Tag: New Bay

Who’s Hot Ahead Of The Tattersalls December Foal Sale?

The insatiable demand for foals was evident in the figures recorded at Goffs last week with turnover rising 16% to €29,561,000 and the average climbing 16% to €40,110.

At the top end of the market, Kingman (GB) dominated with three foals by the Juddmonte-based stallion selling for a combined €1,540,000 and one of Europe's leading pinhookers Philipp Stauffenberg signing for the €550,000 top lot by the sire. 

Tally-Ho Stud may be best known for being sellers but they pipped Stauffenberg for the biggest spenders title by signing for 19 foals for €1,429,000. Juddmonte, Yeomanstown, BBA Ireland and Camas Park Stud were also on the front foot at Goffs. 

Away from the top end, there were interesting trends to emerge last week that could well impact how this week's December Foal Sale plays out at Tattersalls.

What first-season sires do the buyers want? Who are the emerging forces in the stallion ranks and where might the value lie at Tattersalls? We've examined all of that and more.

Stock In Mehmas And New Bay Is Booming

It's been a breakout year for Mehmas (Ire) and New Bay (GB), who have had their fees for 2023 hiked off the back of memorable campaigns for their respective progeny and, judging by how well their foals went down at Goffs, they can again be expected to play a leading role at Tattersalls.

Let's start with Mehmas, a horse who began his stud career at Tally-Ho in 2017 at a fee of €12,500 and has justified his bump to €60,000 after another memorable campaign, highlighted by Group 1-winning sprinter Minzaal (Ire).

New Bay has done something similar at Ballylinch in that he has climbed the ranks the hard way. He also entered the stallion ranks in 2017, standing for €20,000, but has had his fee for 2023 increased to €75,000 from €37,500 with Bay Bridge (GB), Bayside Boy (Ire) and Saffron Beach (Ire) doing their bit to advertise their stallion's prowess at the highest level this season.

Nine New Bays sold at Goffs for an average of €80,750, headed by colts who sold for €145,000 and €140,000, while Mehmas enjoyed a similarly productive sale with 26 foals selling for an average of €62,455. Four foals by Mehmas broke the €100,000 mark with BBA Ireland going to €160,000 to secure a colt by the stallion.

What's clear about last week's results is that Mehmas and New Bay are the emerging forces in the European stallion ranks. There are 30 foals by Mehmas and 16 New Bays at Tattersalls this week and it will be interesting to see how they perform.

Sergei To Make A Splash?

The Whitsbury Manor Stud team got to dip their toe into the market with some of the first foals by Sergei Prokofiev (Can) going under the hammer at Goffs. How that will prepare an operation who excelled itself with leading first-season sire Havana Grey is hard to know given the amount of foals due to be sold by Sergei Profkofiev at Tattersalls this week. 

The Goffs offering went down well; one colt made €52,000 while the WH Bloodstock team paid €45,000 for another. Of the six foals that sold at Goffs, they averaged at €34,167. Not bad going for a stallion who stood at £6,500 in his first season at stud. 

Indeed, Sergei Prokofiev hails from that Scat Daddy line that is proving so popular. He was clearly quite the looker, too, given he fetched $1,100,000 as a yearling before carving out a decent career without managing to win a Group 1 for Aidan O'Brien. 

There are 60 foals by Sergei Prokofiev at Tattersalls this week. They should provide a better sample size into the standing in which he is held in with the buyers.

Najd Stud Snap Up Foals

We have become accustomed to Najd Stud playing a major role at the horses-in-training sales but it was interesting to see the Saudi Arabian-based outfit sign for four foals at Goffs. Is that a sign of things to come at Tattersalls this week?

Najd Stud didn't shoot the lights out, either, at Goffs. A Ghaiyyath (Ire) colt topped the total spend of €134,500 across five foals. Interestingly, a filly by Shadwell's Commonwealth Cup winner Eqtidaar (Ire), who has his first runners next year, was among the purchases at €36,000 as was a €3,500 Belardo (Ire) colt on the final day of the sale. 

Kildangan-Based Sires Come Up Trumps

Speaking of Ghaiyyath, the Kildangan-based freshman sire enjoyed a rock-solid start at Goffs with 11 of his first foals selling for €824,000 which averages out at €74,909.

