Group 1 first-timers

ELZAAM HAS LIVED in the shadow of his more well-known Ballyhane Stud teammate Dandy Man for all of his stallion career but the Australian-bred son of Redoute’s Choice stepped into the limelight on Irish Champions Weekend thanks to the rousing triumph of his three-year-old daughter Champers Elysees in the Group 1 Matron Stakes at Leopardstown, his first progeny success at the highest level.

Elzaam, an Australian-bred 12-year-old raced in Europe, and was placed in the Coventry and July Stakes (both Group 2) and finished third in the Group 3 Horris Hill Stakes. At three he won the Listed Carnarvon Stakes and was fourth to Society Rock in the Group 1 Golden Jubilee at Royal Ascot.

Champers Elysees is one of four black-type winners sired by Elzaam so far, from a total of ten black-type performers. He is also the sire of Waitingfortheday, who won the Group 3 Fairy Bridge Stakes (as did Champers Elysees), and Listed winners Clem Fandango and Playa De Puente, as well as the Group-placed duo of Great Prospector and Indicative Vote.

In addition to a debut Group 1 winner for her sire, Champers Elysees’s victory was also a notable first Group 1 for her trainer Johnny Murtagh, after an illustrious career in the saddle which included three wins in the Matron, as well as for breeder Karl Bowen and owners Fitzwilliam Racing.

Champers Elysees was bred by Bowen out of the Mark Of Esteem mare La Cuvee, who failed to win a race for trainers Ralph Beckett and Brendan Powell.

As a broodmare she has already outdone herself – Champers Elysees is the third winner she has produced from four runners so far, including Daddies Girl, who is also by Elzaam.

The success provided the perfect pedigree update for her Mehmas yearling who was due to sell at the Tattersalls Ireland September Yearling Sale, just nine days after the Group 1 triumph.

Champers Elysees has steadily progressed as a three-year-old after failing to sell at Goffs’ Autumn Horses In Training Sale last November, winning the Listed Corrib Fillies’ Stakes at the Galway Festival before adding the Group 3 Fairy Bridge Stakes at Gowran Park in early September.

She was sold by Mantlehill Stud for just €12,500 at Tattersalls Ireland’s Flat Foal and Breeding Stock Sale to Laurence Gleeson’s Aughamore Stud, who sold her to Murtagh for €28,000 at the following year’s Tattersalls Ireland September’s Yearling Sale.

The sums involved in her breeding and sales history were a little more modest than those of St Leger (G1) winner Galileo Chrome who, despite his moniker, is a son of Australia but, like Champers Elysees, he is also the first Group 1 winner for his sire.

Bred by Mohamed Ali Meddeb, the chestnut colt is from a family that, until this year, had some unfinished business with the UK’s longest Classic.

Galileo Chrome’s dam Curious Mind is a half-sister to a pair of Listed Cocked Hat Stakes winners in Michelangelo, who went on to be third to Encke and Camelot in the 2012 running of the Doncaster Classic, and Private Secretary, the 2019 Cocked Hat in 2019.

Galileo Chrome is the first foal out of the Dansili mare, and bred on a variation of the tried and tested Galileo-Danehill cross that has provided a host of top-class horses.

It is one of Lanwades Stud’s most famous and successful families, and remains so through several different branches.

Curious Mind and Michelangelo are out of the Listed winner Intrigued, a Darshaan half-sister to Group 1 Poule d’Essai des Poulains winner Aussie Rules and the Listed winner Approach. She is the dam of Group 1 Prix Jean Romanet and Grand Prix de Saint Cloud winner Coronet (Dubawi) and the Galileo colt Midas Touch, who won the Group 2 Derrinstown Derby Trial and was second in the Irish Derby.

Third dam is Last Second, winner of the Nassau and Sun Chariot Stakes when both were Group 2 contests, and she is a halfsister to Listed winner Alouette, dam of the Group 1-winning full-sisters Albanova and Alborada, and to Jude, dam of Group 1 winners Quartermoon and Yesterday.

Galileo Chrome was offered for sale at Goffs Orby by Castlehyde Stud, but was unsold at €75,000, while his two-year-old full-sister was led out unsold at Arqana’s December Breeding Stock Sale last year for €70,000.

Galileo Chorme had one run as a twoyear-old when fifth in a Leopardstown maiden over a mile (behind three of Aidan O’Brien’s and one from Jim Bolger), and has gone through 2020 unbeaten transferring from his breeder’s ownership in June after his seasonal debut victory to the ownership under the Galileo Chrome Partnership banner.

Australia recorded a weekend Group double when his three-year-old daughter Cayenne Pepper got her head in front for the first time this season, winning the Group 2 Moyglare Jewels Blandford Stakes at The Curragh.

Runner-up to Magical in the Group 1 Pretty Polly Stakes and Even So in the Irish Oaks, she was also second to Tarnawa in the Group 3 Give Thanks Stakes at Cork on her previous start. That filly was successful in the Group 1 Prix Vermeille at ParisLongchamp a little over an hour after Cayenne Pepper’s Group 2 victory.

