Continuing an upwrd trajectory

TONY AND ANNE O’CALLAGHAN, and their sons Roger and Henry, have built an extraordinarily successful independent farm at Tally-Ho Stud, and their stallions have established the Westmeath farm as one of the best in Europe.

Mehmas swept all before him when claiming the crown of champion first-season sire last year, the seventh Tally-Ho resident to hold that title, and he has continued that scorching start to his stud career this season, leading the race to be champion secondseason sire.

He is second only to Tally-Ho’s kingpin Kodiac for the title of champion two-year-old sire on winners and has actually surpassed the elder statesman in European juvenile earnings this year.

At the time of writing Cotai Glory is leading first-season sire on earnings and winners and fourth behind his stud mates and Dark Angel in the two-year-old sires’ table, while the Group 1 Phoenix Stakes winner and Group 1 National Stakes third Ebro River is one of 20 winners from the first crop of 2,000 Guineas and St James’s Palace Stakes winner Galileo Gold.

The highlight of 2021 for Mehmas was the emergence of a second Group 1 winner from his first crop with the victory of Going Global in August’s Grade 1 Del Mar Oaks.

Bred by Horse Racing Ireland’s chairman Nicky Hartery out of the Invasor mare Wrood, she was sold for just €15,000 at Goffs Sportsmans Sale to Pioneer Racing and won a Dundalk handicap for Michael Halford before she was acquired by CYBT and Saul Gavertz.

Transferred to the Californian sunshine and the barn of Phil d’Amato she won the Providencia Stakes and Honeymoon Stakes, both Grade 3 races at Santa Anita, before her second place finish in the Grade 2 San Clemente Stakes at Del Mar and her breakthrough at the highest level.

Going Global is one of ten stakes winners for the son of Acclamation in 2021 with others, including the Group 2 July Stakes and Gimcrack Stakes winner Lusail. He was the second winner of that York race for Mehmas after the 2020 winner Minzaal, who went on to finish third in the Group 1 Commonwealth Cup at Royal Ascot in June.

As well as Lusail, Mehmas’s second crop boasts the likes of Group 2 Criterium de Maisons Lafitte winner Malavath, Caturra, who won the Group 2 Flying Childers Stakes, and the unbeaten Group 3 Anglesey Stakes winner Beauty Inspire.

In his first two crops are 16 individual stakes winners giving him a stakes winnersto-runners percentage of 8.08 per cent. The strong results on track led to a significant increase in the average price of his yearlings sold in Europe so far this year, jumping from 49,417gns in 2020 to 75,277gns at the time of writing.

His advertised fee in both 2018 and 2019 was €10,000 – those who were brave enough to support Mehmas in his third season at stud were certainly handsomely rewarded in the sales ring.

His highest-priced yearling colt sold so far in 2021 was out of C’est Ma Soeur (Oratorio), who made 250,000gns to Donnacha O’Brien at Tattersalls October Book 2 Sale. It was a fine return on the 38,000gns that Yeomanstown Stud paid for the chestnut colt at December Foal Sale where he was sold by Patrick Turley’s Kingsfield Stud.

The most expensive yearling filly from the third crop of Mehmas was also sold at Tattersalls, although this time in the prestigious surrounds of Book 1.

A daughter of Country Madam, a Medaglia D’Oro half-sister to the Group 2 winner and Group 1-placed Invincible Army, she also brought a winning bid of 250,000gns purchased by Mike Ryan from Mountain View Stud. She, too, was a successful pinhook having made 75,000gns as a foal to JC Bloodstock, sold by Mickley Stud.

But, even with an increased fee of €25,000 in 2021, he was inundated with mares and covered his biggest book to date – a whopping 292 mares. We can expect more of the same off his new €50,000 fee for 2022.

Following closely in Mehmas’s hoofprints in Westmeath is Cotai Glory, who currently has 31 winners from 80 first-crop runners, and leads the standings on earnings and winners and six ahead of his closest pursuer.