Leading pinhookers Pier House Stud bought the top two colts by the stallion for €185,000 and €145,000 respectively and few would be surprised if the offerings by the four-time Group 1 winner go down well at Tattersalls as well. 

Of the 11 foals cataloged by Ghaiyyath at Tattersalls, a filly out of a sister to New York Girl (Ire) (New Approach {Ire}) and a half-brother to Global Giant (GB) (Shamardal) stand out on paper at least.

Fellow Kildangan-based stallions Blue Point (Ire) and Earthlight (Ire) also performed well. Earthlight had 17 foals sell for €942,500 at an average of €55,441 with Tally-Ho, Lynn Lodge Stud, Peter and Ross Doyle among the significant buyers of his progeny.

Even more impressive were figures posted by Blue Point, who had 20 lots sell for €1,011,500 at an average of €56,194. Top of the pops were colts knocked down for €200,000 apiece to Camas Park Stud and Katsumi Yoshida.

Blue Point's yearlings were similarly well-received. Famous for winning the King's Stand and Diamond Jubilee S. in the same week at Royal Ascot in 2019, Blue Point will have his first two-year-olds hit the track in 2023, with yearlings by the sire averaging over €100,000 this year. 

His stats performed favourably against proven sires Dark Angel (Ire), Showcasing (GB), Kodiac (GB), Starspangledbanner (Aus) and Acclamation (GB) in terms of average for a similar number of lots through the ring at Goffs last week. It will be interesting to see if he can carry over that sort of momentum at Tattersalls. 

First-Season Sires

Next year's race to be crowned champion first-season sire is being billed as one of the most exciting renewals for a long time with Too Darn Hot (GB), Blue Point, Waldgeist (GB), Magna Grecia (Ire), Ten Sovereigns (Ire), Calyx (GB), Advertise (GB), Invincible Army (Ire), Land Force (Ire) and Soldier's Call (GB) having their first runners in 2023.

As mentioned above, Blue Point performed well at Goffs while a number of leading pinhookers got behind the progeny of a number of the first-season sires. 

Advertise was one who came out nicely on the figures from a relatively small sample size at Goffs and one would imagine that Tattersalls will provide a more accurate barometer given he has 19 foals there.

But the Goffs results read well. Six foals sold for an average of €32,167 which was more than Invincible Army [14 for €29,773], Ten Sovereigns [15 for €26,833] and Soldier's Call [14 for €26,417]. Those figures could well average out this week. Time will tell.

First Crops Of Note

Along with Ghaiyyath, Earthlight and Sergei Prokofiev, who we have already mentioned, a number of stallions had their first crop go under the hammer at Goffs. 

Some of the more interesting results were posted by Arizona (Ire), perhaps unsurprisingly given he is a son of the sire of the moment, No Nay Never, while King Of Change (GB), Mohaather (GB), Sottsass (Fr) and Without Parole (GB) caught the imagination. 

Peter Nolan paid €60,000 for an Arizona half-brother to Eldrickjones (Ire) (Cotai Glory {GB}) while the Coolmore-based freshman sire, who stands for just €5,000, averaged a respectable €20,192 for 13 foals.

Sottsass was a classier racehorse than most of his first-crop rivals and it told in the figures at Goffs with the former Arc winner posting averages comparable with Mehmas, Invincible Spirit (Ire) and Dark Angel. There were 11 foals by Sottsass at Goffs and they sold for an average of €61,100 and a top price of €180,000. 

G1 Sussex S. winner Mohaather created a good impression with five foals selling for an average of €49,250 including a top lot of €95,000 while Without Parole had four foals sell for an average of €27,000 and a high of €70,000.

King Of Change was subject to a recent transfer after being snapped up by Starfield Stud from Derrinstown and it looks like it could prove to be a decent move given how his first foals performed. 

Peter and Ross Doyle paid €50,000 for a colt by the sire who averaged a solid €24,714 for seven foals sold. That's a good return for a Group 1-winning stallion who is set to stand for just €5,000 next year.

Coolmore Can Count On Wootton Bassett And No Nay Never

Wootton Bassett (GB) and No Nay Never flew the flag for Coolmore at Goffs while demand for the progeny of Saxon Warrior (Jpn) was evidently up off the back of an excellent autumn for the first-season sire. 

Wootton Bassett was bettered only by Kingman and Galileo, who between them accounted for just four foals at Goffs, for the highest averages posted. 

