Sale.

David Phelan went to €52,000 for the first foal of a Champs Elysees half-sister Wicklow Brave, who is a top-level winner on the Flat and over jumps.

Vadamos is the sire of 157 winners from 305 runners and he has 75 four-year-olds, 121 three-year-olds, 179 two-year-olds and 152 yearlings.

He received 273 mares in 2023.

WALDKONIG

Kingman-Waldlerche (Monsun)

Knockhouse Stud

€1,500

Year to stud: 2023

As a Kingman Group 3-winning halfbrother to Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner Waldgeist and from the immediate family of Masked Marvel, Waldkonig offers NH breeders a class option.

Owned and bred by Newsells Park and Ammerland it was not until December of his juvenile season that he reached a racecourse when 9l successful on his debut at Wolverhampton in a novice stakes over eight and a half furlongs eased down by 9l.

As a three-year-old he didn’t reappear until June and was pitched straight into Listed company in the Newmarket Stakes, just losing second place on the line to Volkan

Waldkonig (red): the son of Kingman winning the Group 3 Gordon Richards Stakes

Star, the race won by the multiple Group 1 winner and new sire for 2023 Mishriff.

Waldkonig only ran twice in 2020 and he wasn’t seen again until the following April where he comfortably won a 1m2f handicap at Pontefract.

His final racecourse appearance was also a winning one two weeks later at Sandown when he landed the Group 3 1m2f Gordon Richards Stakes beating Desert Encounter and Baaeed’s brother Hukum.

Waldkonig retired won or placed in his five career starts and earned an official rating of 114. His dam Waldlerche won two races at two and three in France, including the Prix Penelope at Saint-Cloud (G3) and was placed twice, one of which was at Listed level in the Honda Nereide-Rennen at Munich.

Her star son Waldgeist (Galileo) won nine times, four at Group 1 level and £4,298,560 in earnings. She is also dam of Waldlied (New Approach), who won twice in France with one Group 2 success in the Prix de Malleret.

His second dam Waldmark was a winner at two and a subsequent runner up in the Falmouth Stakes (G2). She is the dam of Masked Marvel, winner of the St Leger and the champion European three-year-old stayer of 2011. He is sire of last season’s Grade 3 Johnny Henderson Grand Annual Chase winner Maskada and this year’s Stayers’ Hurdle (G1) winner Teahupoo, winner of back-to-back Grade 1 Hattons Grace Hurdles, as well as Predator’s Gold, runner-up in two Grade 1 hurdles for Willie Mullins.

One of Waldmark’s seven winners is Gifted Icon and her daughter Waldfest is dam of multiple Grade 1 hurdler Vauban, also a Group 3 winner on the Flat.

WAY TO PARIS

Champs Elysees-Grey Way (Cozzene)

Coolagown Stud

€3,500

Year to stud: 2021

The Group 1 Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud winner offers breeders a proven outcross for the Galileo line as he is a son of the Group 1 winner Champs Elysees by Danehill. His sire proved enormously popular with NH breeders when he moved to Coolmore’s Castle Hyde Stud from breeder Juddmonte

Farms’ Banstead Manor Stud and he covered over 400 mares in the two seasons he stood there before his premature death at the age 16 in 2019.

Way To Paris was a tough, sound, cleanwinded horse who made 35 starts over six seasons and mixed in the best company.

Once-raced at two, he won a pair of Listed races at three. He ran seven times at four finishing second in the Gran Premio di Milano and the Premio Federico Tesio and third in the Gran Premio del Jockey Club, all Group events from 1m2f to 1m4f.

He was also third in the Group 3 Prix d’Hedouville behind Tiberian and subsequent Breeders’ Cup Turf winner Talismanic.

He started his five-year-old season with seconds in the Group 3 Prix Exbury and when behind Waldgeist in the Group 3 Prix d’Hedouville.

Way To Paris then took third to Waldgeist and the Group 1 winner Dschingis Secret in the Group 2 Grand Prix de Chantilly, defeating Tiberian and Cloth Of Stars.

He was also fourth to Waldgeist, Talismanic and Cloth Of Stars in the Group 2 Prix Foy at Longchamp.

As a six-year-old he won the Group 2 Prix Maurice de Neuil at ParisLongchamp from a field that included Marmelo and Call The Wind. He was also second again to Waldgeist in the Group 2 Prix Foy and was runner-up in the Group 2 Prix Vicomtesse Vigier and Group 3 Prix de Barbeville.