His best to date is the Group 2 Prix Robert Papin and Group 3 Prix du Bois winner Atomic Force, who will continue his racing career in Hong Kong for owner Siu Pak Kwan. He is one of seven black-type performers from the first crop of the Group 3 winner and Group 1 King’s Stand Stakes runner-up. They include the Group 2 Coventry Stakes second Eldrickjones and Pearl Glory, who was third in the Group 3 Dick Poole Stakes.

He has 87 yearlings and 63 foals registered and he covered 113 mares this spring. The results achieved by Cotai Glory’s first runners naturally had a positive impact at the sales this year – the average price for his yearlings being 29,785gns.

So far this year he has been the sire of five six-figure yearlings. His first crop was conceived at an advertised price of €6,000, which was decreased to €5,000 for his second season. He has moved back up to €8,500 for 2022.

His most expensive yearling was sold at Goffs Orby – a half-brother to the Group 1-placed Acklam Express (Mehmas) made €170,000 to Highflyer Bloodstock from Ballymorris Stud.

The most expensive filly from his second crop is also a half-sister to a Listed winner by Mehmas, in her case Mehmento, winner of the Surrey Stakes. She was sold by Tally-Ho to the Doyles for 130,000gns at Book 1.

Galileo Gold emulated Mehmas by producing a Group 1-winning juvenile in his first crop – the National Stakes winner Ebro River who represented the same combination of Al Shaqaab Racing and Hugo Palmer as his dual Group 1-winning sire.

His best daughters include Oscula, who won the Group 3 Prix Six Perfections and was third in the Group 1 Prix Marcel Boussac, and the Listed Empress Stakes winner System.

He is also the sire of the Group 2 Prix Robert Papin third and Listed Ripon Two-Year-Old Trophy second Hellomydarlin, the Group 3 Prix Francois Boutin third The Wizard Of Eye and

Goldana, who was third in the Listed Grosser Preis der Mehl Muhlens Stiftung.

On the back of such a successful first season his yearling average has risen from 20,000gns last year, coming in at 27,520gns for 41 sold.

His top price was the €95,000 colt bought by Peter Nolan and Noel Meade towards the end of the Goffs Sportsmans Sale. Sold by Vinesgrove Stud, he is the first foal out of the winning Dutch Art mare Dutch Monarch, a granddaughter of the Group 1 Cheveley Park Stakes winner Regal Rose.

Nolan also bought Galileo Gold’s most expensive offspring at the Tattersalls Ireland September Yearling Sale, a colt offered by Baroda Stud out of the Concorde and Brownstown Stakes (G3) winner Miss Sally. A half-brother to four winners he made £70,000.

In comparison to his stud mates, Galileo Gold has smaller crops to supply him with stakes winners. He has 62 yearlings registered, but just 27 foals. He covered 38 mares last year and again this season, but those numbers are certain to climb in 2022.

The second wave of stallions by Dubawi represent something of a second coming for the record-breaking British-based stallion as the founder of a patriarchal lineage.

First, there was Night Of Thunder, Dubawi’s 2,000 Guineas and Lockingewinning son, who was the breakout success, somewhat unexpectedly, of his peer group.

Thundering Nights provided him with his first northern-hemisphere Group 1 when she narrowly defeated Santa Barbara in the Pretty Polly Stakes for Joseph O’Brien and Shapoor Mistry. She is one of 24 stakes winners from just 220 winners so far sired by Night Of Thunder.

A year behind Night Of Thunder is New Bay. Ballylinch Stud’s Group 1 Prix du Jockey-Club winner has the best winners-torunners ratio of any second-crop stallion in Europe this year at 56 per cent.

The closest any other European second-crop stallion comes to this is the 52 per cent winners-to-runners sired by Harzand.

New Bay also has one of the best stakes winners-to-runners ratios amongst secondcrop stallions at five per cent, which is bettered only by Mehmas and Protectionist amongst his active peers in Europe.