The sire of brilliant G1 National S. winner Al Riffa, Wootton Bassett clearly captured the imagination last week, with seven foals selling for €1,345,000 at an average of €224,167 which earned him a top-three finish in that particular table. 

No Nay Never enjoyed an eighth-place finish in averages posted on €134,800 and, while Saxon Warrior was down on that list at €52,263, he posted a chunky aggregate with 21 foals selling for €993,000. That was the seventh-highest aggregate recorded by any stallion. 

 

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Sons Of Dubawi Shine As Ghaiyyath Colt Leads The Way At Goffs

Sons of Dubawi (Ire) shot the lights out at Goffs on Tuesday as a colt by first-season sire Ghaiyyath (Ire) topped the November Foal Sale at €185,000 followed by a Night Of Thunder (Ire) colt who made €180,000.

Ghaiyyath himself was sold at this sale in 2015 for €1,100,000 before proving himself a world-class performer on the track for Godolphin and the Kildangan Stud-based sire has enjoyed a good start at Goffs this week.

The Ridge Manor Stud-drafted colt was sold to Pier House Stud, whose Brendan Morrin revealed that any hopes of nabbing lot 474 cheaply soon dissipated when Tony O'Callaghan appeared ringside.

But it was Ridge Manor who fought off a strong drive from the Tally-Ho Stud boss to secure the colt who will be offered for resale as a yearling.

Morrin said, “I was talking to the people at Darley about him and I thought he was the best horse in this sale here today. He's by a son of Dubawi–sire of New Bay (GB) and Night Of Thunder –so for me, those Ghaiyyaths were all very much to type.

“He's a grand big scopey horse for the first foal. We didn't think we'd have to pay €185,000 to get him but we were anxious to get him all the same. He's coming from a good farm.”

The Tuesday sale topper is out of three-time winner Cross My Mind (Ire) (Cape Cross {Ire}), whose dam Zaaqya (GB) (Nayef) has produced Group 3 scorer One Voice (Ire) (Poet's Voice {GB}).

Morrin added, “Ghaiyyath was the highest-rated horse in the world at one point and we've bred to the horse twice ourselves. We bred to Space Blues (Ire) as well. You couldn't have enough Dubawi in any family.

“He's the best sire in the world. The horse spoke for himself and Tony O'Callaghan was the runner-up on him. To tell you the truth, I was disappointed when I saw Tony there because I knew he was going to make him expensive on me. I try to buy them as cheap as I can and sell them as dear as I can. This lad will come back to the yearling sales.”

Three foals by Ghaiyyath sold on Tuesday for an aggregate of €314,000 and an average of €104,667.

 

The Night Of Thunder colt (lot 516) was consigned by Airlie Stud and signed for by Brendan Holland of Grove Stud. He is out of the black-type performer Good Place (Street Cry {Ire}) and Holland is hoping that his luck continues with the sire whose progeny is in high demand.”

He said, “Night Of Thunder is a super stallion. There are not a lot of them on the market and there's only three for sale at Newmarket next week. He's out of a black-type mare who's produced a 2-year-old winner this year. He's just a nice horse by a nice stallion.”

Holland added, “I've been lucky with the sire with the few that I have had by him. I sold a black-type winner [Lady Penelope (Ire)] and a 2-year-old winner this year.”

The aggregate on day two was €8,316,750 which represents a 10.5% rise on last year's figures. The average of €38,863 was also up 12.6% and the median was up 7% to €30,000. Of the 257 foals offered, 214 were sold, equating to a 83% clearance rate.

 

New Bay And Mehmas: The Emerging Powerhouses

The progeny of New Bay and Mehmas (Ire), the emerging powerhouse stallions in Europe, went down a bomb at Goffs and made up €850,000 of the day's trade.

If Saffron Beach (Ire) laid the groundwork for a memorable season for the Ballylinch-based New Bay, well then Bay Bridge (GB) and Bayside Boy (Ire) cemented his status as a top tier stallion when storming to Group 1 triumphs within the space of an hour on British Champions Day.

Mehmas had a similarly productive season, highlighted by Group 1-winning sprinter Minzaal (Ire), who was introduced at €15,000 for his first year at Derrinstown Stud.