It was a poignant success for the Jessica Harrington-trained filly, whose owner Jon Kelly died earlier in the summer.

Bred by GHS Bloodstock of Ballyvolane House Stud and JC Bloodstock from Kilminfoyle House Stud, she was knocked down to Harriet Jellet on behalf of Kelly for 175,000gns at the Tattersalls December Foal Sale, consigned by Bumble Mitchell. Her pedigree is interesting as she is inbred 4x3 to Allegretta through Urban Sea and her Nureyev half-sister Saleela.

A winner at three, she is Cayenne Pepper’s second dam.

The Group 1 action at The Curragh on Sunday had a much more familiar feel, with the old reliables popping up to provide some comfort in these strange times.

Galileo can be depended upon to provide Group 1 winners with reassuring regularity and the behemoth sired his 88th individual Group 1 winner in the form of the two-yearold Moyglare Stud Stakes heroine Shale, a third Group 1 winner in his first season as a trainer for Donnacha O’Brien.

Shale turned the tables on Group 2 Debutante Stakes conqueror Pretty Gorgeous, trained by O’Brien’s older brother Joseph, in a thrilling denouement to become the sixth winner of the race for her sire.

She is a full-sister to the Group 2-placed Berkeley Square and Listed-placed First Of Spring and the fourth winner and first Group 1 winner produced by 1,000 Guineas winner Homecoming Queen.

She is a Holy Roman Emperor closesister to champion and sire Dylan Thomas, the son of Danehill and the only horse to win two runnings of the Irish Champion Stakes (G1) until Magical’s second triumph on the opening day of Irish Champions Weekend.

She is also a close-sister to Oaks second Remember When by Danehill Dancer, whose three-year-old Galileo colt Serpentine was a runaway Derby (G1) winner this year, and finished fourth in his comeback race, the Grand Prix de Paris, moments before Shale won the Moyglare. Remember When is also the dam of Group 2 winner and Group 1 Nassau Stakes

second Wedding Vow, the Group 3 winner Beacon Rock, the Oaks third and Group 3 winner Bye Bye Birdie and the Listed winner Bound, all by Galileo.

Homecoming Queen is a half-sister to Queen’s Logic (Grand Lodge), who was unbeaten in her five starts, which included victories in the Cheveley Park Stakes (G1), Lowther Stakes (G2) and the Albany and Fred Darling Stakes, both Group 3 races.

She is the dam of Rahy mare Lady Of The Desert, herself a Group 2 Lowther Stakes winner, who also won the Group 3 Princess Margaret Stakes and was second in both the Prix de l’Abbaye and Sprint Cup at three. She is the dam of Queen Kindly, who emulated her mother and grandmother with victory in the Lowther Stakes.

Galileo’s daughter Search For A Song recorded back-to-back triumphs in the Group 1 Irish St Leger, with victory over Fujaira Prince and Twilight Payment in the 1m6f contest.

It was a return to form for the four-yearold filly who was given a coolly confident hold-up ride by Oisin Orr, belying the fact that the young Donegal man was riding just the first Group 1 winner of his career.

Search For A Song’s year-younger full sister Amma Grace finished second in the earlier Blandford Stakes and the two are assured places in the Moyglare broodmare band when they retire from their racing careers – they are close-sisters to the Group 1 Prince of Wales’s Stakes winner Free Eagle (High Chaparral).

They are also full-sisters to the Listed winner and Group 3 third Falcon Eight, as well as half-sisters to the multiple Group winner Custom Cut, the Group 2 Ribblesdale Stakes winner Sapphire and the Listed winner Valac.

Dam Polished Gem is by Danehill and has bred nine winners from ten runners, with her latest Kyprios, a two-year-old son of Galileo, making a winning debut for Moyglare and Coolmore days before his sister’s second Group 1 success.

It is a family that is synonymous with Moyglare Stud, the late Walter Haefner purchased Talking Picture, American champion two-year-old, on the back of victories in the Grade 1 Spinaway Stakes and Matron Stakes in 1972. She is the third dam of Search For A Song.

Another descendant of the brilliant foundation mare won the Group 1 Vincent O’Brien National Stakes on the same card – Talking Picture is the fourth dam of the Whisperview Trading-bred Thunder Moon (Zoffany), who won the 7f Group 1 on just his second career start.

Her Irish 1,000 Guineas-winning daughter Trusted Partner, one of four stakes winners Talking Picture produced from her six matings with Affirmed, is the dam of the aforementioned Polished Gem.

Her Nashwan half-sister Trust In Luck is the dam of Group 3 Horris Hill Stakes third Aahaykid and the Sadler’s Wells mare Small Sacrifice, dam of Thunder Moon.

Small Sacrifice was sold by Moyglare as a three-year-old at the Goffs November Breeding Stock Sale in 2007 to Anne Marie O’Brien for just €18,000.

She has produced three winners for the O’Briens’ Whisperview Trading, including the Listed Sir Henry Cecil Stakes winner Table Rock, who continued his racing career in Hong Kong under the name Anticipation. The son of Fastnet Rock is a full-brother to the 98-rated Jagen H’Ghar.