His season was crowned by the success of Saffron Beach in the Group 1 Sun Chariot Stakes at Newmarket, a first Group 1 winner for her sire and her trainer Jane Chapple Hyam.

New Bay is also the sire of this season’s Group 2 Champagne Stakes winner Bayside Boy, who was also placed in both the Dewhurst Stakes (G1) and Vertem Futurity Trophy (G1) for Roger Varian, Teme Valley Racing and Ballylinch Stud.

His second crop also includes the Group 3 Preis der Winterfavoriten winner Sea Bay, the Group 3 Horris Hill Stakes runner-up Cresta, as well as the Listed Blenheim Stakes third Mise Le Meas.

Both of New Bay's first and second crops were covered at a fee of €20,000, which dipped to €15,000 for his third and fourth crops.

Ten of those have sold for at least €100,000 with the most expensive being the colt out of the unraced Munnings mare Praden from the family of Barathea and Gossamer. He made 260,000gns at Book, when sold by Baroda Stud to Aguiar Bloodstock and Amo Racing.

At Arqana’s Deauville Yearling Sale, John and Thady Gosden went to €320,000 to secure a New Bay filly out of Borgia’s Best, an unraced Lope De Vega daughter of the Group 1 Deutsches Derby and Grosser Preis von Baden winner Borgia.

His crop sizes have been consistent for his first four seasons and he has 60 registered foals on the ground. He was hot property for the 2021 breeding season and covered 186 mares at an advertised fee of €20,000.

Apart from being sons of Dubawi, what New Bay also has in common with Time Test and Zarak, the first season stallions who are also making waves with their stakes strikerate, is a strong female family.

New Bay comes from one of Juddmonte’s most prolific stallion-producing families of the past two decades. His second dam, the Listed-placed Trellis Bay, is a Sadler’s Wells full-sister to Coraline whose sons include the Group 1 winner Reefscape and the Group 2 winners Martaline and Reefscape.

She is also a half-sister to the Oaks winner Wemyss Bight, dam of the Group 1 winner and sire Beat Hollow (Sadler’s Wells) and, significantly for Flat breeders, Trellis Bay is a half-sister to Hope, the dam of Oasis Dream and the second dam of Kingman.

His dam Passage Of Time won the Group 1 Criterium de Saint Cloud for Sir Henry Cecil and is a Dansili full-sister to the Group 2 King Edward VII Stakes winner Father Time and a half-sister to the Group 1 Falmouth Stakes winner Timepiece.

Like New Bay, Time Test has a second dam by Sadler’s Wells in his case Clepsydra, who is a half-sister to the Listed winner Double Crossed, the dam of dual Group 1 Champion Stakes winner and South African sire Twice Over. She is also a half-sister to

Sacred Shield, dam of last year’s Grade 1 Matriarch Stakes winner Viadera (Bated Breath).

On pedigree, Zarak has quite a bit in common with New Bay as he, too, is out of a Zamindar mare – his dam being the great, undefeated Zarkava, and is also inbred to Mill Reef.

The Group 1 Grand Prix de Saint Cloud winner is a half-brother to the Listed winner and Group 1 Prix de Vermeille third Zarkamiya (Frankel) and the Listed Prix Charle Lafitte winner Zaykava, a daughter of Siyouni.

Zarkava herself is a half-sister to the Group 3 and Listed winner Zarshana (Sea The Stars).

He is also the sire of four black-type performers in those 29 runners, headed by the Group 3 Preis der Winterkoenigen winner Lizaid. He also has the Listed Grosser Preis der Mehl Muhlens Stiftung-winning filly Parnac. His two Group-placed offspring both achieved their black-type in Group 1 contests with Times Square finishing runnerup to Zellie in the Group 1 Prix Marcel Boussac, while Purplepay was third in the Group 1 Criterium de Saint Cloud.