And it was a colt by Mehmas, whose 2023 fee at Tally-Ho Stud has been set at €60,000, who first broke the €100,000 barrier at Goffs on Tuesday, eventually selling to John Rowe for €115,000.

Rowe, a graduate of the Darley Flying Start programme, was signing for the colt (lot 365), consigned by Dermot Kilmartin's Kildallan Farm, on behalf of Lilly Bloodstock.

He later went on to buy a New Bay colt consigned by Ballylinch Stud for €145,000 on behalf of Spirnac Bloodstock and revealed the plan for both acquisitions will be to return to the yearling sales.

Speaking about lot 424, the New Bay colt, Rowe said, “We really liked him and thought he was the nicest foal here today. New Bay is absolutely killing it and he ticked all the boxes. The sire is going in the right direction and this colt is just a king. He had everything; the walk, the physical and great strength. We loved him.”

On the Mehmas colt, a full-brother to Mehmar (Ire), who sold for €200,000 to Michael O'Callaghan at the Goffs UK Breeze-Up Sale in April, Rowe added, “He will come home to the farm and he'll come back to the sales next year. He's a lovely colt with a great walk and great presence about him. He had the page and ticked a lot of boxes for us.”

That sale cemented a productive opening two days to the sale for Kilmartin's Kildallan Farm after they sold a Saxon Warrior colt (lot 231) for €88,000 to Ballyhimikin Stud on Monday.

Kilmartin said, “He is a cracking colt. All the right people were on him and we're delighted with the price that he made. We kept it local going to Tally-Ho Stud and it worked. The mare is back in foal to Starman (GB).”

Tally-Ho also supported their star stallion when going to €145,000 to secure Amy Marnane's Mehmas colt (lot 446) out of the three-time winner and black-type performer Azagba (Fr) (Deportivo {GB}).

 

However, it was the sale of another New Bay colt, lot 401, for €140,000, that supplied one of the more emotional stories of the day at Goffs.

Sold to Camas Park Stud, the colt was consigned by Oghill House Stud, who recently mourned the death of Hugh Hyland, the head of the family dynasty, at the age of 72.

John Hyland said, “My father passed away about six weeks ago and he would've loved to have seen that today, so it's a little bit emotional. We're going to enjoy it and we'll raise a glass to my father this evening. This is his legacy and we're going to continue it on for him and make sure we do him proud.”

“It's a brilliant result. This is a tremendous colt and from the day he was born we've been really fond of him. New Bay has gone from strength to strength and has had a great season, you can see that with his new fee, which is well deserved because he's a phenomenal stallion.

 

Wheeler Dealer Does It Again

English football manager Harry Redknapp famously stormed off a television interview when a sports reporter labelled him a “wheeler dealer”. One assumes Jerry Horan would not take such offence to a similar appraisal.

In fact, Horan, well-known for being adept with sniffing out a bargain, would take pride in his ability to get deals done, which was thrown sharply into focus with the sale of his Dark Angel (Ire) filly (lot 352) for €72,000.

Under the banner of Paragon Bloodstock, Horan secured the dam Scotch Bonnet (Ire) (Montjeu {Ire}) for 5,000gns at the Tattersalls December Mares Sale in 2020.

After securing a foal-share with Yeomanstown Stud to Dark Angel, the resulting foal was on Tuesday offered by Fearghal Hogan's recently-formed Churchland Stud, with the hammer falling Peter and Ross Doyle's way.

Hogan was full of praise for Horan afterwards and said, “Jerry owned her and gave her to me to prep six weeks ago. Everything went very straightforward with her and she is a lovely filly with a good page.

“She is a good physical and we're delighted with what she made. Jerry took a chance on the mare and it has worked out. She was an older mare but, in fairness to Jerry, he's a serious dealer and he was clever enough to get a foal share to Dark Angel after he found the mare. He deserved to get well-paid for her as she was a lovely filly.”

Hogan added, “He's just top-class at that kind of stuff–an unbelievable operator and I'm lucky he sent her to me to prep. I'm only after setting up on my own at Churchland Stud a year and a half ago and I've been lucky that people have sent me a few nice foals to consign. She was up there with some of the best of what was here today.”

All told, it was a productive day for Dark Angel, with Yeomanstown signing for two colts for the sire–lot 394 for €98,000 and lot 409 for €75,000–for a combined €173,000. Eight foals from the Classic-producing sire sold for an aggregate of €430,000 which averaged out at €53,750.

