Shadwell Fees: Mostahdaf Starts Out at £15,000

There will be a change of scene for Shadwell's British-based stallions, who will move from Nunnery Stud to be located at the historic Beech House Stud in Newmarket for the 2024 breeding season.

As previously announced, the dual Group 1 winner Mostahdaf (Ire) joins the roster for next year and will be introduced at a fee of £15,000. The son of Frankel (GB) is rated joint-second in the world rankings with Arc winner Ace Impact (Fr) on a mark of 128, just a pound lower than  Equinox (Jpn).

Shadwell's star turn Baaeed (GB), who was the top-rated turf horse in the world in 2022, remains at his opening fee of £80,000, having covered 162 mares in his first book. 

“Shadwell are delighted to welcome Mostahdaf to the stallion roster for 2024,” said Stephen Collins, Shadwell's European bloodstock manager. 

“He was an outstanding winner of both the G1 Prince of Wales's Stakes, where he was the highest-rated winner of the race since Dubai Millennium, and the G1 Juddmonte International Stakes: a remarkable historic double as only two horses have won both races in the same season in the last 50 years.

“Mostahdaf has a pedigree packed with natural speed, being closely related to champion sprinters Pastoral Pursuits and Goodricke, and he was a winner himself over seven furlongs on debut. He is a quality, well balanced, imposing individual with an athletic walk and, being a son of the remarkable Frankel, he should prove very popular with breeders.” 

Mohaather (GB), whose first runners will appear on the track next season, completes the line-up in England and will stand at a fee of £12,500, which is down from €15,000 this year when he covered 99 mares. Tasleet (GB) will not stand for Shadwell this year, with a new location for the sire of top sprinter Bradsell (GB) to be announced in due course.

Derrinstown Stud in Ireland is home to Minzaal (Ire), whose fee is unchanged in his second season and remains at €15,000. 

“Minzaal is the highest-rated son of both his sensational sire Mehmas and the best at stud of his grandsire Acclamation,” said Collins. “He covered 161 mares in his first season. As the highest-rated sprinter in Europe in 2022, we are expecting him to prove popular yet again.” 

Classic winner Awtaad (Ire), the sire of Group/Grade 1 winners Anmaat (Ire)  and Anisette (GB) in 2023, will remain at his fee of €5,000. 

Collins added, “Shadwell's stallion roster gives breeders the opportunity to use top-class stallions at affordable, commercially attractive prices. We recognise the prevailing market correction at the yearling sales this autumn and all our stallions will have special live foal concessions. We look forward to discussing your requirements for the 2024 breeding season.” 

Shadwell has also launched a new banner to unite the European arms of the operation: Beech House Stud and Nunnery Stud, Derrinstown Stud, and the racing operation. 

 

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‘The Best Thing on the Planet’: Who Are We To Disagree?

ASCOT, UK–Some of us get slower as we get older. Bradsell (GB) is getting faster. So much so that, instead of treading the more obvious three-year-old sprinter route to the Commonwealth Cup, trainer Archie Watson talked the colt's owner Shaikh Nasser Bin Hamad Al Khalifa into supplementing him for the King's Stand S., and what an inspired move that turned out to be.

It takes a good horse to win at Royal Ascot once, but a proper horse to return triumphant, dropped back in trip to the minimum and with a little to prove as his comeback from the injury that curtailed his juvenile season gathered momentum.

Watson will have dreaded the sound of stewards' klaxon not long after Bradsell passed the post in front after he drifted a little towards the runner-up and last season's crack sprinter Highfield Princess (Fr). The trainer had the 2021 Commonwealth Cup all but snatched from his clutches when Dragon Symbol (GB) bumped Campanelle (Ire) in running and was demoted to second. Tension was writ large on Watson's face as he awaited the outcome of a prolonged stewards' enquiry, already in the winner's circle but reluctant to say too much in interviews being conducted as if he had won. Just half an hour earlier, Watson, his stable jockey Hollie Doyle, and Shaikh Nasser had had to settle for second with Army Ethos (GB) in the Coventry, a great run in itself for the Shalaa (Ire) colt who had made just one previous winning start. 

Finally able to relax when it was confirmed that Bradsell had given him his third Royal Ascot victory and, more importantly, a second Group 1, he said, “I know we're seen as a big yard, but for a yard like us to be winning a Group 1 here is the best thing on the planet. There was dread when that bing-bong happened, especially having just been chinned in the Coventry.”

