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Siyouni Comes Of Age

It is only a decade since the most expensive stallion at stud in France was Elusive City at €15,000. Yet to have runners at that stage were Le Havre (Ire) and Kendargent (Fr), who entered stud in 2010, followed by Siyouni (Fr) in 2011 and then Wootton Bassett (GB) the next year. Those are the four names who dominated the French sires’ championship in 2020 and can take a large part of the credit for an increasingly dynamic stallion scene in France.

Siyouni, who now commands a fee of €140,000 having started his career at €7,000, is the French champion sire and was second overall in Europe to Galileo (Ire). He had to play second fiddle to Galileo in his home country last year and to an extent that could be put down to what a difference an Arc makes. Galileo sired the 2019 Arc winner Waldgeist (GB), while new Coolmore stallion Sottsass (Fr) enjoyed the biggest day of his career in front of an almost empty ParisLongchamp grandstand in October 2020. He made a huge contribution to Siyouni’s overall progeny earnings of just over €4 million—double that of Le Havre—but the Aga Khan Studs stallion had plenty of other winners, 63 in total in France including nine stakes winners and 17 black-type performers in France, with 27 of the latter throughout Europe.

While Sottsass was the stand-out, Siyouni also sired his second winner of the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches, Dream And Do (Fr), who is now in the ownership of Katsumi Yoshida. His reputation farther afield was bolstered by the G1 Dewhurst S. winner St Mark’s Basilica (Ire) and GI EP Taylor S. victrix Etoile (Fr).

The 62 winners for Le Havre were led by a filly trained outside France but by a Frenchman. The G1 Prix de Royallieu and G1 QIPCO British Champion Fillies & Mares S. Winner Wonderful Tonight (Fr) is the stable star for Sussex-based David Menuisier and she was a another feather in the cap of her breeders Sylvain Vidal and Mathieu Alex, who have played a major role in the rejuvenation of the French stallion scene at what was originally known as Haras de la Cauvinière and is now Haras de Montfort et Préaux. Now under the ownership of Nurlan Bizakov, the stud has a further name to grapple with this year in Sumbé, the title which now unites Montfort et Préaux with Bizakov’s original breeding base of Hesmonds Stud in England.

Le Havre, who was tenth overall in the European table, notched 11 black-type winners in Europe last season included the hugely promising Normandy Bridge (Fr), winner of the G3 Prix Thomas Bryon and runner-up to Van Gogh (American Pharoah) in the G1 Criterium International. A tall colt with plenty of scope, he could be one to put his young trainer Stephanie Nigge firmly on the map in 2021.

Kendargent has been one of the great success stories of the French ranks in recent years. The non-stakes winner who started out at a fee of €1,000, he received significant backing from his passionate owner Guy Pariente, whose Haras de Colleville, near Deauville, has blossomed into a breeding operation of some repute.

Now 18, Kendargent is in danger of being upstaged by his son Goken (Fr), who was France’s leading first-season sire of 2020, and Kendargent has also featured as the broodmare sire of several stakes winner by his other Colleville companion, Galiway (GB). His fee peaked at €22,000 and is down to €10,000 for 2021. His leading performer from 63 French winners last season was the globe-trotting Skalleti (Fr), who beat Sottsass when winning the Prix Gontaut-Biron, followed that up by winning the G2 Prix Dollar and was then second to Adeyybb (Ire) in the G1 QIPCO British Champion S.

Wootton Bassett has also been a real success story for French breeding, so much so that he was headhunted by Coolmore last year and is about to serve his first season in Ireland at a fee of €100,000, having stood for as little as €4,000 in this third and fourth seasons. The James Fanshawe-trained Audarya (Fr) followed up her G1 Prix Jean Romanet win with a memorable victory at the Breeders’ Cup, while Wooded (Fr) won the G1 Prix de l’Abbaye before being whisked off to stud himself. There were also close calls for Wootton Bassett’s offspring in the French Classics: his daughters Speak Of The Devil (Fr) and Mageva (Fr) were second and third in the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches and The Summit (Fr) was runner-up (Ire) in the Poulains.

The winner of that race, Victor Ludorum (Ire), helped his late sire Shamardal to a fifth place in the French sires’ table, his 10 black-type winners including the Aga Khan’s classy Tarnawa (Ire) and Pinatubo (Ire), winner of the G1 Prix Jean Prat.