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Bay Bridge Continues West Blagdon’s Long Run of Success

It is a source of regret that the selection of British racing colours has been homogenised to the extent that it comes down to artlessly underwhelming choices such as light blue or dark blue. Eighteen standard colours are allowed in a variety of patterns, but gone, sadly, are the days when an aspiring owner could opt for 'Straw' (The Duke of Devonshire), or 'Apricot' (Lord Howard de Walden).

James Wigan inherited his distinctive set from his grandfather, the owner/breeder Charles Gordon, who most certainly would have approved of seeing his silks, described as 'cherry, cornflower blue sash and cap', rippling to victory on British Champions Day on the back of Richard Kingscote riding Bay Bridge (GB) (New Bay {GB}).

The four-year-old colt, trained by Sir Michael Stoute, may have spoiled the swansong of Baaeed (GB), but for his breeder it was an immensely happy chapter in a story which didn't start off as well as Wigan might have hoped. 

“He was entered for the foal sale and the stud manager called me a couple of days before when I was already in Newmarket,” recalls Wigan, whose habit it is to sell his the stock from his Dorset-based West Blagdon Stud as foals, and who routinely has an enviable draft at Tattersalls in December.

“He was ready to come up and he'd got a knock and was slightly lame. We decided that it was pointless putting him on the box.”

There was of course an option to sell the colt from the first crop of Ballylinch Stud's New Bay as a yearling the following year but, in what has transpired to be an inspired decision, he was retained. It is rare to see a colt race in Wigan's name, though he enjoyed notable success in the late 1970s with his well-named homebred Final Straw (GB), by Thatch out of Last Call (GB), who won the G2 Champagne S. along with three Group 3 victories and runner-up finishes in the G1 Sussex S. and G1 Prix Jacques le Marois.

Wigan says of Bay Bridge, “We sell a yearling every now and again, but I liked him very much as a yearling and thought, 'Right. Well, having got this far, maybe somebody's trying to tell us something. Maybe we should just stick with him'. And luckily we did.”

With two placed runs as a back-end two-year-old, Bay Bridge wasn't an early star among New Bay's debutants, but he has made up for that at three and four, when it really matters. Unbeaten and quietly progressive in four starts in 2021, he rounded off that season a year ago almost to the day with victory in the Listed Seymour S. at Newmarket, but it wasn't until this May that his presence was properly felt on the main stage.

An explosive seasonal debut in the G3 Brigadier Gerard S. set the scene for his immediate elevation to the top level, with Bay Bridge's ensuing three runs this year including a runner-up finish to State Of Rest (Ire) in the Prince of Wales's S. before bowing out with a triumph over Adayar (Ire) and Baaeed in the Champion S. For his four-year-old season his ownership became a partnership between Wigan and Ballylinch Stud, where he will eventually stand alongside his sire but, with just ten starts to his name to date, Wigan indicates that there is a “strong possibility” that Bay Bridge will be back next season in an attempt to enhance that record.

“Ballylinch has done extremely well with their stallions,” he says. “And they're very nice people to deal with, I've found, having had a lot of experience with them over the years.”

Wigan has justifiable claims to being New Bay's biggest cheerleader as he is also the co-owner, with Lucy and Ollie Sangster, of Saffron Beach (Ire), one of the stallion's two other Group 1 winners who lives just across Newmarket's Bury Road from Bay Bridge and who also remained in his possession rather fortuitously, after missing the yearling sales. 

He says, “I took a share in New Bay when he went to stud, so I was keen on him then. It was actually Liam Norris who selected Saffron, and he must get most of the credit, because he was looking for foals to pinhook for Ben [Sangster]. I happened to meet Liam and I asked if he had seen many New Bay foals because I was interested in them. I asked if he could look at this particular filly and he already had and said 'I like her very much and she's on my list for Ben.' So I said, 'Well, maybe Ben and I should speak'.”

The pinhook 'gone wrong' has turned into a racing adventure which has gone spectacularly right, with Jane Chapple-Hyam guiding Saffron Beach to a Group 3 win as a juvenile, followed by a runner-up finish in the 1,000 Guineas and victory in the G1 Sun Chariot at three, and further success in the G2 Duke of Cambridge S. at Royal Ascot and G1 Prix de Rothschild this year.

