young nh stallions: ire
The next generation Young-bloods based in Ireland: an A-Z by Aisling Crowe
AFFINISEA
Sea The Stars-Affianced (Erins Isle) Whytemount Stud €2,500 Year to stud: 2017 As a Sea The Stars three-parts brother to the Irish Derby and Coronation Cup 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 in 2017. Bred by Jim Bolger’s Redmondstown Stud from the first crop of Sea The Stars, Affinisea topped the Goffs’ November Foal Sale when selling for €850,000 to his sire’s ownerbreeder. 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 nutured by Jim Bolger over successive generations – he is also a threeparts brother to Group 3 Meld Stakes and Listed Silver Stakes winner Heliostatic, who is at stud in Argentina. Carriglawn, their Rock Of Gibraltar half-brother, also won the Listed Silver Stakes, and they are out of Affianced, a daughter of Erin’s Isle and winner of The Curragh’s Debutante Stakes (L). Affianced is a half-sister to the Group 1-winning two-year-old Sholokhov, sire of Gold Cup winner Don Cossack, Shishkin and Bob Olinger. Another half-sister, the Listed winner Zvaleta, is the second dam of Group 1 Dewhurst Stakes winner Intense Focus and third dam of Skitter Scatter, winner of the Group 1 Moyglare Stud Stakes. Her Nordico half-sister Raghida was second in the Group 3 Curragh Stakes and is the ancestress of last season’s Group 1 Prix Royal-Oak winner Subjectivist and his Teofilo full-brother Sir Ron Priestley,
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Affinisea: the most expensive foal by the son of Sea The Stars made €58,000 bought by Richard Rohan
who was runner-up in the 2019 St Leger. Affianced’s dam La Meilleure is a Listed Flat winner by Lord Gayle. 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 203 mares in 2020 on the strength of the quality of his foals. His oldest crop will be making their first appearances at the 2021 store sales and there are a number of well-bred and pricey pinhooks amongst those, including the most expensive Affinisea foal so far – a colt who made €58,000 to Richard Rohan of Ballincurrig House Stud at Goffs December 2018. Bred by Debbie O’Neill, he is the second foal out of Medicine Woman, by the family’s
late sire Stowaway, and a full-sister to the Grade 1 winner Outlander, as well as the Grade 2 winners Western Leader and Ice Cold Soul, and the Listed-winning hurdler Mart Lane. Whytemount Stud also sold the second highest-priced foal from Affinisea’s first crop, a €30,000 colt out of the bumper-winning Behena, a Halling half-sister to the Grade 1 Punchestown Champion Four-YearOld Hurdle winner Barizan. At the same sale, John Donaghy went to €20,000 for an Affinisea colt out of Glenadoon, a Beneficial half-sister to Troytown Chase winner Royal County Star. Noted pinhookers with members of Affinisea’s first crop for this year’s store sales include the Bleahen Brothers and Oneliner Stables. A dozen foals from his first crop sold