Rajsaman (Fr) is another to have left France and is now at Ireland’s Longford House Stud but he still sires plenty of winners in his native country, with 60 last year, to put him in sixth place.

Completing the top ten were Juddmonte’s Kingman (GB), whose outstanding French representative was Persian King (Ire); Haras du Quesnay’s Anodin (Ire), who sired four stakes winners in 2020 including G3 Prix de Fille de l’Air winner Directa (Fr); Dabirsim (Fr) and the now Japanese-based Makfi (GB).

The aforementioned Goken was not only leading first-season sire in France but also the country’s leading sire of 2-year-olds, with his 15 winners putting him three ahead of Siyouni in the juvenile category.

Leading sires in Germany
That Sadler’s Wells is a major influence is hardly newsflash material. His reach in Germany is predominantly through one of his lesser-heralded sons, the late In The Wings (GB), whose best sire son, arguably, was Singspiel (Ire). The German ranks are headed by two of his other sons, Adlerflug (Ger), who is champion for the first time ahead of Soldier Hollow (GB), the title holder in the previous two years as well as in 2016.

Physically they are chalk and cheese. Adlerflug, a tall, flashy chestnut, is a product of Germany’s oldest stud farm, Gestut Schlenderhan. Meanwhile, the diminutive bay Soldier Hollow, was bred in England by Car Colston Hall Stud and has spent his stud career initially at Gestut Rottgen before moving to Karl-Dieter Ellerbracke’s Gestut Auenquelle in 2012, whence he has been Germany’s busiest and most expensive stallion for a number of years. Incidentally, Soldier Hollow’s owner Helmut von Finck, who has had notable success with his offspring, has commissioned a video to celebrate the stallion’s 20th birthday, which can be found here.

Adlerflug covered 39 mares in 2020 and he really is a stallion who should be taken more seriously outside Germany. For a start, he is bred very similarly to Galileo (Ire): beyond the Sadler’s Wells top line they share a third dam, Anatevka (Ger), with Adlerflug’s grandam Alya (Ger) being a full-sister to Allegretta (GB).

Ranking 20th overall in the European sires’ championship with markedly fewer runners than all the stallions above him, Adlerflug was responsible for the first two home in the G1 Deutsches Derby, Schlenderhan’s In Swoop (Ire), who was subsequently runner-up in the G1 Grand Prix de Paris and G1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, and Torquator Tasso (Ger), who went on to win the G1 Grosser Preis von Berlin. A rare runner for him in Britain in 2020 was the William Haggas-trained juvenile Alenquer (Fr), an easy winner on debut at Newbury who followed up with second in the listed Ascendant S. and looks a colt to follow in 2021.

Alenquer is out of a mare by former German champion sire and classy sprinter Areion (Ger), a veteran son of Big Shuffe (Ger) who was third in the table in 2020 and, now 25, has spent the last three seasons at Gestut Etzean.

Among the younger stallions to note is Gestut Ohlerweierhof’s Isfahan (Ger), the leading German-based first-season sire in 2020. Like Adlerflug, he is a former winner of the Deutsches Derby, and from his 10 runners in 2020, five were winners, including Isfahani (Ger), who won the G3 Premio Guido Berardelli on debut in the colours of her sire’s owner Stefan Oschmann of Darius Racing. Isfahan should be expected to make a bigger impression with his first 3-year-olds, and the same can be said for Gestut Rottgen’s Melbourne Cup winner Protectionist (Ger), the lone son of Monsun (Ger) remaining at stud in Germany.

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Mehmas At The Double

One day after racing resumed in Britain on June 1, Mehmas (Ire) notched his first winner in the country less than an hour after he had recorded his first ever winner, in Italy. From thereon, the Tally-Ho Stud resident was pulling double all season, opening up an easy lead over his fellow European freshmen and bossing his way to a new first-season sire record which, with 56 winners, was 17 clear of that previously held by Iffraaj (GB).

It is, frankly, a staggering tally, with 101 of his 121 named first-crop foals having set foot on a racecourse in 2020. Moreover, there was strength in depth. Mehmas’s 12 black-type performers include four stakes winners in Europe, led by Supremacy (Ire), winner of the G1 Middle Park S. and G2 Richmond S. and Minzaal (Ire), winner of the Gimcrack S and third behind the former in the Middle Park. He also finished the year with a flourish as the sire of a fifth stakes winner, Quattroelle (Ire), in the Blue Norther S. at Santa Anita.