So far, Zarak’s second crop has contained two six-figure yearlings with the most expensive to date a filly out of Nidina, a Hurricane Run half-sister to the three-time Group 1-placed Joanna, and to Cazlas, an Australian Group 1 winner and Hong Kong Vase (G1) runner-up. She was sold by Anna Sundstrom’s Coulonces Sales to Paddy Twomey at Arqana’s October Yearling Sale.

The other six-figure buyer for a Zarak yearling so far this year is US trainer Kenny McPeek, who bought the son of Armure Bleue at Arqana’s August Yearling Sale for €100,000. Consigned by Domaine de l’Etang his third dam is the multiple Group 1 winner Aquarelliste.

All that is missing from his repertoire is a first crop Group 1 winner, but he does have Sunset Shiraz, who finished third to Discoveries and Agartha in the Moyglare Stud Stakes (G1) at The Curragh on Irish Champions’ Weekend.

Time Test is the sire of the Group 3 winners Rocchigiani (Baden-Baden’s Zukunft’s Rennen), Romantic Time, who was successful in the Dick Poole Stakes (G3), the Listed St Hugh’s Stakes winner Tardis, as well as The King’s Horses, who won the Listed Premio Criterium Nazionale and was third in the Group 3 Premio Primi Passi.

Placed in three Group/Grade 1 contests, Time Test is operating at 10.53 per cent stakes winners-to-runners, which is significantly higher than any other European first-season sire.

He has 11 winners from 38 runners with just 74 two-year-olds. He also, like New Bay and Zarak, does not have the crop sizes of some of his rivals which makes his success all the more significant.

He has 55 yearlings of this year and his largest crop is his third, which numbers 85 registered foals. He covered a much increased book this year of 160 which puts Time Test in an exciting position for the future.

All of these stallion sons of Dubawi were Group winners either at three or four, which bodes well for the ability of their progeny to train on.

Second-season sires Mehmas and Protectionist boast the leading stakes winners-to-runners ratio with Protectionist, the 2014 Melbourne Cup winner, leading the way on 7.41 per cent.

Protectionist stands at Gestüt Röttgen and is a rare son of Monsun who has been allowed the opportunity to develop as a Flat stallion. He is the sire of 10 second-crop winners from 27 runners with the best so far the Group 2 Diana Trial winner and Group 3 Mehl-Muehlens Trophy second Amazing Grace.

He is also the sire of the Group 3 Bavarian Classic winner Lambo, who was also third in the Group 3 Prix Hocquart. Interestingly, both horses have sons of Danehill as their broodmare sire – Rock Of Gibraltar for Lambo and Danehill Dancer in the case of Amazing Grace.

His first crop also contains the Listed-placed juvenile Milka, perhaps not something that one would expect of a stallion who excelled at 1m4f and further, but Protectionist also finished a nose second in the mile Group 3 Herzog von Ratibor Rennen at two.

Awtaad, meanwhile, was a classy miler, who beat Galileo Gold to win the Irish 2,000 Guineas and was third to that horse and The Gurkha in the Group 1 St James’s Palace Stakes. He also beat Custom Cut and Hit It A Bomb when winning the Group 2 Boomerang Stakes at Leopardstown for Chris Hayes and Kevin Prendergast.

His second crop has produced five winners from just 18 runners so far with Calithea being a Listed winner, while Austrian Theory finished third in the Group 2 Vintage Stakes at Goodwood for Mark Johnston and Dr Jim Walker.

This season the first crop boasts this season’s Group 3 Desmond Stakes winner Create Belief, who became Johnny Murtagh’s first Royal Ascot winner as a trainer when successful in the Sandringham Handicap.

Awtaad is also the sire of this season’s Listed Michael Seely Memorial Fillies’ Stakes winner Primo Bacio, who was fifth, just a length and half behind the winner, in the Group 1 Falmouth Stakes.

Another first-crop daughter to earn black-type is Sir Edmund Loder’s homebred Bellosa, who won the Listed King Charles II Stakes for Jane Chapple-Hyam and Richard Kingscote.

All of Awtaad’s stakes winners in Europe to date are fillies.

