Mehmas | Horse Racing Free Tips

Mehmas Up To €25,000

Record-breaking first-season sire Mehmas (Ire) will see a fee increase to €25,000 at Tally Ho Stud in 2021. The son of Acclamation (GB) stood for €7,500 this year. Mehmas is the clear leader of the European first-season sires standings by earnings and winners, the latter tally of 47 as of Nov. 20 representing a record for a first-season sire. Iffraaj (GB) previously held the record at 38. Mehmas’s four stakes winners include the G1 Middle Park S. winner Supremacy (Ire) and G2 Gimcrack S. scorer Minzaal (Ire).

The standardbearer of the Tally Ho roster, however, remains Kodiac (GB), who is available in 2021 for €65,000, the same fee at which he has stood the past two years. His representatives this year have included the G1 Prix Morny winner Campanelle (Ire), G1 Sprint Cup and G1 Diamond Jubilee S. winner Hello Youmzain (Fr) and group-winning juveniles Nando Parrado (Ire), Ubettabelieveit (Ire) and Umm Kulthum (Ire).

Cotai Glory (GB) and Galileo Gold (GB) both have their first runners next year and will stand for €5,000, the same fee as Vadamos (Fr), who has had nine first-crop winners this year; Kessaar (Ire), who will have his first yearlings in 2021, and Inns Of Court (Ire), whose first foals arrive next year.

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Mehmas Entering Elite Territory

The annual race to sire the most individual first-crop 2-year-old winners always fascinates us. This year in Europe it isn’t much of a contest as the leader Mehmas (Ire)–with his 39 winners–is in no danger whatsoever of being caught by any of his contemporaries. However, 39 winners is hugely significant in that it breaks the European record for the most individual first-crop 2-year-old winners putting him one clear of the previous holder, Darley stalwart Iffraaj. And there are more than enough racing days left in the calendar for Mehmas to push well beyond the 40-winner mark.

You may wonder why the best British and Irish stallions produce so many winners compared to other regions. It’s primarily due to how racing is organized in that 12% of all winners in Britain and Ireland and in America are juvenile winners, compared to only 5.8% in Australia. Moreover, there are differences to the competitiveness of stallion rosters in each region. A smaller, more select population exists in Britain and Ireland than in America and Australia, both of which have big regional markets which encourage the retirement to stud of colts with lesser credentials.

Retiring a Timeform 115-rated 2-year-old with no 3-year-old record to stud may not be the way to go on most occasions in Britain and Ireland, but with Mehmas the gamble has paid off handsomely. As a G2 July S. and G2 Richmond S. winner who’d once beaten future champion sprinter Blue Point (Ire), Mehmas was always going to find fans at stud. One aspect of his profile that favoured him was that another successful sire, Dark Angel (Ire)–who also retired to stud at the end of his juvenile season–shared the same sire/maternal grandsire combination of Acclamation and Machiavellian. And whereas Dark Angel may have been a Group 1 winner, Timeform assessed him at 113, two pounds lower than Group 2 winner Mehmas.

Their early dispatch to stud, though controversial in some quarters, has proven the correct decision. There is little doubt that an unsuccessful 3-year-old campaign by either of these colts would have ruined or at least severely dented their appeal to the type of commercial breeders they needed in order to succeed. Mehmas may have just eclipsed Iffraaj’s tally of winners, but he’d already posted more stakes winners than the Darley stallion, whose own first crop featured the G1 Jean-Luc Lagardere hero Wootton Bassett (GB), recently in the news with his transfer to Coolmore.

Certainly, Mehmas’s first runners seem to be combining precocity and class in a pleasing blend. The top four runners by Mehmas have so far achieved Timeform ratings of 118, 112p, 109 and 103, compared to the 119p, 109p, 102 and 96 of the best four by Iffraaj at the end of his first season ten years ago. Clearly, there is plenty of quality among Mehmas’s first youngsters and he has unearthed a trio of very smart 2-year-olds in G1 Middle Park S. and G2 Richmond S. winner Supremacy (Ire) (TFR 118), G2 Gimcrack hero and G1 Middle Park third Minzaal (Ire) (109), plus listed scorer and Group 3-placed Method (Ire) (112p).

Mehmas’s tally of four stakes winners is already quite impressive, so much so that only nine stallions in the past 20 years have ever finished their first year with more. Moreover, since 2000, only Fasliyev, Oasis Dream (GB), Lope de Vega (Ire) and Frankel (GB) among European first-crop sires have had more year-one juveniles rated 110 or more. That’s the sort of company Mehmas is keeping at the moment.

