One Ruler seems to be the talking-horse for this year's 2000G. For those old enough to remember the colours of Budgie and Eric Moller this colt comes from one of their foundation mares, Horama. Lots of good horses come from this family starting with Violetta who won the Cambridgeshire, to Lacquer who won the Irish 1000G to the good mare Furioso and her son Teenoso. When the Mollers died the stud and mares were bought by Sheikh Mo, and he's had reasonable success. One Ruler should stay further than 8f but it depends on what element of the damsire, Shamardal, turns up just how far he'll get.
Kodiac's son Ardad is making the running in the FSS stakes. After Ballymacoll sold up I said I'd keep an eye on their scatterlings. Not much has made me put 'pen to paper'. But at last on Friday the win of Berkshire Shadow in the 5f maiden gave me something to talk about. He is a Dark Angel colt out of an Oasis Dream mare called Angel Vision, who won two races as a 3yo for Ballymacoll over 7f and 8f. She in turn is a daughter of that top-class filly Islington (Sadler's Wells). The debutant couldn't have made things harder for himself by being left about 6 lengths. He was still with no chance 2 furlongs out but came with a sustained run to win by a short head. Should get further.
Only an Italian Classic and only a Group3, but yesterday the Mehmas colt, Fayathan, won the 2000G at Capannelle: another string to Mehmas's bow. He had to do it the hard way too, being headed and coming back. He is from the family of Tactical. Maybe a few trainers will start looking at their Mehmas's getting a bit further than 6f.
When I wrote this in September I thought one, or hopefully two, would be the type of horse to turn up at Royal Ascot. As it is the first one is near the top of a lot of people's lists for the 2000G. I hope he runs well. I trust Carnarvon is turning in his grave.
First Season Sires: so far Ardad; 10 runners, 4 winners, 5 wins Cotai Glory 14, 4 , 4 Profitable 8, 3, 4 Caravaggio 8, 3 , 3 Mondialiste 4, 1, 1 Decorated Knight 1, 1, 1 no-one else has scored. Aclaim has had 11 runners but no winners. You have to say a good start by Kodiac's son Ardad with a 40%wtr and 50% wins tr.
One runner in UK/IRE and another somewhere in Europe. Has won £2014 though so at least one has won some place money. Quite a lot of these FSS have had hardly any runners.
A few years back both The Derby and The Oaks were won by horses whose families were established by the Cleaboy Stud of Major Lionel Holliday. Minding, who won both the 1000G and Oaks, came from his Vaguely Noble family. He was perhaps the most famous horse he bred but a more established family provided that years Derby winner Harzand. He traced back to what is called the Lost Soul family. It was this family that enabled Cleaboy to be leading breeder several times and give Holliday Classic winners and countless 'Group' winners. After Holliday died things were cut back and many of these families were sold.His son eventually sold a nice Hethersett filly called Hazy Idea. Bought by the Aga Khan he still has several great granddaughters, Hazy Idea was the third dam of Harzand. A few other 'H' horses have featured over the last few years. Of course all the daughters can't be kept and today we saw the result of an escapee in the Dante winner Hurricane Lane.. For him Hazy Idea is his 5th dam, while his 4th dam is Harzand's 2nd dam. Hurricane Lane was bred by the Normandie Stud who purchased the dam Gale Force. Must have a chance to add to the Holliday legacy.
Ardad seems to opening his legs and showing his class amongst the FSS. Latest scores:- Ardad 10 wins Caravaggio 5 wins Cotai Glory 5 wins Profitable 4 wins Ribchester 2 wins El Kabeir 2 wins
We all may have views of Jim Bolger, but generally he's seen as shrewd operator. So how about this: in 2018 Bolger had many of his mares booked to his own stallion Vocalised. Just as the covering season got into full swing Vocalised became injured and Bolger had many mares he couldn't get covered. His solution was to send 20 of his own mares to a stallion down the road called Fracas. Heard of him, no I hadn't. He was then a 16yo stallion generally covering NH mares.He's not badly bred, being by In the Wings out of a mare from the Kingsman/Oasis Dream family. He wasn't a bad racehorse as in 2005 he won the Sandown Classic Trial and the Derrinstown before finishing 4th at Epsom. Bolger has already had one Fracas winner this year with the filly She's Trouble. It will be fascinating to see how many more of this years Fracas 2yos win.