In America he is the sire of Listed Zuma Beach Stakes winner and the Listed Del Mar Juvenile Turf Stakes second Ebeko, who beat subsequent Grade 1 winner State Of Rest in a Curragh maiden at two.

So far this year his average rests at 25,139gns for 38 yearlings sold but a far cry from his first-crop yearling average. His advertised fee for his first four seasons at stud was €15,000, dropping to €10,000 in 2021, and again to €5,000 for 2022.

He has 68 yearlings in his third crop and 39 registered foals on the ground, but covered just 16 mares in the spring.

With all the attention on his more famous paternal half-brother Caravaggio, who supplied the Group 1 Cheveley Park Stakes winner Tenebrism in his first crop this year, El Kabeir has quietly gone about compiling the winners and positioning himself as an affordable source of Scat Daddy genes for European breeders.

His winners-to-runners rate is remarkably similar to that of Caravaggio’s at 30 per cent compared to the now Kentucky-based stallion’s 31 per cent strike rate. El Kabeir’s three black-type winners make up nearly seven per cent of his runners.

El Kabeir is the sire of Group 2 Premio Gran Criterium and Listed Premio Giuseppe de Montel winner Don Chicco, who is bred on similar lines to Sioux Nation, Scat Daddy’s other winner of the Group 1 Phoenix Stakes. Bred by Mickley Stud, Harc Syndicate and K Whitehouse the grandson of Oasis Dream cost just £8,500 at the Goffs UK Premier Yearling Sale.

El Kabeir’s highest-rated colt in the UK and Ireland boasts form that ties in with the best juveniles around – Masekela’s immediate victim in the Listed Denford Stakes was Bayside Boy, who went on to win the Group 2 Champagne Stakes and finish third in both the Group 1 Dewhurst Stakes and the Group 1 Vertem Futurity.

Prior to his Listed victory Masekela finished second to the champion two-year-old colt Native Trail in the Group 2 Superlative Stakes.

Other first crop sons to have posted black-type performances are Harrow, who was third in the Group 3 Somerville Tattersall Stakes and Rerouting, also third in the Group 3 Solario Stakes.

In Italy, his daughter Sa Filonzana deadheated with Awtaad’s daughter Calithea in the Listed Premio Repubbliche Marinare. In the sales ring, his yearling average moved up to 25,424gns for 45 sold.

His most expensive second-crop yearlings were both sold at Tatteralls by Yeomanstown Stud. The half-brother to Listed winners Queen Of Love and Dark Liberty made 130,000gns to Sackville Donald at Book 2, while the full-brother to Egyptian God, the most expensive yearling colt from El Kabeir’s first crop when purchased by Peter Brant’s White Birch Farm for 125,000gns, almost matched that figure at Book 1 when selling for 120,000gns to Richard Ryan.

El Kabeir’s fee for each of his first three seasons was €8,000, reduced to €6,000 for the 2021. He has 62 yearlings and 43 foals and covered 43 mares this year.

Precocity was not a quality one expected to be associated with the offspring of the 2017 Derby winner Wings Of Eagles, especially as he was relocated to Coolmore’s NH division after just one season at stud at his birthplace, Haras de Montaigu. However, Wings Of Eagles, a son of Pour Moi, has surprised many observers with a Listed-winning juvenile amongst his 14 runners.

Blue Wings won the Prix Delahante (L) over a mile for her owner-breeder Jean- Pierre-Joseph Dubois, her second win in four starts. She was runner-up in both of the others and is the third runner and winner out of the Invincible Spirit mare Blue Mood, who is out of a three-parts sister to Camacho and a half-sister to Showcasing.

She is one of three winners so far from that first crop by Wings Of Eagles, who won a mile maiden and was fourth in the Listed Zetland Stakes over 1m2f at two.

Wings Of Eagles’s first crop numbers just 36, but since his transfer to Ireland he has covered larger books and has 155 yearlings and 136 foals registered, the majority of which are destined for the NH sphere.