Many will point to Mehmas’s lower strike rate of 41% winners to runners–Iffraaj had 53%–but with such a big first book with a wide variety of mares it’s perhaps inevitable that there will be plenty of lower-grade runners among his stock. His tally of four stakes winners also needs to be seen in the context of the seven stakes winners sired by Night Of Thunder (Ire) a year earlier–the best on any sire since the pattern began.

The question now is: can he maintain this great start? Will his stock train on and sustain him through what will inevitably be leaner years, at least until the offspring of the good mares he will now inevitably attract get to the racecourse? His second crop, produced like his first at a fee of €12,500, contained a healthy number of mares, 177 in total, but there is a marked fall in quality with only nine elite mares-identified as the top 15% of the broodmare population according to my calculations–compared to 16 from 180 in his first. The same goes for his third crop, produced at a fee of €10,000, which contained five elite mares from a total of 83. Mehmas’s mare numbers rebounded to 113 in 2020 but contained only four elite mares. Put together, his second, third and fourth crops contain just two more elite mares than his first.

When all is said and done though, there is something about the way the good Mehmas colts perform that encourages you to believe that they will indeed make good 3-year-olds. It would be no surprise to see the Clive Cox-trained Supremacy develop into one of Europe’s best 3-year-old sprinters next year. He’ll need to go some way to match the best by Iffraaj, the 129-rated Ribchester (Ire).

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Four Six-Figure Lots On Opening Day Of Tattersalls October Book 3

Book 3 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale got off to a strong start with honors split amongst four yearlings who all realized 130,000 guineas (US$176,093).

The first of the four yearlings to sell for 130,000 guineas (US$176,093) was the Mehmas filly out of the Street Cry mare Araajmh who was knocked down to Blandford Bloodstock's Tom Goff. Araajmh is a daughter of the Group 1 Falmouth Stakes winner Rajeem and a half-sister to last year's Group 2 Duke of York Stakes winner Invincible Army.

“I saw her in the rain yesterday and again this morning, and she is an absolute star. Ed Dunlop rang me early this morning from Warren Hill and asked if anything was in early, these things happen fast. She is a lovely mover, I bought one by the sire on Monday and he is an absolute revelation,” said Goff.

Mehmas, who stands at Roger O'Callaghan's Tally-Ho Stud, has been enjoying a stellar year with his first runners which have included the Group 1 Middle Park Stakes winner Supremacy, the Group 2 Gimcrack Stakes winner Minzaal and the Listed winners Acklam Express and Method.

The chestnut filly was sold by Loughmore Stables' Kitty Fitzpatrick who commented: “She was bought in partnership with Luke Barry for €11,000 (US$12,880), she is a lovely filly and we were delighted from the day we bought her. Obviously Mehmas has done what he has done, which is a huge help. She behaved like a queen and all the right lads were on her.

“I have a mare in-foal to the sire on the back of this filly, so hopefully she is lucky for new connections.”

Of coming into this sale, Fitzpatrick added: “Book 2 was very strong, when you see what is going in the world, it was amazing. We have to be grateful that we are here at all trading, long may it last!

“I was always confident there would be a turn in her, but I didn't think she'd make that sort of money! I liked her a lot, so I am not gobsmacked as I have thought a lot of this filly all the way through. She was a lovely foal, had a big walk, strength and was always a very strong powerful filly.”

Explaining how the pinhook buying works with Luke Barry's Manister House Stud, she said: “We spilt the foals up 50/50 with Manister House, and the lads at home have done a great job. It couldn't be done without them.”

Hazelwood Bloodstock's Night Of Thunder Colt Sells for 130,000 Guineas

Adrian and Philippa O'Brien's Hazelwood Bloodstock were responsible for the second six-figure yearling of the day when their Night of Thunder colt out of the Duke of Marmalade mare Dominike sold for 130,000 guineas (US$176,093) to the bid of Brendan Holland's Grove Stud.

The sale represented an impressive pinhooking profit for his owners, who had purchased him via agent Troy Steve for 20,000 guineas (US$27,091) at last year's Tattersalls December Foal Sale.

“He has been bought to breeze. He is by a leading sire, he is a good type and I have been lucky with the sire,” commented Holland. “This is a lovely clean-limbed horse with plenty of scope, I think he would have matched up with the horses sold earlier this week.

“The strong market gives everyone confidence for the foal market and for the spring too, this has helped.”