Berkshire Shadow flies the flag for Ballymacoll breeding (at last). My articles written about this stud 6-7 years ago was that they had to invest in speed. They only chose to do so just as the shutters went up. One thing that drove me mad was their best mare Hellenic being consistently sent to Sadler's Wells. She had 15 live foals, 10 of which were by SW. All of the other 5 were by Northern Dancer sires: predictable and boring, and the waste of an asset. Her best foal was probably Islington, whose only real failure was in the Oaks (surprisingly as a SW she didn't like soft going). She was a relative failure at stud given her race record and pedigree. Again little imagination was used in her matings as she was continually sent to Danzig sires after an initial try with Rainbow Quest and Gone West . To Oasis Dream she produced Angel Vision, who won twice, over 7f and 8f, though seemed to stay further. Retained by Ballymacoll, they sent her to Invincible Spirit (another ND sire!!), but was sold with this foal in utero. At last the new owners sent her to Dark Angel and the result is Berkshire Shadow. Well done to them. Ballymacoll won the Coventry 50 years ago. That was Sun Prince who went on to win the Robert Papin, James Palace and Queen Anne. He was by a sprinter sire, Princely Gift. For some reason they didn't learn the lesson.
In 1969 Joe Mercer’s stable was under a (virus) cloud and at meetings like Royal Ascot and Goodwood he needed to be offered mounts from other trainers. One trainer always happy to use him was Peter Walwyn. Walwyn was having a great year and one reason for that was the horses of Louis Freedman, who had transferred some of his horses to Walwyn on the retirement of Walter Nightingall. Their best horse that year was a Crepello filly called Lucyrowe. She was to run in the Nassau Stakes at Goodwood and it was considered a shoo-in. She had just proved herself the best filly miler at Royal Ascot and being by Crepello it was felt likely that 10f would be ideal. Walwyn also had another filly and saw it as a great opportunity to get her some black type, she too was owned by Freedman and called Seventh Bride: Mercer got the mount on the second string who started at 33-1. The race went very much as would be expected with Lucyrowe swamping the pacemaking Vital Match 300yards out. Seventh Bride was only a length behind her stablemate and with a forceful Mercer drive his filly ran straight as a gun barrel to take the lead 2 strides past the post. The long odds-on Lucyrowe won by a short-head, it would be a nose today. Now Freedman had not one but two top fillies. Both fillies went on to win races with Seventh Bride winning the Princess Royal Stakes at the October Ascot meeting. To say Freedman was not a lucky breeder, when one considers he went on to breed a Derby winner and an Oaks winner, seems ridiculous but I think it’s borne out. The dam of his Derby winner (Reference Point) died soon after his victory. Lucyrowe was a relative failure at stud and the family is no longer in the Cliveden Stud. Seventh Bride did better however. Her first foal was a Reform filly cleverly called Polygamy. A good 2yo, she started favourite for the 1000G and then went on to win the Oaks. Her next foal was a full-sister even more cleverly named One Over Parr. She wasn’t as precocious or speedy as her sister though she did win the Cheshire Oaks and Lancashire Oaks. Both sisters went to stud. Polygamy died before producing a foal. One over Parr produced some disappointing foals and was sold. To cap it all Seventh Bride died young and so her family was lost to the stud. So why am I telling you this and why now? Well it comes down to a daughter of One Over Parr and her descendants. One Over Parr’s last living foal was a filly with a bad heart called Fade and was by the little-know sire Persepolis. Unsurprisingly Fade was unraced but she was a relative success as a broodmare. At some stage she found herself into the ownership of John Warren. In the early days of Danehill’s stud career he sent Fade to him and produced a filly called Fickle who was reasonable and owned by his wife. Fickle’s first foal was a Kingmambo filly called Tarfah who when sent to Montjeu produced the outstanding colt Camelot. That’s a good story in itself but 3 years after sending Fade to Danehill he sent her to the more moderate Alhaarth, and the produce was a filly called Birdie, who like Fickle was a good filly and again, like her, owned by his wife. She was sent to Montjeu (possibly a nick between this family and Montjeu) and produced a reasonable filly called Salvation who was sold. She is owned by a French stud and on sending her to Le Havre for a second time produced the outstanding soft ground filly Wonderful Tonight. I wrote a few years back that Reform had no effect on the stud book despite producing an Oaks winner but thanks to an unhealthy daughter of that Oaks winner’s sister he is now found in the pedigree of many racehorses through Camelot and in the pedigree of a very fine filly. It’s a shame that the Freedman’s haven’t had a share of this success. It’s also amazing that John Warren has bred two significant mares that have produced such fine horses.
