Dark Angel (Ire) and Invincible Army (Ire) may not be the only exciting stallions at Yeomanstown Stud with David O'Callaghan outlining his hopes that Shaman (Ire) can lay down a marker at Goffs this week when some of the Group 2-winning son of Shamardal's first foals go through the ring.
A colt foal by Shaman fetched €22,000 at the inaugural Tattersalls Ireland Sapphire Sale on Saturday and O'Callaghan thinks the best is yet to come from a sire who is due to have 22 foals go through the ring over the next four days at Goffs.
It was at this sale last year where Yeomanstown enjoyed a fruitful start with Invincible Army. The Group 3-winning juvenile, whose first runners will hit the track next year, averaged a respectable €34,350 for 20 foals sold.
Top of that list was Ballyduane Stud's colt by the sire who was knocked down to top judges Peter and Ross Doyle for €85,000. That same colt was then re-sold at Book 1 at Tattersalls last month for 100,000gns to leading breeze-up handler Robson Aguiar.
O'Callaghan is hoping for a similarly fast start with Shaman, and said, “Goffs is always an interesting sale for the first-season sires-it's where they get to lay down a marker. We'll get an idea into how the progeny of the first-season sires will be received for the rest of the year this week. We have some very good Shaman foals at home and I hope that the ones at Goffs are similar. If they are, it will set a good benchmark. I think people will like them.”
He added, “Last year, Invincible Army had a good sale at Goffs. One after the other, they were like peas in a pod. People seemed to fall in love with the idea of using Invincible Army and followed them the whole way through to the yearling sales this year. We'd be hoping that something similar can happen with Shaman. He breeds nice horses so hopefully he can get the ball rolling.”
Shaman was bred and raced by the Wertheimer family. He won five times in France for Carlos Laffon-Parias, the highlight coming in the Group 2 Prix d'Harcourt at ParisLongchamp where he had Way To Paris (GB) and subsequent Arc winner Sottsass (Fr) behind him.
He also showed enough precocity to win his maiden over seven furlongs on debut as a juvenile and won a Group 3 and was twice a runner-up at the highest level as a three-year-old.
For those reasons, O'Callaghan says that he thinks Shaman, who will stand for €5,000 next season, has been priced fairly and is backing him to be a success.
“He covered over 100 mares in his first crop. People bought into the idea of him. He went in at small money, standing at just €6,000, but he is a very good-looking horse by Shamardal and won a Group 2 over a mile-and-a-quarter and is multiple Group 1-placed.”
O'Callaghan added, “He has an excellent pedigree. He was just shy of being a top-class racehorse and was priced appropriately. Between his physical, his sire and his damsire, and his race record, there's no reason why he won't make it. He ticked an awful lot of boxes without winning a Group 1. He has a lot going for him so fingers crossed.”
With El Kabeir sold to join the stallion ranks in Italy, Yeomanstown's four-strong roster for 2023 is completed by G1 Middle Park S. winner Supremacy (Ire), whose first foals will arrive next year. That's not to say that the O'Callaghans have not been trying to add to that roster.
O'Callaghan explained, “El Kabeir was literally just sold last week. It's very hard to buy stallions. The reason is not just got to do with the marketplace but also it comes down to who owns these top-class horses. The way it worked out this year, Shadwell and Godolphin had control of pretty much all of the stallion prospects. On top of that, the Aga Khan had Vadeni (Fr) (Churchill {Ire}) and it was a rare year where Coolmore did not have any top three-year-olds to retire. They had Luxembourg (Ire) but he is staying in training. It was a rare year with nothing in independent hands.”
He added, “You could say that we are somewhat victims of our own success at times. It's important for us that there is a strong market when it comes to selling yearlings but, when the big boys buy these horses, like Shadwell and Godolphin have been doing for years, then they are the ones who get to reap the rewards with the stallion prospects. They breed a lot and they buy a lot. The big outfits have control of all the top horses and they deserve to because of all the investment that they put into the game. It just means that there are less and less of these potential stallion prospects to go around for independent stallion farms like ourselves. We are always looking but there was nothing on our radar this year.”
One stallion the O'Callaghans will be hoping can continue for many more years to come is Dark Angel (Ire), who at the age of 17, sired his first Classic winner this season courtesy of French 1,000 Guineas winner Mangoustine (Fr).
“God bless him. He has quite a lot of foals in the next couple of weeks and we'll buy a few of them ourselves. Hopefully they sell well for their breeders. He's had another great year with a top five finish in Europe and he's just uber-consistent. He's been in the top five sires list in Europe for the past eight years and hopefully he will keep going that way.
“He's rock solid and gets good two, three and four-year-olds, sprinters, milers, colts and fillies, it doesn't really matter. He's just a great sire. He is 17 years of age but looks better than ever. He doesn't shuttle and he's very fertile so he has an easy life. He spends his summer out in the field with the cattle and comes in at the end of October to get ready for the season.”
Dark Angel will be represented by 21 foals at Goffs this week while fellow Yeomanstown Stud-based sire Invincible Army has a massive representation of 30. The sale kicks off at 10am on Monday.
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