Having passed this first stage with flying colours, the challenge now is for Mehmas to sustain this dominance. He covered 177 mares in 2018, and unsurprisingly the results of those matings were popular at the most recent round of yearling sales. The true test of any stallion is what happens when his runners turn three and beyond. We’ve seen plenty burn brightly in their debut season with runners only to fizzle out, but nonetheless this son of Acclamation (GB) is most certainly a stallion to follow keenly in 2021.

Take Mehmas out of the equation and 24 winners is a decent first tally. That was the number of winners notched by Whitsbury Manor Stud’s Adaay (Ire) in 2020 from his 64 runners. He is missing a stakes winners but has been represented by three black-type performers and two useful dual winners, Shark Two One (GB) and Twaasol (GB), both rated in the mid-90s.

With Mehmas and Adaay the leaders in Ireland and Britain respectively, the emerging young sire in France was Haras de Colleville’s Goken (Fr), who was another stallion to make his mark almost as soon as racing resumed in France, and the day after his stud-mate Galiway (Fr) had supplied the first juvenile winner of the season in the high-class Sealiway (Fr). What will certainly have pleased his breeder and Colleville’s owner Guy Pariente is that Goken is a son of the stallion who made the Normandy stud’s name, Kendargent (Fr). Furthermore, his 15 winners, including the Group 3 winners Livachope (Fr) and Go Athletico (Fr), came from a first crop of just 61 foals. Support for him will certainly grow, along with his popularity.

The Darley duo of Territories (Ire) and Belardo (Ire) feature in fourth and fifth in the European table, with the former hailing from the family of Shamardal and Belardo, by Lope De Vega (Ire), being one of Shamardal’s grandsons.

The 19 winners and seven black-type horses for Territories represent a decent start and they included the Group 3 winner Rougir (Fr), who was also third in the G1 Prix Marcel Boussac. Belardo is certainly worth noting and following closely in the season to come. From his 51 runners, he has 13 winners, four of which were stakes winners, with Isabella Giles (Ire) landing both the G2 Rockfel S. and G3 Prestige S. and Lullaby Moon (GB) winning the G3 Prix Miesque and listed Two-Year-Old Trophy among their four wins apiece.

Coolmore’s Pride Of Dubai (Aus) did not return to Ireland after his debut season but a case could be made for him doing so in future. The son of Street Cry (Ire) was champion first-season sire in his native Australia last year and, from 43 runners in his sole northern hemisphere crop he sired 11 winners, five of which were stakes winners. These include the Italian Group 2 winer Telepathic Glances (Ire) as well as Flying Visit (Ire) and Star Of Emaraaty (Ire), who are Group 3 winners in Ireland and Britain respectively.

Another of the young Kodiac (GB) stallions at stud, Kodi Bear (Ire), joined Adaay in the top ten, with 17 winners from his 54 runners, which again was an encouraging debut for a sire with 79 first-crop foals. Plenty of stallion masters have Clive Cox to thank for getting their youngsters off to a good start (think Supremacy) but in the case of Rathbarry Stud’s Kodi Bear, Cox trained both the stallion and his best offspring to date, the 107-rated Cobh (Ire), winner of the listed Stonehenge S. and third in the G2 Royal Lodge S.

As a grandson of Pivotal (GB) and son of Kyllachy (GB), Twilight Son (GB) was always going to be a popular new recruit to Cheveley Park Stud and, by number of first-crop winners, he is third behind Mehmas and Adaay on 22. His sole stakes winner, Aria Importante, won both the G3 Premio Primi Passi and listed Eupili in Milan.

Ballylinch Stud not only has the globally popular Lope De Vega (Ire) as its lynchpin but it also has some promising young stallions on the way through, including New Bay (GB), who, from a first crop of 77 foals, was represented by 43 runners and 12 winners in 2020. Encouragingly, this group includes four stakes performers, among them the G2 Royal Lodge S. winner New Mandate (Ire) and G3 Oh So Sharp S winner Saffron Beach (Ire). Unfortunately, the gelded New Mandate cannot be aimed at this year’s Classics but, being out of an Authorized (Ire) mare, one could reasonably expect him to improve further with age and distance. Saffron Beach looks a worthy Guineas contender for Jane Chapple-Hyam and her step-brother Ben Sangster, who races the filly in partnership with his son Oliver and James Wigan.