Wigan adds of her sire, “I liked New Bay very much as an individual. He's a beautifully-made horse. He's not too big, I think he's just on 16 hands. He's got lots of quality, he's got substance, I like [his sire] Dubawi, and it's a very nice Juddmonte family. It's the female line of Oasis Dream, so he had a lot going for him, as well as being a good racehorse.”

Bay Bridge's dam Hayyona (GB) (Multiplex {GB}), a descendant of the Aga Khan's Prix de Diane winner Shemaka (Ire), is back in foal to New Bay, so there is much to look forward to at West Blagdon Stud next spring, but first thoughts turn to the impending December Sales at Tattersalls. Saffron Beach, who was ruled out of a Breeders' Cup finale just a few days ago, is nevertheless likely to take a leading role in the inaugural Sceptre Session of the Mares' Sale, and before that the West Blagdon team will be kept busy with a draft of eight foals, including a trio by New Bay.

“It's early days, the foals haven't been in prep for very long, but I think there's a nice draft and we're looking forward to it,” says Wigan. 

One of the New Bays [lot 1010] is a grand-daughter of Dank (GB) (Dansili {GB}), another to have carried the cherry-and-cornflower-blue silks with honour, notably in the Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf nine years ago. Meanwhile, another member of the draft [lot 1007], a colt by Saxon Warrior (Jpn), hails from the same family as New Bay being a great grandson of Juddmonte's Poule d'Essai des Pouliches victrix Zenda (GB), who found further fame as the dam of Kingman (GB).

Wigan nominates another son of Dubawi as a stallion he will be following with interest. “I rather like Ghaiyyath's progeny, from what I've seen. I've only used him once. I will certainly be going back to him.”

With 14 on offer at Tattersalls, he will have a chance to peruse further the stock of Ghaiyyath (Ire), and Wigan also pinpoints a young sire with roots stretching back to West Blagdon when he says, “If I think of the first-crop sires, obviously Havana Grey (GB) has done very well, but that's very obvious. Tasleet (GB) interests me, probably because he's from our old family, so I follow him with some interest. He hasn't had an awful lot of mares but he's done pretty well. He's probably my sleeper amongst the young stallions.”

The old family in question is that of Pelting (GB) (Vilmorin {GB}), Tasleet's sixth dam and a broodmare of some note for Wigan's late mother, Dawn, who was bequeathed West Blagdon Stud by her father in 1959 and ran it with her husband Dare, a renowned racing journalist. 

“My mother was given three mares,” says Wigan, whose wife Anita is also a successful breeder in her own right. “She did it very much as a hobby and only ever had a few mares here, never more than four or five, but did extremely well. She preferred to sell foals at Tattersalls, which I continue to do, but I have increased the size of the stud by adding new boxes and we bought some more land. It's run in conjunction with an arable farm; a neighbour has a farm share arrangement with us.”

Among the many notable descendants of Pelting, which include Group 1 winners Rebelline (Ire), Moon Ballad (Ire) and Central Park (Ire), was Bassenthwaite (GB) (Habitat {GB}), who was bred by Wigan's parents and who raced successfully for Stravros Niarchos, winning the G1 Middle Park S. and later standing at stud in New Zealand. Though neither Bay Bridge nor Saffron Beach are travelling to this year's Breeders' Cup, there will still be plenty of interest at West Blagdon with Pelting represented by her sixth-generation descendant Nashwa (GB) (Frankel {GB}), who is currently favourite for Saturday's Filly & Mare Turf.

Wigan wears many hats in the bloodstock industry. As well as being a successful breeder, consignor and agent, he has managed the operations of other notable owner/breeders, including Lady Rothschild and George Strawbridge, while a recent addition to his duties includes advising and buying for Peter McCausland, who has restored the historic Erdhenheim Farm in Pennsylvania and is establishing his own breeding programme on the stud which can boast Derby winner Iroquois and inaugural Kentucky Derby winner Aristides as former residents. 

“They've got some lovely mares, and Peter McCausland, who owns it, is new to the business and very enthusiastic, and he's beginning to race. So he's very much doing what I enjoy most,” says Wigan of the owner/breeder who has been represented by his first juvenile runners under the Erdenheim Farm banner this year. “He's certainly been using the best sires. The mares have got the pedigrees, so we just hope that they can produce the goods.”