Hazelwood Bloodstock have previously topped Books 1 and 2 of the October Yearling Sale and principal Adrian O'Brien was very pleased with their decision to target Book 3 with this colt.

“It is all about Night of Thunder. He has been sensational on the track this season and we brought this horse to Book 3 as we thought he'd stand out a bit. It's a good sale and you get well paid if you bring the right horse.”

Farhh Colt Stars for Car Colston Hall Stud

The third of the four lots to realize 130,000 guineas (US$176,093) was the Farhh colt out of the Nathaniel mare Fair Daughter. Consigned by Nicholas and Jane Forman-Hardy's Car Colston Hall Stud, the pedigree is full of Group 1 winners bred by the Nottinghamshire nursery including the Racing Post Trophy winner Crowded House, the American Oaks winner Ticker Tape, the Middle Park Stakes winner Reckless Abandon and the Prix Maurice de Gheest winner Brando.

The February-born colt was purchased by Stroud Coleman's Matt Coleman to race in France.

“It is a wonderful family, Car Colston is a fantastic breeder and a stakes horse seems to pop up on this page every year so we are delighted to get him, and he has been bought for a client to race in France,” said Coleman.

“He is just a lovely moving horse, and obviously Farhh's statistics are incredible. He is a lovely staying prospect and will be more a three-year-old than a two-year-old, but we were looking for a really nice middle-distance type.”

Stud manager Jonathon Smithers was all smiles, commenting: “We are delighted, it is a first foal out of the mare, the penultimate daughter out of the foundation mare Weiner Wald. It is a fantastic chance to get the mare off and running, Farhh's page is fantastic and we wish the colt's new owners the best of luck.”

Whilst the pedigree hardly needs any updates, there was a new stakes winner for the family just last week when the two-year-old colt Erasmo, out of Sant Elena, a granddaughter of Weiner Wald, won a listed race at Chantilly on just his third start.

“He is a big strong foal, just glad he made that. He showed himself really well here,” added Smithers.

Clipper Logistics Buys Sister to Main Desire

The fourth and final lot to realize 130,000 guineas (US$176,093) for the day was the Churchill half-sister to the dual Listed winner Main Desire. Consigned to the sale by Keith Harte on behalf of Max Ervine, the filly was knocked down to Ballyhane Stud's Joe Foley on behalf of Steve Parkin's Clipper Logistics.

“The filly is lovely, she looks very fast, the mare was very fast,” said Foley.

“We bought Main Desire at Fairyhouse and she was very fast. She was second favorite for the Queen Mary but broke her cannon bone, and had a good character to come back from that and win the Listed Westow Stakes on her next start.

“The mare comes from a high-class US tap root family and, though she has gone to 'distancey' stallions, she has bred very fast horses by the likes of High Chaparral, New Approach and Mastercraftsman. We have followed them all and they have all been big, rangy horses.

“We love Main Desire, she is one of our favorites. She has got a Frankel foal and is in-foal to Churchill. We were very interested to see this filly this morning, and we loved her, she looks like a speedball and has a lot of Churchill quality about her.”

The daughter of the Orientate mare Purple Glow was consigned by Keith Harte, who in the last year has bought a farm near Finchingfield, North Essex.

“This is the best yearling result we have had so far from the new farm, which is around 25 miles from here,” said Harte. “Max has been selling with us for years, he is a great breeder. We sold Wichita for him.”

Harte added: “I am delighted that Joe has bought the filly as he has made the family. The filly came to us a couple of weeks ago from Max's farm and she has been straightforward and easy to do. Everyone who has seen her has loved her and she looks a two-year-old, just like her sister. She has a big back-end on her, has a good attitude but wants to get on with the job, I am sure she'll want to run. The mare has only had the one filly and she was a stakes horse.”

Book 3 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale continues at 10 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 16.

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Camilleri’s Kingman Colt Leads The Way

NEWMARKET, UK—On a day when Kingman (GB) was given the ultimate boost by being announced as the first suitor of Enable (GB), one of his sons played a leading role in the first session of Tattersalls October Book 2, following on from some notable returns during last week’s Book 1.

Godolphin has already had its share of success with the progeny of Kingman, notably through Group 1-winning colts Persian King (Ire) and Palace Pier (GB), and Anthony Stroud added another by the sire to Sheikh Mohammed’s string for next year when outbidding Joseph O’Brien at 400,000gns for lot 576.

The son of the 8-year-old Rip Van Winkle (Ire) mare Allez Y (Ire) was bred by Australian John Camilleri, best known in the racing world as the breeder of superstar Winx (Aus), and was offered on his behalf by Harry McCalmont’s Norelands Stud.