Haras de Bouquetot’s Shalaa (Ire) was the toast of this crop as his first foals and yearlings hit the sales, and he has sired 21 winners overall from his first northern hemisphere crop, two of those coming in America and one in Kazakhstan. His best European performers are the G2 Coventry third Saeiqa (GB) and the 102-rated No Speak Alexander (Ire).

Just bubbling under the top ten were Prince Of Lir (Ire), whose 13 winners include the G2 Norfolk S winner The Lir Jet (Ire), and The Gurkha (Ire) on 14 winners.

As is often the case, the table is numerically dominated by Irish-based stallions. In addition to those mentioned above, the smaller British contingent includes Bobby’s Kitten, whose 12 winners were led by Sheikh Hmadan’s promising dual winner Monaasib (GB), who was runner-up in the G2 Beresford S. With Roaring Lion having met an early demise and Hawkbill having been relocated to Japan, the Lanwades Stuyd resident leads the charge for his successful American sire Kitten’s Joy in Britain, with Kameko having recently taken up stud duties at Tweenhills.

Also worth noting among the young German stallions is the Deutsches Derby winner Isfahan (Ger), who, from only 10 starters, notched five winners including Italian Group 3 winner Isfahani (Ger).

Second-crop sires of 2020
Darley’s Night Of Thunder (Ire) made a huge impression with his first-crop runners and the 2019 champion first-season sire retained the upper hand as his second crop took to the track, albeit with fewer eye-catching juveniles than in his dazzling debut season. A Group 1 winner eludes him, though surely not for long, as the son of Dubawi has 14 stakes winners to his credit, with G2 Dante S. Winner Thunderous (Ire) and G2 Oaks d’Italia victrix Auyantepui (GB) his leading lights in 2020.

We’ve already touched on Ballylinch Stud’s small but select stallion roster above and Make Believe (GB) continued his fledgling career in upwardly mobile fashion with a first-crop Classic winner to add to his credentials. The Prix du Jockey Club winner Mishriff (GB) remains the star of his runners to date, while Believe In Love (Ire) was consistent and progressive for Roger Varian and Koji Maeda, winning five of her nine starts in 2020, culminating in the G3 Prix Belle de Nuit in October.

The six stakes winner for Coolmore’s Gleneagles (Ire) in 2020 included the Jessica Harrington-trained Silence Please (Ire). His contemporary Golden Horn (GB) matched him on 51 winners for the year and, while the Darley stallion could do with a few more stakes winners, he has a decent array of highly-rated winners who could yet take that next step into group class.

Similar comments apply to Shadwell’s Muhaarar (GB), whose 52 winners for the year equalled the tally of Night Of Thunder. The Francis Graffard-trained Paix (Ire), from the family of Irish Oaks winner Chicquita (Ire) (Montjeu {Ire}), was his star performer of the season with victories in the G3 Prix de Lutece and listed Prix Frederic de la Grange.

Worthy of a special mention in this category is Haras de Colleville’s son of Galileo (Ire), Galiway (GB). With only 85 foals from his first two crops, his 18 winners include the G1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere victor Sealiway (Fr) and Kenway (Fr), winner of the G3 Prix la Rochette and two listed contests. Both are out of mares by his fellow Colleville resident Kendargent.

Also noteworthy is the Ashford Stud-based American Pharoah, whose 27 runners in Europe this year included 16 winners. Top of the pile was the G1 Criterium International winner Van Gogh, a son of the dual Oaks winner Imagine (Ire) (Sadler’s Wells).

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Galileo: The Hardest Of Acts To Follow

In a temporarily upside-down world, a comforting air of normality can be found in a perusal of the end-of-year stallion tables. To Benjamin Franklin’s certainties of death and taxes, in this smaller world we can add just about the only sure thing in racing and bloodstock: Galileo (Ire) is champion sire.