Kept in training at seven, he started off the season with a narrow defeat to Shaman in the Group 2 Prix d’Harcourt and then went down by a head to subsequent Arc winner Sottsass in the Group 1 Prix Ganay before making the breakthrough at Group 1 level next time in the Grand Prix de Saint Cloud (G1).

Way To Paris is a half-brother to the dual Group 1 Premio Presidente della Repubblica winner Distant Way (Distant View) and the Group 3 Premio Ambrosiano winner Cima de Pluie (Singspiel).

Their dam is the Group 2 Premio Lydia Tesio winner Grey Way (Cozzene), who was champion sire in North America in 1996 and is a son of Caro.

Way To Paris has 59 two-year-olds and 61 yearlings. He covered his largest book of mares – 129 – in 2023.

His first foals averaged €12,000 in 2022,

while his second crop foal sale average was €9,000.

The top-priced foal from each of his first crops is out of Group 2 Golden Cygnet Novice Hurdle winner and Grade 1 Spa Novices

Hurdle second Liskennet, a daughter the Listed winner and Grade 1-placed Generosa.

Her filly made €25,000 from Coolagown Stud to Gerry Hogan at the Goffs December NH Sale in 2022, while her colt fetched €23,000 12 months later, bought by Galbertstown Stables.

WINGS OF EAGLES

Pour Moi–Ysoldina (Kendor)

Beeches Stud

€3,000

Year to stud: 2018

Wings Of Eagles emulated his sire Pour Moi with a breathtaking last-gasp victory in the Group 1 Derby at Epsom.

Unfortunately he then suffered a careerending injury in the Irish Derby, but still managed to finish a close third to Capri and Cracksman.

Bred by Aliette and Giles Forien, the imposing bay was bought by Coolmore’s MV Magnier at the 2015 Arqana August Yearling Sale for €220,000. He won his maiden over mile at Killarney and finished fourth to Coronet, who went on to be a Group 1 winner, in the Listed Zetland Stakes.

On his three-year-old seasonal reappearance he was second to stable companion Venice Beach in the Group 3 Chester Vase before his sensational Epsom triumph over a field that included subsequent Group 1 winners Cracksman, Benbatl, Capri, Best Solution and Rekindling.

Despite his injury in the Irish Derby, he still managed to finish a length and a half clear of the Prix du Jockey-Club and subsequent Arc winner Waldgeist.

Wings Of Eagles is out of the Kendor mare Ysoldina, who won the Group 3 Prix de la Grotte and was third in the Group 1 Poule d’Essai des Pouliches. He is the best of her six winners so far – they also include the Listed Prix Ceres winner Orendina (Siyouni), the Group 2 Ribblesdale Stakes third Sparkle Roll and the Listed-placed fillies Torentosa and Gyrella.

The last-named is the dam of Gleneagles’

Group 2 Prix Greffuhle winner Baby Rider.

Ysoldina is a half-sister to the Group 1 Prix Saint-Alary winner Belle Et Celebre and the Group 2 Prix Jean Romanet winner Whortleberry, who is the dam of Group 3 Unicorn Stakes winner Straw Hat.

The third dam Rudolfina is a Listedwinning daughter of Pharly and is the dam of the Listed Prix Ridgway winner Rupert and the Group 3 Prix Daphnis second Rampoldi.

Over jumps her progeny include the Listed-placed pair of Riccordo Bello and Reach Me.

Wings Of Eagles is inbred 4x5 to Northern Dancer on his sire’s side as Pour Moi’s third dam Royal Statue is a daughter.

Wings Of Eagles returned to his breeders’ Haras du Montaigu to begin his stud career and he spent one season in Normandy before being recalled to Coolmore and a spot in the team at The Beeches Stud.

His first crop, conceived in France, are now five-year-olds and number 37 registered foals, including the Listed Prix Delahante (at two) and Listed Grand Prix des Provinces (as a three-year-old) winner Blue Wings.

Wings Of Eagles also has Lovely Diamond, who was second over 1m4f in the Listed Derby du Languedoc at Toulouse. Over jumps he has 28 winners from 50 starters.

He has 156 four-year-olds from his first season at The Beeches Stud, and 149 three-year-olds. He has 82-year-olds and 33 yearlings and saw 89 mares last year.