“He is a well-balanced horse, he moves well and we have had a lot of luck with Kingman,” said Stroud. “He is from Norelands, who do such a good job, and he will go to France to be trained by Andre Fabre.”

McCalmont added that Allez Y has been covered by Lope De Vega (Ire) to southern hemisphere time and will soon be joining Camilleri’s broodmare band in Australia.

“I am delighted I have sold a good horse for him, very happy,” said McCalmont.

Allez Y is a daughter of the champion race filly L’Ancresse (Ire) (Darshaan {GB}) and a half-sister to the Lloyd Williams-owned Master Of Reality (Ire), one of four Joseph O’Brien-trained horses to have arrived in Australia recently to contest the Melbourne Cup in November.

The trade in Book 1, though reduced, was highly encouraging in the current circumstances and the same can certainly be said for the first of three Book 2 sessions. The clearance rate rose three points to 85% as 216 of the 255 yearlings offered found a buyer. The average dipped by 10% to 70,539gns and the median by 5% to 52,000gns. The day’s aggregate of 15,236,500gns was down by just 5%.

D-Day For Churchill Filly
The first book of dual Classic winner Churchill (Ire) included a mare of rare appeal. Date With Destiny (Ire), the sole offspring of the ill-fated George Washington (Ire), earned some small black type herself when third in the Lingfield Oaks Trial and her subsequent mating with Galileo (Ire) produced the G3 Royal Whip S winner Beautiful Morning (GB).

Newsells Park Stud sent the 12-year-old mare back to Coolmore to visit Galileo’s son Churchill and were rewarded with 350,000gns for the resultant yearling (lot 718). The filly was signed for by Anthony Stroud.

Date With Destiny raced in the colours of Julie Wood and was bought as a 3-year-old for 185,000gns by Newsells Park Stud, who also owned her half-sister Flawly (GB) (Old Vic {GB}).

“We’d had some luck with the family before,” said stud manager Julian Dollar. “Flawly was one of the first mares we bought and she produced [Group 3 winer and Classic-placed] Best Name (GB). We were very fond of the family so when the opportunity came to buy a bit more of it, we came in with her.”

He added, “The Churchill was an interesting mating going back to something familiar but to put in a bit more speed and precocity. The mare was herself quite precocious.”

Churchill has 21 yearlings catalogued in Book 2 and the seven offered on Monday were all sold for an average of 80,571gns.

Model Start For Delevigne
Model Queen ((Kingmambo) has already heaped reflected glory on Highclere Stud, notably through her July Cup-winning son Regal Parade (GB) (Pivotal {GB}), and the baton passed to another of her offspring on Monday at Tattersalls. The 5-year-old mare Delevigne (GB) (Redoute’s Choice {Aus}) may have retired to the paddocks unraced but her first foal became one of the most expensive fillies of the day when bought by Alastair Donald for 350,000gns.

The Dark Angel (Ire) filly will join the King Power racing team, which enjoyed a stellar Saturday on the Rowley Mile with a hat-trick of Group wins on Future Champions Day.

Donald said of lot 722, “I loved her. She was my favourite filly in the sale. We stretched bit to get her, everyone was on her. She walks for fun and it is a lovely family to be involved with.”

David Redvers had eyes for another daughter of Dark Angel and jumped in when the bidding reached 360,000gns for lot 767, the sister to German listed winner Dark Liberty (Ire). The agent was pushed to 390,000gns to secure her for Qatar Racing.

“She’s one for the long term, for our breeding plan. She looked all speed, a little cracker,” he said of the Yeomanstown Stud-bred filly whose half-sister Queen Of Love (Ire) (Kingman {GB}) won the listed Prix Coronation at Saint-Cloud after the publication of the catalogue.

Mehmas Success Story Continues
The popularity of Tally-Ho Stud’s young stallion Mehmas (Ire) has grown with each winner he has notched this season, and he now leads the first-crop sires of Europe with 35 individual winners to his credit, including the G1 Middle Park S. hero Supremacy (Ire).

Another milestone was passed on Monday when lot 600, a half-brother to the stakes-placed Ziarah (Ire) (Iffraaj {GB}), became his most expensive yearling at 320,000gns.

The colt, who is out of the unraced Ashtown Girl (Ire), an Exceed And Excel (Aus) half-sister to classy sprinter Hot Streak (Ire) (Iffraaj {GB}), was signed for by Tom Goff, who was standing between John Gosden and Kia Joorabchian of Amo Racing.