Perhaps the greatest compliment that can be paid to the King of Tipperary is the fact that, even at his home at Coolmore, the operation which naturally has free-flowing access to the supersire via some of the best mares on the planet, the hunt is still on for his rightful heir. It may be too much to expect that a son will be able to continue the line with a show of such dominance, as Galileo did for his own sire Sadler’s Wells, and he in turn for Northern Dancer. Galileo certainly has some very good sire sons out there—not least his greatest achievement, Frankel (GB), and the former champion 2-year-old Teofilo (Ire)—but he once again remains way out in front of allcomers after another record-breaking year.

Galileo officially turns 23 on New Year’s Day and he has now been champion sire in Britain and Ireland for more than half of his life. After the most unsettling year in living memory, when the Guineas, Oaks and Derby were all delayed, Galileo once again left his increasingly imposing mark on the season’s Classics.

His daughter Love (Ire) won the 1000 Guineas before posting arguably the most impressive performance by a 3-year-old all season when going on to land the Oaks. Between those two races, her stablemate Peaceful (Ire) had pushed Galileo into new record-breaking territory when becoming his 85th individual Group 1 winner in the Irish 1000 Guineas, thereby wresting the title from Danehill, the stallion with whom he has shown such an affinity.

Further records were to follow. The Derby of 2020 was a memorable one, perhaps not for the right reason, but the tearaway winner Serpentine (Ire) meant Galileo went clear as the most successful Derby sire of all time, his five winners putting him ahead of Sir Peter Teazle, Waxy, Cyllene, Blandford, and his erstwhile stud-mate Montjeu (Ire).

With over £5 million in progeny earnings for 2020-more than double the tally of his nearest pursuer Dubawi (Ire)—Galileo duly claimed his 12th sires’ championship in Britain and Ireland, and he is the European champion, with almost £6.4 million in earnings, £777,199 of which was accrued by his top earner, the mighty mare Magical (Ire). It is worth noting that this tally is significantly lower than last year’s haul of just over £16 million owing to drastic prize-money cuts during a Covid-affected racing season. Galileo was also a long way clear by number of black-type winners: 27 in Britain and Ireland, and 32 in total across Europe, which was almost 11% of his runners.

Dubawi Provides World Beater
Darley’s admirable Dubawi (Ire) is used to playing understudy to Galileo but he is a fantastically successful stallion in his own right, and clearly the best in Britain. With an increasing array of promising young sire sons, he is also responsible for the top-rated horse in in the world in 2020: Ghaiyyath (Ire). In his 5-year-old season Ghaiyyath had Enable (GB) and Magical (Ire) behind him respectively when winning the G1 Coral-Eclipse and G1 Juddmonte International, following his front-running romp in the relocated G1 Hurworth Bloodstock Coronation Cup. And Ghaiyyath is of course out of Galileo’s first Classic winner, Nightime (Ire) and thus bred on the same cross as his Kildangan Stud mate Night Of Thunder (Ire), who has made an eye-catching start to his own stallion career.

Dubawi posted 13 stakes winners in Britain and Ireland in 2020 to take second in the table, and with 23 stakes winners overall in Europe, he was third in the European championship behind Siyouni (Fr), who was responsible for Arc winner Sottsass (Fr) and is the champion sire in France. We’ll be looking at the French and German tables in greater depth in Sunday’s edition of TDN.

Dark Angel (Ire) and Kodiac (GB), representing different branches of Ireland’s O’Callaghan family at Yeomanstown Stud and Tally-Ho Stud respectively, are both hugely reliable sources of winners and they were the only two stallions to notch in excess of 150 winners, with Kodiac on 155 and Dark Angel on 152.

The latter finished ahead overall in the table, with his 11 stakes winners headed by the top-class sprinter Battaash (Ire), who was faultless in his three starts in 2020, landing the G1 Coolmore Nunthorpe S. for the second year in a row having started out with victory in the G1 King’s Stand S. He also won Goodwood’s G2 King George S. for the fourth time, beating subsequent Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint heroine Glass Slippers (GB).

Kodiac enjoyed a memorable Royal Ascot in the juvenile division as the sire of Campanelle (Ire) and Nando Parrado (GB), but leading the charge for him in Berkshire was the G1 Diamond Jubilee S. winner Hello Youmzain (Fr), who has now become the first son of Kodiac to retire to stud in France.