As we went to press he got his first Irish point-to-point winner – Hay Meadow, who is out of a Grand Plaisir mare, won a Ballyragget mares’ maiden.

In 2022, his foals averaged €7,013 and his three-year-old stores €19,040, with a slight decline in 2023 of his foal average to €6,286 and his store average tos €12,351.

At the 2023 Goffs Spring Store Sale, Kevin Ross Bloodstock went to £34,000 on behalf of Nick Alexander for Rathmore Stud’s halfbrother to Hughie Morrison’s Listed-placed hurdler Miss Fairfax out of Stein Castle, a Shantou half-sister to Grade 1 winners Carlingford Lough and Thisthatandtother.

Nicky Richards bought Ralahine Stud’s filly at the Tattersalls Ireland July Store Sale for €37,000. She is out of a Grade 3 Lombardstown Mares’ Novice Chase second.

WORKFORCE

King’s Best–Soviet Moon (Sadler’s Wells) Knockhouse Stud

POA

Year to stud: 2017 (transfer from Japan)

From the start of his career, Workforce was an exciting colt and he won a 7f Goodwood maiden on debut at two by 6l at Goodwood for Sir Michael Stoute and Ryan Moore.

Put away for a Classic campaign at three, he made his seasonal debut in the Group 2 Dante Stakes when a tack malfunction hampered him but he ran on to take second behind Cape Blanco.

That experience was put to good use in the Derby where he was a commanding 7l winner on just his third start, evoking comparisons with Shergar such was the authority of his success in a track record time.

He appeared to be suffering a hangover from his Epsom exploits in his next start when he could only manage fifth behind stable companion Harbinger in the Group 1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes.

However, he was back to his Derbywinning self in the Arc, winning the European showpiece in just the fifth race of his life by a head from Japanese raider Nakayama Festa and a field that included Group 1 winners Sarafina, Fame And Glory, Planteur, Victoire Pisa, Youmzain, Lope De Vega, Wiener Walzer and Cape Blanco.

He made his four-year-old debut a winning one in the Group 3 Brigadier Gerard Stakes and then took on So You Think in the Group 1 Eclipse Stakes, in which the Australian raider’s superior turn of foot proved decisive.

A second attempt at the King George again proved unsuccessful after being struck into during the second last furlong and veering across the course. Despite this he managed to be second to Nathaniel and beat St Nicholas Abbey in third.

His stud career in Japan was a quiet one, but he is the sire of six stakes performers, headed by the Listed Kobi Stakes winner Meisho Keimei.

Bred by Juddmonte Farms he is by King’s Best, winner of the 2,000 Guineas and a three-parts brother to the outstanding broodmare Urban Sea.

Workforce’s dam is a Sadler’s Wells unraced full-sister to the Group 1 St Leger

winner Brian Boru and the Listed Park Express Stakes winner Kitty O’Shea, who is the dam of the Listed winner Kissable.

Another of Soviet Moon’s full-sisters is Kushnarenkova, who was second in the Group 3 Noblesse Stakes and is the dam of the Listed winner Kosmische and second dam of Group 1 Grosser Preis von Baden and Caulfield Cup winner Best Solution by Kodiac. He is at stud in Germany and his first crop are three-year-olds of 2024.

She is also a three-parts sister to the Group 2 Great Voltigeur Stakes and the Hardwicke Stakes (G2) winner Sea Moon, and there is more on the family under his entry in this guide.

Workforce received solid support in his early years at Knockhouse but with the emergence of his first two crops the book sizes increased and he has 138 yearlings and covered 280 mares last year.

His first stores averaged €21,933 with the most expensive member of that crop to come under the hammer was a granddaughter of Cleeve Hurdle winner Kates’ Charm, who made €37,000 at the Goffs Land Rover Sale to Milestone Bloodstock from Carrigbawn Stud.

In 2022 his stores averaged €22,721 and his foals €11,000. His top-priced sale has been achieved by a winning point-to-point filly when Gordon Elliott bought Working Away for £330,000 at the 2022 Cheltenham November Sale from Ballyboy Stables, the filly considerably improving her store horse valuation of €34,000.

Man At Work joined the David Pipe and after the 2022 Cheltenham April Sale bought by Tom Malone for £155,000. He has since won and finished fifth in a Grade 2 novices’ hurdle at Sandown last season

At the 2023 Tattersalls Cheltenham December Sale, Workforce’s daughter Majestic Force, who was an impressive debut winner of a five-year-old maiden at Lingstown, made £120,000 to Gerry Hogan, sold by Robert Tector.