“I think we can say that Mehmas has been something of a revelation,” said Goff. “Some people wrote him off as cheap speed but he has defied that. My brief was to buy a colt who would make a sharp 2-year-old and this is a lovely colt out of an Exceed And Excel mare. He will go to John Gosden.”

The colt, bred by the Noonan family, was “the busiest of the sale” according to John Noonan of Cregg Stud, who consigned him.

He added, “I bred his dam and didn’t sell her as a yearling but she has been very good to us since then. She is now in foal to Ribchester (Ire).”

A Mehmas colt was also on the list of Charlie Gordon-Watson, who bought lot 731 on behalf of Al Shaqab Racing at 160,000gns. The Tally-Ho Stud-bred colt is out of Diaminda (Ire) (Diamond Green {Fr}), a half-sister to G1 Golden Jubilee S winner Fayr Jag (Ire) (Fayruz {GB}).

Al Shaqab has focused much of its buying on the French market of late but picked up two yearlings in Newmarket on Monday, the other being lot 655, Barton Stud’s Teofilo (Ire) colt out of the Italian listed winner Cape Magic (Ire) (Cape Cross {Ire}), for 200,000gns.

Derby Dreams For Strawberry Fields
Gary Robinson of Strawberry Fields Stud brought just one yearling to Book 2 and the strapping son of Nathaniel (Ire) (lot 724) made the top ten on Tuesday when selling for 280,000gns to Richard Brown of Blandford Bloodstock.

It has been quite a reversal of fortune for the Green Desert mare Desert Berry (GB), whose first four offspring are all by the late Archipenko. One of those was bought back by Robinson for 1,000gns at the December Foal Sale of 2016 but ever since his year-older brother Archie McKellar (GB) advertised the family’s prowess by becoming a Group 3 winner in Hong Kong under the name of Flying Thunder, the mare’s subsequent yearlings have not been overlooked. The Hong Kong Jockey Club bought Archie McKellar’s full-brother for 425,000gns at Book 2 last year, but the Nathaniel colt looks set to remain in Europe.

“He is an exceptional mover,” said Brown, who did not divulge the horse’s new owner. “He is going to need some time but he looks a real Classic type.”

Robinson, who raced the colt’s half-sister, six-time winner Rose Berry (GB) (Archipenko), said with a smile, “I bought the mare from Chris Dwyer and she’s been good to us. He looks a real Classic colt, I expect to see him win the Derby.”

Back at Strawberry Fields Stud in Fulbourn, just outside Newmarket, Desert Berry also has an Al Kazeem (GB) filly foal and is in foal to Study Of Man (Ire).

Loughtown Filly In Fashion
A mid-May foaling date proved no barrier to the popularity of Loughtown Stud’s daughter of Invincible Spirit (Ire) (lot 700) out of the stakes-placed Cristal Fashion (Ire) (Jeremy), who was bought by Ross Doyle at 220,000gns and will go into training with Richard Hannon.

“The mare has a top back pedigree,” said Loughtown’s Paddy Burns, who bought Cristal Fashion, a grand-daughter of the G3 May Hill S. winner Solar Crystal (Ire) (Alzao), for €25,000 at the Goffs November Sale.

He added, “The whole team at home have done a top job and I’d just like to thank my head man Tom Brinkley, my wife Helena and everyone. She has gone to a great stable and wish them all the best with her. She has been a cracker all the way through.”

Doyle said. “I told Richard Hannon that I thought she was the best filly I had seen for the three days, and he agreed and decided we had to have her.”

He added, “She is from a great nursery and is out of a black-type mare. The last time we bought an Invincible Spirit yearling out of a black-type mare was [G2 Flying Childers winner] Zebedee (GB).”

Holy Pinhook
Bloodstock agents Johnny and Susie McKeever have been absent from the European sales circuit this year as Susie continues medical treatment in Australia, and the couple received a great pick-me-up with a foal pinhook purchased last year in partnership with James Hanly of Ballyhimikin Stud.

The Holy Roman Emperor (Ire) relation to Anna Salai (Dubawi {Ire}) and National Defense (GB) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}), sold near the end of the session as lot 783, had been purchased from breeder Stuart McPhee as a foal last November for €30,000 and sold on Monday for 235,000gns to SackvilleDonald.

McPhee bought the colt’s dam, the unraced Pivotal (GB) mare Fire Heroine, for 6,000gns from Darley in 2015.

“The McKeevers and I picked him out together. Johnny and Susie are in Australia and they were watching on. They are thrilled,” Hanly said.

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