A Champions Day To Savour
The redoubtable veteran of the British stallion ranks is Cheveley Park Stud’s Pivotal (GB), whose range is such that he was runner-up to Galileo in the broodmare sires’ table and provided the French champion sire, his son Siyouni. In his own right he was responsible for a British Champions Day Group 1 double via Glen Shiel (GB) and Addeybb (Ire), the latter having also won two Group 1 races in Australia back in the spring while European racing was on lockdown.

Pivotal had only 79 individual runners in Britain and Ireland in 2020 – less than half of most of the sires around him in the top ten list, but he can still more than hold his own and was fifth overall.

Ballylinch Stud’s Lope De Vega (Ire) is a stallion whose popularity stretches across continents and, while his GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf winner Aunt Pearl (Ire) doesn’t count towards his local earnings, he had a Group 1 winner on Irish turf in Keeneland Phoenix S. winner Lucky Vega (Ire). That runner’s stable-mate Cadillac (Ire), winner of the G2 KPMG Champions Juvenile S. for Jessica Harrington, looks another exciting prospect for the 2021 season.

One of the stand-out older fillies of 2020 was Sheikh Hamdan’s Nazeef (GB), winner of the G1 Falmouth S. and G1 Sun Chariot S. on each of Newmarket’s tracks. She was also the headline act for her sire, the Irish National Stud’s Invincible Spirit (Ire), now 24 and joining his half-brother Kodiac on the leaderboard at number seven. He too was represented by a Grade I winner in America when 4-year-old Digital Age (Ire) landed the Old Forester Bourbon Turf Classic at Churchill Downs for Chad Brown.

Zoffany (Ire) may struggle for attention against some of his stud-mates at Coolmore but he nevertheless can be relied upon to provide his fair share of smart juveniles. Albigna (Ire) was his Group 1 star in that regard in 2019, and the following season that honour went to the Aidan and Annemarie O’Brien-bred Thunder Moon (Ire), winner of the G1 Goffs Vincent O’Brien National S. for Chantal Regalado-Gonzalez and who helped to boost his sire to the top 10.

King In The Making
The youngest of this group is Juddmonte’s Kingman (GB), whose first crop were four in 2020 and included his first Classic winner, Persian King (Ire). The classiest of his most recent Classic generation was the champion 3-year-old colt Palace Pier (GB), winner of five of his six starts, including the G1 St James’s Palace S. and G1 Prix Jacques le Marois. Kingman posted nine stakes winners in Britain and Ireland, and he was sixth overall in the European table, with 16 black-type winners to his name, including another two Group 1 wins for Persian King in the Moulin and the Ispahan.

Completing the top ten in Britain and Ireland was Gilltown Stud’s Sea The Stars (Ire), sire of the massively popular champion stayer Stradivarius (Ire) among his 18 black-type winners, eight of which came in Britain and Ireland. Fanny Logan (Ire) got the better of the colts in the G2 Hardwicke S., while another of his Royal Ascot winners, Hukum (Ire), could well be a stayer to follow this year.

Galileo’s first two sons in the table appear just outside the top ten. The profile of Australia (GB) was lifted in 2020 by his first Classic winner, Galileo Chrome (Ire), in the St Leger, while farther afield Order Of Australia (Ire) emulated the Breeders’ Cup success of his elder half-sister Iridessa (Ire) (Ruler Of The World {Ire}).

By his own lofty standards, Frankel (GB) had a quieter year in Britain and Ireland, but he was responsible for 11 stakes winners and on the international stage he was represented by G1 Metropolitan H. winner Mirage Dancer (GB) in Australia and GI Asahi Hai Futurity winner Grenadier Guards (Jpn) in Japan.

Global Success
The Irish-based duo of Dandy Man (Ire) and Camelot (GB) were also represented by international Grade/Group 1 winners, with River Boyne (Ire), a son of the former, landing the Frank E. Kilroe Mile in America, and Russian Camelot (Ire) breaking new ground by becoming the first northern hemisphere-bred 3-year-old to win a Classic in Australia with his victory in the South Australia Derby. Camelot’s Australian reputation was further enhanced by the G1 Cox Plate victory of Sir Dragonet (Ire).

Closer to home, Even So (Ire) gave Camelot a domestic Classic victory in the G1 Irish Oaks, and Dandy Man’s daughters Dandalla (Ire) and Happy Romance (Ire) shone brightly. The former landed Group-race wins at Royal Ascot and Newmarket’s July meeting, while Happy Romance beat subsequent G1 Cheveley Park S. Winner Alcohol Free (Ire) when landing the G3 Dick Poole Fillies S.