The sire had had one jumps black-type winner so far – Man O Work who shows a preference for Listowel, winning the Listed Island Handicap Hurdle having been second in the Grade 2 Lartigue Hurdle

His store sale average in 2023 dropped to €15,789 while his foal sale average last year also dipped, to €8,306.

Stakes-winning National Hunt sires

From Weatherbys

Sires of NH black-type winners from April 1, 2023 to March 15, 2024 showing horse name and dam sire

Affaire Solitaire

Lady In The Lake (Manduro) 3

Affinisea

Avakate (Brian Boru)............................................... L

Only By Night (Getaway) L

Air Chief Marshal

Rubaud (Cardoun) ..........................................2, 2, L

Aizavoski

Hooligan (Old Vic) 3

Al Namix

Elixir de Nutz (Turgeon) .................................... 1,2

Alkaadhem

Deafening Silence (Taipan) 2

American Devil

Hipster Paradise (Balko) L

Arakan

Captain Guinness (Presenting) 1,2

Arctic Cosmos

Apple Away (Dr Massini) 1

Areion

Ivo (Theatrical) .......................................................... L

Ask

Lookaway (Westerner)...........................................2

Slate Lane (Broken Hearted) 3

Authorized

Brucio (Giant’s Causeway) L

Carole’s Pass (Hernando) ......................................

Echoes In Rain (King’s Best)

Ginagold (Librettist) ...............................................

I Am Maximus (Poliglote) 1,1,3

Leon du Berlais (Cadoudal)..................................3

Lucky One (Vettori)

Lump Sum (Marchand de Sable) ...........................2

Readin Tommy Wrong (High Chaparral)

Balko

Impulse Precieuse (Network)..............................

Karre d’As (Maresca Sorrento)

Kentucky Wood (Laveron)....................................

Le Patron (Saint des Saints)

Saint Davy (Poliglote) 3

Ballingarry

(Arvico)

Barastraight

Game (Lavirco)