Reflecting on his work for his fellow breeders and clients of his London Thoroughbred Services, Wigan adds, “It's enormously satisfying because you're basically doing what you love. You think of the horses not as your own, but you get just as much pleasure from them. They've been able to buy into some nice families, they are very nice people to work with, and one can share their enjoyment and occasional successes.”

There can be nothing more satisfying, however, than having produced a colt of the highest calibre to continue the decades of work at the stud put firmly on the British map of bloodstock breeding first by Wigan's grandfather and later his mother. It's the cherry on top, with a splash of cornflower blue. 

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John O’Connor Q&A: ‘He Could Be A Dominant Horse Next Year’

 

Rare are the days that John O'Connor of Ballylinch Stud enjoyed at Ascot on Champions Day last Saturday. No sooner had the G1 QEII celebrations died down after Bayside Boy (Ire) (New Bay {GB})'s victory, a horse the stud bred and co-owns with Teme Valley, when another runner that the stud owns jointly, Bay Bridge (GB) (New Bay {GB}), lowered the colours of Baaeed (GB) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) in the G1 Champion S.

   It was an afternoon that propelled Ballylinch resident New Bay into the spotlight and continued the excellent momentum that the stud has enjoyed in recent weeks after homebred Place Du Carrousel (Ire) (Lope De Vega {Ire}) bagged the G1 Prix de l'Opera.

   From discussing plans for Bayside Boy, Bay Bridge and Place Du Carrousel to describing New Bay as an elite stallion, Ballylinch Stud's John O'Connor makes for an excellent interview in this week's Q&A.

 

Brian Sheerin: Now that the dust has settled on British Champions Day, have you had the time to think further about the Breeders' Cup for Bayside Boy and Bay Bridge?

 

John O'Connor: The Breeders' Cup is under consideration for both horses. We'll let the horses tell us if they are ready to go or not. It's a short run in from British Champions Weekend to the Breeders' Cup, so everything needs to go right and the horses will need to have bounced out of Ascot well. We'll play it by ear.

 

BS: You hinted earlier in the week that one of the two could go to stud next year. Has that conversation moved on at all?

 

JO'C: Those are ongoing conversations. These are good horses and deserve plenty of thought put into their future plans and that's what we will do.

 

BS: It could be viewed as an afternoon that propelled New Bay into elite stallion status if he wasn't already considered to be in that bracket already. How proud are you of the stallion?

 

JO'C: He was already on his way to elite status and Saturday really pushed him over the threshold. That confirmed that he is an elite stallion. He's managed to do it with relatively smaller numbers. He didn't have huge numbers but the really good horses, I have found down through the years, always have high percentages of elite runners. When you have that, you know they are going to make it.

As the numbers increased, he has confirmed that as he went on and he has been one of those horses whose stats have always told us that he is a really high quality stallion. He's confirming that now with his runners reaching a high level. He has bigger and better crops to come–he covered a very good book this year–so there's been an incremental increase in the quality of mares that were sent to him. The really top breeders want to use him so he is in a good position.

 

BS: Alex Elliott commented at one of the yearling sales recently that he was on a mission to buy up as many New Bays as possible because, sooner rather than later, they were going to be out of his price-range. It must give you huge pleasure to see that so many in the industry have cottoned onto the horse from an early stage.

 

JO'C: It does, yes. Some very good judges like Alex cottoned onto him early and he actually bought Batemans Bay (Fr) who we race in partnership with one of his clients. He's a pretty good horse as well, and a progressive one, so yes, Alex has been one of those who identified New Bay at an early stage and he will be the beneficiary of that.

 

BS: Bay Bridge has only run 10 times so, if he was to stay in training next year, you'd imagine there could be a lot more to come from him given he's trained by Sir Michael Stoute.

 

JO'C: I would hope so. That's obviously a conversation that we will have with his owner-breeder James Wigan who is a very astute man in the business. James has experience with horses at the highest level so we will take on board his views on that. I think he could be quite interesting if he does stay in training. He could be a very dominant horse next year. He had an injury-curtailed season this year and he's a lightly-raced horse who has a very good win to run strike-rate. He has an awful lot that you would like in a top-class horse in the sense that he has an ability to quicken and a fantastic will to win. When you tackle him, he fights really hard and is hard to beat in a finish so he is an admirable racehorse and one I am looking forward to seeing on his next run, wherever that may be.