Also making the top 15 was Showcasing (GB), whose list of sons at stud now stretches to five, the most recent recruit being his top performer of 2020, the G1 Sussex S. winner Mohaather (GB). In fact, Showcasing’s top two runners of the year were both trained in his ‘home’ stable of Whitsbury by Marcus Tregoning for Sheikh Hamdan, with Alkumait (GB) displaying his talent with victory in the G2 Mill Reef S.

It takes a mighty effort to make it into the top 20 stallions in Britain and Ireland with just one crop of runners, but the prolific Mehmas (Ire) achieved just that, finishing in 17th position overall with 46 winners, and 56 across Europe from his 101 runners. His tally smashed Iffraaj’s record of 39 first-crop winners and included G1 Middle Park S. hero Supremacy (Ire) and G2 Gimcrack S winner Minzaal (Ire). There will be more about his explosive season in Saturday’s edition when we review the leading first- and second-crop sires in Europe.

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Moment of 2020: European Success at the Breeders’ Cup

In Moment of 2020, the staff of TDN Europe reflect on their favourite moments in racing for the year.

The Breeders’ Cup is always a meeting that I particularly enjoy; it is a time when my keen interests in both European and American racing come together. The Breeders’ Cup always involves some incredible clashes of the continents, and it is the most international meeting when you consider participation and the gravity that both sides place on it.

The 2020 Breeders’ Cup at Keeneland included a remarkably strong European presence, with seven of the 13 trainers that sent horses across the Atlantic having their first runners at the meeting. After eight months of relative isolation in Lexington, where I am based, it was fantastic to get out to Keeneland in the mornings ahead the Breeders’ Cup and catch up with some of these connections, all of whom were excited and enthusiastic about the opportunity.

There were a few promising performances on the Friday-I’m thinking of Ubettabelieveit (GB) (Kodiac {GB}) blowing the break in the Juvenile Turf Sprint and then riding the rail under a sterling ride from young jockey Rowan Scott to get up for third; a remarkable effort from both horse and rider. But things really came together on the Saturday, when Team Europe took each of the four races in which it had runners, with three of them going to those aforementioned rookie trainers as well as riders having their first wins at the meeting.

First up was the likeable sprinting mare Glass Slippers (GB) (Dream Ahead), who made it a perfect start at the Breeders’ Cup for trainer Kevin Ryan, jockey Tom Eaves and her small owner/breeders Terry and Margaret Holdcroft of Bearstone Stud when splitting rivals late to get up for a mild upset in the GI Turf Sprint.

Next up was the French mare Audarya (Fr) (Wootton Bassett {GB}), who struck at big odds in the GI Filly & Mare Turf to provide a popular victory for veteran Newmarket trainer James Fanshawe, who was sending out his first Breeders’ Cup starter. It was also a first win at the meeting for young French star Pierre-Charles Boudot, who remarkably won the GI Mile two races later aboard the Aidan O’Brien-trained Order Of Australia (Ire) (Australia {GB}), both of which were pick-up mounts from riders that had been ruled out of the meeting by COVID-19. O’Brien, of course, is no stranger to Breeders’ Cup success, but it was somewhat surprising that this was his first win in the Mile. Even more remarkable was the fact that Order Of Australia-the longest shot on the board at 73-1–led home a trifecta for his great trainer, but none of the three runners was below 10-1.

Boudot wasn’t the only rider at the meeting to benefit from the COVID-induced absence of another. The Dermot Weld-trained Tarnawa (Ire) (Shamardal) was, like Order Of Australia, slated to be ridden by Christophe Soumillon, but when he returned a positive test to the virus it was Colin Keane who stepped into his boots to provide the globetrotting trainer Weld with a popular first Breeders’ Cup score in the Aga Khan’s colours. There was a sobering undertone to the result, though; it was lost on few that under different circumstances that would have been the mount of Pat Smullen, who was tragically lost to pancreatic cancer in September at just 43 years of age.

The Breeders’ Cup rarely disappoints, but I particularly enjoyed the 2020 edition as a welcome distraction for a few days from the hardships of the year and as an occasion to celebrate some deserved debut victories at the meeting.

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