Bathyrhon

Funny Berry (Dream Well) .................................... L

Guarana (Kapgarde) 3,L

Le Roi David (Linngari) .......................................... L

Beat Hollow

Minella Indo (Supreme Leader) .........................3

Minella Missile (Supreme Leader) 2

Not So Sleepy (Marju) ............................................1

Williamstowndancer (Shantou) 3

Black Sam Bellamy

Blackjack Magic (Rakaposhi King) 3

Blek

Perceval (Dark Moondancer) .............................. L

Blue Bresil

Blue Borana (Court Cave) L,L

Constitution Hill (King’s Theatre) .................................1,1

Inthepocket (Heron Island) 1

Royale Pagaille (Villez) ...........................................1

Bonbon Rose

Ash Tree Meadow (Grape Tree Road) 2,2,3

Brian Boru

McGroarty (Royal Academy) L

Cachet Noir

Eddy De Balme (Solid Illusion) 3

Cacique

Ahorsewithnoname (Galileo) L

Califet

Beauport (Brian Boru) ............................................3

Castle du Berlais

Goliath du Rheu (Voix du Nord) 2

Kassel Allen (Kotky Bleu)....................................... L

Ocastle des Mottes (Lando) L

Permis de Tuer (Fairly Ransom) .......................... L

Try Line (Malinas) L

Champs Elysees

Arclight (Medicean) L,L

Baby Kate (Yeats) L

Solitary Man (Presenting) ..................................... L

Choeur du Nord

Heart Wood (High Chaparral) 3

Jeriko du Reponet (Agent Bleu).........................2

Royale Milady Has (Ultimately Lucky) L

Vision du Rheu (Vision d’Etat) ............................ L

Cloudings

My Silver Lining (Welsh Term) 3

Coastal Path

Asterion Forlonge (Turgeon) ..............................2

Jasmine de Corton (Video Rock) L

Cokoriko

Coko Beach (Take Risks) 3

Genesis As (Assessor) L

Homme Public (Voix du Nord) 2

Iberico Lord (Voix du Nord) 3,3

Jardin d’Arthel (Brier Creek) L

Kingland (Saint des Saints) L

Koriste (Voix du Nord) ........................................... L

La Spezia (Gentlewave) 3

Shiny Monday (Dream Well)................................ L

Cotai Glory

Sopran Mistery (Barathea) 1

Court Cave

Desertmore House (Woods of Windsor)...................3

JPR One (Presenting) 2

Meetingofthewaters (Luso) ................................. L

Cracksman

Liari (Motivator) L,L

Davidoff

Magic Tricks (Cadoudal) ........................................ L

Denham Red

Energumene (April Night) 1

Diamond Boy

Diva Luna (Presenting) .......................................... L

Hartur d’Arc (Policy Maker) L

Impaire Et Passe (Le Fou) 1

Diamond Green

Kara Diamond (Dano-Mast) 3

Doctor Dino

Dinoblue (Astarabad) 1,2,2,3

Doctor Kaleo (Kahyasi) L

Flash Davier (Dansili) L

Gentleman d’Athon (Spadoun).......................... L

Jade de Grugy (Ballingarry) 3

Julenaland (Voix du Nord) ...................................3

Lady Ardoon (Turgeon) L

Madara (Nombre Premier) ................................... L

Master d’Oc (Mizzen Mast) 3

Pearl of Wisdom (Turgeon) ..................................3

Sharjah (Royal Academy) 3

State Man (Johann Quatz) ......................... 1,1,1,1,1

Under Control (Sea The Stars) 3

Doyen

Banbridge (Presenting) ..................................... 1,2

Captain Teague (Supreme Leader) 1,2

Florida Dreams (Big Shuffle) 2

Kilbeg King (Presenting) 2

Dragon Dancer

Lord Dragon (Poliglote) L

Dragon Pulse

Bottler’secret (Aussie Rules) ................................3

Dream Ahead

Don’t Dream (Victory Note) 2

Dream Well

Botox Has (Kahyasi) ............................................ 2,2

Klassical Dream (Septieme Ciel) 1

Nassalam (Shirocco) ...............................................3

Dylan Thomas

Brides Hill (Groom Dancer) L

Mighty Tom (Kahyasi) ............................................ L

Typical Thomas (Singspiel) L

Elzaam

Fennor Cross (Whipper) ........................................3

Estejo

Speed Emile (Ballingarry) 3,L

Fame And Glory

Ambitious Fellow (King’s Theatre) .......................... L

Embittered (Classic Cliche) L

Farren Glory (Protektor) 1

Flame Bearer (Docksider)

Foxy Jacks (Beneficial)

Search For Glory (Saffron Walden) 3,3

Springtime Promise (Old Vic)

Stage Star (Midnight Legend)

Famous Name

Born Famous (Dushyantor)

Fast Company

Lord Erskine (Galileo) .............................................

Fastnet Rock

Absurde (Singspiel)

Feel Like Dancing

Dancing City (Loup Solitaire) ..............................1

Flemensfirth

Free

Galiway

Gala Marceau (Kendargent)

Karthage (Sageburg)..............................................

Gamut

Corbetts Cross (Amilynx)

Gentlewave

Gentlemansgame (Terimon)...............................2

Getaway

Classic Getaway (Classic Cliche)

(Old Vic) ......................................................1 Handstands (King’s Theatre)

(King’s Theatre) ...........................2

Gamble (Hawk Wing)

Gleneagles

Cliffs (Halling)............................................... L

Common Practice (Zoffany) L

Gallipoli (Inchinor) L

Gold Well

Jungle Boogie (Moscow Society) 3

Sole Pretender (Turtle Island) L

Golden Horn

Golden Ace (Dubawi) 2

Nemean Lion (Selkirk) 2

Pawapuri (Giant’s Causeway) .............................. L

Great Pretender

In Love (Nickname) 3

Lossiemouth (Gentlewave).......................... 1,1,2

Gris de Gris

Chambard (Cadoudal) 3

Gustav Klimt

Last Stand (Frozen Power) ................................... L

Hunter’s Light

Light Wave (Soldier of Fortune) L

Imperial Monarch

Hereditary Rule (Supreme Leader) 1

We’llhavewan (Flemensfirth) L

It’s Gino

Datsalrightgino (Grand Lodge) 2,3

Loquas (Kaldou Star) L,L

Sir Gino (Anzillero) 2,L

Victtorino (Vettori) .............................................. 3,3

Jeremy

Ain’t That A Shame (Bob Back) 3

Corach Rambler (Fourstars Allstar) ...................3

Jetoile (Accordion) 2

Jeu St Eloi

Blueking d’Oroux (Blue Bresil) 2

Kargese (Shaanmer) ........................................... 1,3

Nara (Chichicastenango)

Joshua Tree

Irish Point (Fragrant Mix) ..............................