 

BS: It wasn't all about the boys last weekend, either. Fact Or Folklore (Ire) (Lope De Vega {Ire}) has had a brilliant time of it with her first two foals, Statement (Ire) (Lawman {Fr}) and Self Belief (Ire) (Make Believe GB}), winning a series of listed races. Perhaps the broodmare band at Ballylinch sometimes doesn't get the recognition it deserves with the stallions flying the flag so well.

 

JO'C: That's the nature of the business, that the stallions get the most publicity because that's the way the industry is set up. But I have always taken the view that broodmares are extremely important to any stud farm and we have invested and had good support from owners with funding the purchase of some really nice mares.

We've been lucky to have raced some very nice mares as well and Fact Or Folklore is one example. We raced her in partnership with David Hyland and we were happy to buy her to continue her stud career here. She's made an exceptional start to her new career as a broodmare. Statement is her first foal and Self Belief is her second foal. Her third foal, a colt by New Bay, sold extremely well at Tattersalls Book 2 last week for 425,000gns to Stroud Coleman. She looks like she's an elite broodmare and it shows you that they don't have to start off being outstanding to turn out to be really good. She's one of those who is going to work her way up through the ranks, I think. It would appear that Lope De Vega passes on some very good traits and he's a very promising broodmare sire.

 

BS: We should probably credit Place Du Carrousel (Ire) (Lope De Vega) for kick-starting this golden run.

 

JO'C: That's absolutely true. Place Du Carrousel is a filly we bred and we retained half of her as a yearling. She's out of a mare [Traffic Jam (Ire) (Duke Of Marmalade {Ire})] that we bought with a good race record. Her racing owner Alexis Adamian owns her in partnership with us and she boards at Ballylinch. This is her first foal, it's an extraordinary start for a broodmare to breed a Group 1 winner with their first foal. Place Du Carrousel will probably stay in training next season, so we could see her in the top fillies' races next year, for sure.

 

BS: And it turned out to be a timely win for Place Du Carrousel in the Prix de l'Opera as her half-sister by Kingman (GB) sold for 1,050,000gns at Book 1 to Shadwell.

 

JO'C: It's lovely to see that Shadwell are back buying top-class stock and a pleasure to see Sheikha Hissa so involved. She takes a personal interest in looking at the horses and that's wonderful to see. It's a great legacy that her father left her that interest and knowledge of the business. We would look forward to Sheikha Hissa having great success in the future. She has two very nice horses to go to stud next year in Baeed (GB) and Minzaal (Ire), so that could set Shadwell up for the next number of years in their stallion operation. If it is self-sustaining, that would be wonderful.

 

BS: And on the market at Tattersalls and beyond, I suppose we are running out of superlatives to sum up the demand for yearlings.

 

JO'C: You could say that it defies gravity when you think about what's happening in the world. The bloodstock market has always had its own internal mechanism and sometimes it is affected by greater world events but quite often it is not. It seems to have its own momentum. There aren't many horses at the top level and there are enough players at that level who want to participate. It can defy what's happening in the international monetary markets. Sometimes the top end of the bloodstock market is a bit of a special commodity in its own right.

 

BS: It could be another exciting weekend for Ballylinch with Lone Eagle (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) and promising juvenile Lord Of Biscay (Ire) (Lope De Vega {Ire}) running at Newbury.

 

JO'C: Lord Of Biscay is an interesting horse who won his maiden very well on good ground. It remains to be seen if he will be equally as effective on soft ground. He seems to have plenty of speed and he's a half-brother to Bayside Boy, so Alava (Ire) (Anabaa) is a mare who has been doing very well. Roger [Varian] likes him a lot and he's a horse who didn't go into training early in the year and we took our time with him. Roger has always said he's a real natural runner and he showed that first time out. It's a big step up and a change in surface conditions so it will be a big learning curve for him and us on Saturday. There's another horse we bred and part-own running in the race called Oviedo (Ire) (Lope De Vega {Ire}) and he has legitimate aspirations of running well in that race as well. Lone Eagle had a little setback earlier in the year so we are looking forward to getting him back on the track.

 

The post John O’Connor Q&A: ‘He Could Be A Dominant Horse Next Year’ appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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