The two-year-old Zoffany colt took the leap in class from maiden winner to Group 1 victor with aplomb, for trainer Joseph O’Brien, jockey Declan McDonogh and owner Chantal Regalado-Gonzalez.

Thunder Moon is the third Group 1 winner for his sire Zoffany after St Leger winner Ventura Storm and last year’s Prix Marcel Boussac winner Albigna.

He has also had the Group 1 Oaks, Irish Oaks and Preis der Diana-placed Architecture and the Group 1-placed Graignes, Fleeting, Illuminate, Washington DC and Zodiac Ruler.

Sire of three Royal Ascot two-year-old winners in his first crop, and in addition to Thunder Moon, he has two further Group winners in his current crop of two-year-olds – the Group 3 Marble Hill Stakes winner Minaun and Mother Earth, winner of the Group 3 Juvenile Sprint Stakes at Naas.

CHINDIT added the Group 2 Champagne Stakes to his Listed Pat Eddery Stakes success to remain unbeaten for Richard Hannon and Michael Pescod.

The son of Coolmore’s recent acquisition Wootton Bassett is from his sire’s first crop conceived after Almanzor was crowned European champion two-yearold, and the most expensively bred of Wootton Bassett’s crops so far. He is one of four Group winners so far this season by the former Haras d’Etreham resident, headed by the Group 1 Prix Jean Romanet winner Audarya.

He is also another star for Juddmonte’s Oasis Dream as a broodmare sire – the July Cup winner’s daughters have produced Group 1 winners Siskin and Tawkeel, as well as the Group 2 juveniles Miss Amulet, Ventura Tormenta and now Chindit so far in 2020.

Out of Always A Dream, Chindit was bred by Cayenne Pepper’s co-breeder JC Bloodstock of Kilminfoyle House Stud and Rory Mahon and sold by Kilminfoyle House to Peter and Ross Doyle for 65,000gns at Tattersalls October Book 2 Sale.

A possible to line up for Group 1 honours in the 7f Dewhurst Stakes, his Awtaad half-brother is Lot 578 in Book 2 this year.

Indigo Girl is another impressive and unbeaten juvenile winner – George Strawbridge’s homebred full-sister to Group 1 British Champions’ Fillies and Mares Stakes winner Journey easily negotiating the step from maiden win to Group success in the May Hill Stakes (G2) under the hands of Frankie Dettori for John Gosden.

She is a daughter of Dubawi out of Montare, a Montjeu mare who won the Group 1 Prix Royal-Oak for her owner-breeder.

The Listed Flying Scotsman Stakes winner New Mandate is bred along similar lines – by Dubawi’s Group 1 Prix du Jockey Club winner New Bay out of a mare by Montjeu’s Derby and Juddmonte International winner Authorized.

Ballylinch Stud’s first-season sire New Bay has impressive statistics with 43 per cent winners to runners, and all that was missing from his resume was a black-type winner.

New Mandate, trained by Ralph Beckett and ridden by Frankie Dettori for new owner Mark Chan was third on his first two runs and has won his last two.

Bred by the Mishhar Syndicate which includes Henri Bozo, his dam Mishhar is a close-sister to Puggy (Galileo), the dam of Group 1 Poule d’Essai des Pouliches and Prix de Diane winner Avenir Certain (Le Havre).

New Mandate was bought by Alex Elliot for €35,000 at the Arqana October Yearling Sale from Haras de l’Hotellerie on behalf of a trading syndicate, the Lucra Partnership. The colt ran under the syndicate’s ownership until nursery victory on his third start ahead of the Listed win at Doncaster.

Mehmas has carried all before him in his first season and Tally Ho Stud’s leading young sire was responsible for the winner of Doncaster’s Weatherbys’ Bank Two-Year-Old Stakes.

Line Of Departure was the most expensive yearling by Mehmas to sell last year, making £260,000 to Oliver St Lawrence at Goffs UK Premier Yearling Sale.

Trained by Roger Varian, he is a half-brother to this year’s Group 1 Commonwealth Cup winner and Group 1 Sprint Cup third Golden Horde (Lethal Force).

Bred by Cn Farm in Kilkenny out of the Pivotal mare Entreat, he is also a half-brother to the Listed Pipalong Stakes winner Exhort. The farm was featured in our August issue, so look online to read all about Cn Farm. Shark Two One broke his maiden in the Tattersalls Ireland Super Auction Sales Stakes for Richard Fahey and owner Isa Salman Al Khalifa. The son of Whitsbury Manor Stud’s first-season sire Adaay was ridden by Colin Keane to a short-head success over Star Of Orion. Bred by Killashee House Limited, he is a half-brother to Group 3 Grosser Preis der Landhaupstadt Dresden winner Brian Ryan (Finjaan), out of the Listed Star Stakes third Touching (Kheleyf).

The colt has been to the sales three times in his young life – first when a Five Star Bloodstock 10,000gns purchase from Ted Voute at this spring’s delayed Tattersalls December Foal Sale, then to the Tattersalls Ireland September Yearling Sale where Longways Stables bought him from Shinglis Stud for €40,000.