Jeroboam Machin (Robin des Champs)

Politha (Poliglote) ....................................................

Youtwo Glass (Martaline)

Jukebox Jury Il Etait Temps (Dom Alco) 1

True Tiger (Zinaad) 2

Kamsin

Inga Kam (Voix du Nord) 3

Kamsinas (Poliglote)

Kamsinea (Martaline) 2

Kap Rock

Kapteen (Mansonnien)..........................................

(Martaline)

Kapgarde

Amy du Kiff (Yeats) ...........................................

Brighterdaysahead (Laveron)

Fleur Au Fusil (Risk Seeker) ..................................2

Gap Pierji (Sleeping Car)

Imperial Mag (Silver Frost) ...................................

Kashdam (Martaline)

Mauricius (Martaline) 1,1,1,3,L

Shawinigan (Sageburg)

Sissi du Mesnil (Muhtathir)

Karaktar

First Polar (Poliglote) 2

Il Est Francais (Video Rock) 1,L

Incollable (Dylan Thomas) 3,L

Kala Conti (Roli Abi)

Karakta (Kadalko).....................................................3

Kayf Tara

Black Poppy (Definite Article) 3

Edwardstone (Luso) ................................................2

Let It Rain (Astarabad) L

Kendargent

Super Quartz (Johann Quatz) ............................. L

Kessaar

Apex (Big Bad Bob) L

Jet Away

Space Tourist (Kayf Tara) L

Khalkevi

Gex (Astarabad) ........................................................2

Konig Turf

Solness (Tiger Hill) L

Spes Militurf (Enrique) ....................................... 2,L

Lauro

Hip Hop Conti (Astarabad) L

Lawman

Your Honor (Barathea) ........................................... L

Le Havre

Almost Human (Big Shuffle) 2

Wodhooh (Dubawi) L,L

Lord du Sud

Grandeur Nature (Robin des Champs) 1

Lord of England

Nabil (Poliglote) 3

Mahler

American Mike (Lord Americo) ..........................2

Annual Invictus (Shantou) 3

Shanagh Bob (Exit To Nowhere) ............................2

Make Believe

Sopran Leger (Fasliyev) 3

Malinas

Booster Bob (Presenting) L

Broadway Boy (King’s Theatre) .................................. 3,L

Dysart Enos (Beneficial) 2

Malina Girl (Westerner) 3

Malystic (Vettori) 3

Shecouldbeanything (Chevalier) L,L,L

Manduro

Capodanno (Muhtathir) 2

Maresca Sorrento

Twist De La Barre (Smadoun) L

Martaline

Caldwell Potter (Laveron) .....................................1

Fun Fun Fun (Presenting) 3,L

Juntos Ganamos (Turgeon) ...................... 1,3,3,3

Losange Bleu (Cadoudal) 1,2,3

L’Yser (Bonnet Rouge) ............................................2

Okkido (Poliglote) 3

Riviere d’Etel (Indian River) ..................................3

Tullyhill (Le Havre)

Unexpected Party (Lemon Drop Kid) ................. 3,L

Martinborough

Edwina (Astarabad)

Majborough (Lavirco) ............................................1

Masked Marvel

Briac d’Echal (Polish Precedent)

Heltenham (Saint des Saints)..............................3

Junta Marvel (Robin des Champs)

Kalif du Berlais (Poliglote) ....................................2

Marvel de Cerisy (Medaaly)

Teahupoo (Sassanian)

Mastercraftsman

Masterstroke

Ginja

Maxios

Nicaron

Midnight

Pink

..................................................

Allegorie de Vassy (Solon)

Blood Destiny (High Yield) ...................................3

First of All (Poliglote) 1,1,L,L

Geelong Sport (Ultimately Lucky)

Hauturiere (Nononito)