FTO sires (UK/Ire only) 1. Ardad 15 wins from 27 runners 2. Cotai Glory 10 from 33 3. Profitable 9 from 28 4. Caravaggio 6 from 26 5. Galileo Gold 6 from 20 6. Aclaim 4 from 29 7. Churchill 2 from 15 8. Ribchester 2 from 13 2nd Crop Sires 1.Mehmas 43 from 115 2. Twilight Son 31 from 71 3. Territories 20 from 46 4. Awtaad 19 from 46
He will be because of Danehill. Kodiac has had two useful sons now, Ardad and before him Kodi Bear. If Mehmas's produce deliver as they did last year we should see a rise in his winners in July/August. At this stage last year he was just ahead of about 4 others. His horses seem to need a run or two to warm up.
Really interested to read about Fickle. Another of her daughters was Sistine (by Dubai Destination). No great shakes on the racecourse although she did win her last race on the all weather Her pedigree received a massive boost with the success of Camelot so she was packed off to stud. First foal Tingle (by Pour Moi) was sold for over 300000 guineas and went to Coolmore but never raced. 3 other SIstine foals have raced so far and all won (her Lope de Vega filly Viola runs on Wednesday at Kempton) and there are 2 more a Gleneagles colt and a Dandyman yearling filly. Sistine sadly had to be put down earlier this year from the effects of laminitis.
The march of Mehmas continues. Today Lusail (by Mehmas) repeated the feat of his sire by winning the July Stakes. A quick look at the leading 2nd crop sires table (GB/Ire) shows he is way ahead at the top in terms of wins, winners and prize money: he was of course First Season sires Champion last year. Another look at the 2yo sires list shows he's even leading the impressive Ardad in terms of wins and winners leading that table as well. Perhaps more surprising is that in the 3yo Table he lies third in terms of wins behind only Dubawi and Frankel. Deeply impressive for a stallion who was standing at a fee of only 6,000gns. If I have one observation it's that his horses (2yos especially) seem to take one or more runs to reach ltheir pitch. Last year he was just one of many until mid-July when he suddenly started scoring wins at an impressive rate. He ended up breaking all records.
Frankel is getting many of the plaudits for the successes of his two Derby winners and rightfully so. With the demise of his sire he now becomes the big daddy in the covering shed and his fantastic year is announcing that. Horses have mum's too and the success of Hurricane Lane highlights the strength of a certain family, that of Lost Soul. More particularly it highlights the branch developed by the Aga Khan, who bought into this family in the '70s when he purchased a good racemare called Hazy Idea. This mare is the source of his 'H' horses. Aga Khan owned and bred Hurricane Lane's granddam, he also owned and bred Harzand whose great granddam was Hazy Idea. You can read more about this family and his original owner in this article...... https://www.not606.com/threads/holliday-plus-2017-update.334172/