Poliglote

Secret Singer

Gangster de Coddes (Dear Doctor) 3

Shalaa

Diyashal (Ashkalani) ............................................... L

Shantou

Brechin Castle (Old Vic) L

Champagne Twist (Kayf Tara)..............................3

Chianti Classico (Presenting) 3

Embassy Gardens (Network)...............................3

Impervious (Kalanisi) 2

Magical Zoe (Anabaa) L

Minella Crooner (Monsun) L

Stay Away Fay (Oscar) 2

Stellar Story (Bob Back) 1

Threeunderthrufive (Kaldou Star) 3

Shirocco

Brideswell Lad (Old Vic) ..................................... 2,L

Colonel Harry (Be My Native) 2

Henry’s Friend (Milan) ............................................2

Stainsby Girl (Double Trigger) L

Thunder Rock (Old Vic) ...................................... L,L

What’s Up Darling (Flemensfirth) 3

Sholokhov

Bob Olinger (Zaffaran) ....................................... 2,2

Hiddenvalley Lake (Exit To Nowhere) 2

Shishkin (Exit To Nowhere) .............................. 1,2

Tullybeg (Vinnie Roe) L

Sidestep

Theleme (Okawango) 1,1,3

Sinndar

Ga Law (Lute Antique) 3

Siyouni

Moujik (Montjeu) L

Samui (Galileo).......................................................... L

So You Think

Natam (Dutch Art) L

Soldier Hollow

Lark In The Mornin (Lando) .................................3

Soldier of Fortune

Coquelicot (Peintre Celebre) L

Kerryhill (Oscar) ........................................................2

Royal Infantry (Presenting) L

Solskjaer

Found A Fifty (Gone Fishin) .................................1

Sommerabend

Charme Dore (King’s Best) L

Pistache Dore (Kingsalsa) ..................................... L

Spanish Moon

El Fabiolo (Saint des Saints) 1,1,2

Hispanic Moon (Astarabad)............................. 3,L

Stowaway

Kilcruit (Broken Hearted)

(Old Vic)

(Beneficial)

Tactical Move (Witness Box)

Sulamani

High Class Hero (Turgeon)

Manimole (Overbury)

Telescope

Harvard Guy (Presenting) ................................. L,L

Slade Steel (Dr Fong) 1,2

The Gurkha

Hansard (Quiet American) ...................................3

Luccia (Hurricane Run) 3

Tiger Groom

Inedit de Ciergues (Smadoun) ........................... L

Jango Baie (Kapgarde) 1

Timos

Galopin des Champs (Marchand de Sable) 1,1,1

Tirwanako

Jasmin de Vaux (Grand Seigneur) 1

Triple Threat

Rosa Kleb (Irish Wells) L

Turgeon

Espanito Bello (Ungaro) L

Pic D’orhy (Roli Abi) 1,1,2

Valirann

Forward Plan (Be My Native)...............................3

Knappers Hill (King’s Theatre) 2,2

Vendangeur

Loughglynn (Saint des Saints)............................2

Pinot Rouge (Blueprint) L

Virtual

Hewick (Oscar)

Vision d’Etat

(Great Pretender) .......................... L

Voix du Nord

Bachasson (Shafoun) 3

Walk In The Park

Arctic Fly (Soldier Hollow) .................................... L

Ashroe Diamond (Dom Alco) 1,2

Aurora Vega (Robin des Champs) ..................... L

Bioluminescence (Old Vic) 3

Birdie Or Bust (Beneficial) ..................................... L

Blow Your Wad (Goldmark) 2

Croke Park (Protektor) 3

Facile Vega (Robin des Champs) 1

Gidleigh Park (Presenting) 2

Giovinco (Bandari) L

Golden Park (Goldneyev) L

Jetara (Milan) 3,L

Jonbon (Saint des Saints) 1,1,1,2

Limerick Lace (Califet) ........................................ 2,L

Master Chewy (Shantou) 2

Nick Rockett (Flemensfirth) .................................2

Silent Approach (Bob’s Return) 2

Spillane’s Tower (Duke of Marmalade) ............3

The Enabler (Flemensfirth) L

Uncle Phil (Saint des Saints) ................................3

Walk In Clover (Presenting) 2

Western Walk (Westerner)....................................2

Well Chosen

Street Value (Buckskin) L

Westerner

Ferny Hollow (Good Thyne).................................3

Maxxum (Anshan) L

Now Is The Hour (Azamour) ................................2

Tiger Bay Queen (Flemensfirth) L

Yeah Man (Kalanisi) .................................................3

Workforce Man O Work (Henrythenavigator) L

Yeats

Noble Yeats (Flemensfirth) 2

Stealthy Tom (Be My Native) L

West Balboa (Flemensfirth) 3

Where It All Began (Presenting) L

Whiskeywealth (Bob Back) L

Zambezi Sun

Mandarin Basc (Adieu Au Roi) ............................ L

Rosario Baron (Daliapour) 1

L

Zambella (Irish Wells) L

Zanzibari

Happy Dreams (Elusive Quality) ........................ L

Zarak

Zarak The Brave (Boris de Deauville) 3,3

Zarakhan (Lawman)................................................ L

Zoffany

Bialystok (High Chaparral) 2

Garrick Harmony (Montjeu) 3

Nurburgring (Montjeu) 3

The Grade 1 Stayers’ Hurdle winner Teahupoo one of six stakes winners for the Haras de la Tuilerie-based Masked Marvel through the period

NH stallion foal sale statistics

Stallions with horses sold as foals at NH sales in 2023 in Britain, Ireland and France showing numbers sold, averages and medians. In Euros, compiled by Weatherbys and including vendor buy backs

NH stallion store horse sale statistics

Stallions with two or more horses sold as NH three and four-year-old store horses at the major NH store sales in 2023 in Britain, Ireland and France. In guineas, compiled by Weatherbys.

Leading NH stallions by store horse average 2023 (three or more sold)

Jukebox Jury: had a healthy store horse sales average in 2023 of €44,201

Stallion covering stats 2023

Table showing the covering statistics of the major NH / dual-purpose sires standing in Britain or Ireland in 2023. Black-type results include both NH and Flat From Weatherbys

YORGUNNABELUCKY

YORGUNNABELUCKY

GIANT’S CAUSEWAY – HELSINKI (MACHIAVELLIAN)

GIANT’S CAUSEWAY – HELSINKI (MACHIAVELLIAN)

Fee: £2,500 1st Oct S.L.F

Fee: £2,500 1st Oct S.L.F

IDEAL DUAL PURPOSE STALLION

Winner of 5 races from 3-5 years over 10-14f

Winner of 5 races from 3-5 years over 10-14f

Full brother to Shamardal, sire of 25 Gr.1 winners

Full brother to Shamardal, sire of 25 Gr.1 winners

Out of an own sister to Street Cry, sire of 23 Gr.1 winners (including Winx and Zenyatta) and now Gr.1 producing sons

Out of an own sister to Street Cry, sire of 23 Gr.1 winners (including Winx and Zenyatta) and now Gr.1 producing sons

Punching above his weight with spectacular results from small crops incl. Stakes Winners

Punching above his weight with spectacular results from small crops incl. Stakes Winners

ONEMOREFORTHEROAD (also Gr.3 and Gr.2 placed), FORTUNES MELODY (also Gr.2 and Gr.3 placed), multiple winners SPREAD BOSS TED, ASLUKGOES, LIBBERTY HUNTER, etc.

ONEMOREFORTHEROAD (also Gr.3 and Gr.2 placed), FORTUNES MELODY (also Gr.2 and Gr.3 placed), multiple winners SPREAD BOSS TED, ASLUKGOES, LIBBERTY HUNTER, etc.

Richard Kent +44 (0)79 73 315722

• Clare Lloyd +44 (0)7875 673260

Richard Kent +44 (0)79 73 315722

Roger Brookhouse +44 (0)7831 689001

• Clare Lloyd +44 (0)7875 673260

• www.mickleystud.co.uk

Roger Brookhouse +44 (0)7831 689001

• www.mickleystud.co.uk

ENVOI ALLEN AND PROTEKTORAT upsides at the last in the Grade 1 Ryanair Chase, the latter coming home 4l ahead of the 2023 winner.

It was Protektorat’s first win at The Festival, and his first chase victory over the 2m4f trip since winning the Grade 1 Manifesto Novices Chase at Aintree in 2021.

The stats of the two horses are actually quite incredible and between them have won over £1.7 million in earnings and run at The Festival nine times.

The Cheveley Park-owned Envoi Allen, who was bought for £400,000 at the Tattersalls February Sale in 2018, has been to six

consecutive Festivals, has run 25 times, won 15 races and finished in the placings five times.

He has won over £900,000 in prize-money earnings and won eight Grade 1 races.

Protektorat is the winner of seven races from 26 starts, and he has been placed 14 times. He has won over £700,000 and three Grade 1 races, and has been to three Cheltenham Festivals.

The son of Saint Des Saints was bought privately in France after finishing second in a Listed hurdle at Auteuil as a three-year-old.

He was trained then by Guy Cherel, who, with a Willie Mullinslike dominance, trained the first four home in that race.