When Watson spoke to TDN last week, he was effusive in his praise of bloodstock agent Tom Biggs, the youngest member of the Blandford Bloodstock team with whom he has formed a strong partnership. Biggs, who appears far too self-effacing for his chosen profession, was another one blowing his cheeks out with relief as the trainer went to collect his trophy.

“We don't have huge budgets, we work hard at the sales and these days don't come along very often. He's just a very fast horse,” he said.

Biggs and Watson bought Bradsell, who became the first Group 1 winner for his Shadwell sire Tasleet (GB), from last year's Goffs UK Breeze-up Sale from Mark Grant for £47,000. He then changed hands privately following his nine-length debut success to make his first start in the Victorious Racing colours in the Coventry S. One run later a mid-race stumble in the Phoenix S. and subsequent leg fracture put paid to the rest of his juvenile campaign.

“It was quite a nasty injury but his temperament is so fantastic,” Biggs added. “When he breezed I loved his action and the way he got his head down and he got better the further he went. He's just a great horse to be involved with.”

Bradsell was bred by Deborah O'Brien, who has moved up two generations in the sire-line for this year's mating for his dam Russian Punch (GB) (Archipenko). The mare is now in foal to Oasis Dream (GB).

Bradsell's successor in the Coventry roll of honour, River Tiber (Ire), was a member of the final French crop of Wootton Bassett (GB) conceived at €40,000 before he joined the Coolmore ranks. It is hard to imagine that there are not bigger and better things to come from this stallion given the line-up of mares he has covered since moving to Coolmore, where his fee has jumped to €100,000 then €150,000. As an extra vote of confidence in Wootton Bassett, MV Magnier and Peter Brant paid 480,000gns last year for the subsequent Coventry winner at Tattersalls October Book 1. His breeder Ger Morrin of Pier House Stud would have been celebrating then, but this is where it's really at, and Morrin was all smiles as he accepted congratulations from the Coolmore camp and many others alongside the winner's circle.

“Fabulous,” he said. “He was always a fabulous-looking horse. He nearly died as a foal and thankfully we were able to save him. These are great people and he was good-looking yearling so they came and bought him.”

Morrin added that River Tiber's dam Transcendence (Ire) (Arcano {Ire}) is now back in foal to Wootton Bassett. 

The Tabor colours carried by River Tiber were soon back in action aboard Paddington (GB), who made it a memorable day for the group of Coolmore owners by handing out a comprehensive defeat to Juddmonte's Chaldean (GB) (Frankel {GB}) in the battle of the Guineas winners in the St James's Palace S. Relatively rarely for these two superpowers of the breeding world, neither colt is a homebred. 

For Aidan O'Brien, Paddington's victory was particularly significant as it took him past Sir Michael Stoute as the most successful trainer at Royal Ascot with 83 wins to his credit, nine of which have come in the St James's Palace S.

While Ryan Moore, with three winners on the day, stole the limelight from the retiring (eventually) Frankie Dettori, the leading owner-breeder honours unquestionably went to Sheikh Mohammed Obaid Al Maktoum. His Triple Time (Ire) (Frankel {GB}) got the meeting off to a great start with victory in the Queen Anne S. for Kevin Ryan and Neil Callan, and a double was completed in the Wolferton with the Roger Varian-trained Royal Champion (Ire) (Shamardal).

The importance of a royal champion to British horseracing cannot be understated and it can only be hoped that the sport now has two. We have grown accustomed over many decades to the welcome message in the front of the racecard being in the name of 'Elizabeth R'. This year, for the first time, a joint message was signed 'Charles R' and 'Camilla R'. 

Significantly, the new King and Queen led the royal procession for the first day of the meeting and will do so throughout. Joining them in the carriages, perhaps symbolically, was Ralph Beckett, their first trainer back in 2008 of a homebred filly bred in the January after they married. Fittingly, she was a daughter of King's Best, named Royal Superlative (GB). The colours of the royal couple have changed now to those distinguished purple and red silks made famous in the modern era by the runners of Queen Elizabeth II. 

This year's royal welcome message was concluded by acknowledging the owners, breeders and trainers who make this meeting possible. The King and Queen said, “It is a huge and rare achievement to have a runner at Royal Ascot and we very much hope that you all enjoy the experience.”

Judging by the scenes of revelry around the bandstand and in the car parks post-racing, a good day was had by many. One down, four to go. 

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‘It’s a Privilege to Have a Horse Like Baaeed’

Speaking in the TDN's Conversations series last month, Shadwell's racing manager Angus Gold reiterated the fortuitous appearance of Baaeed (GB) on the global stage so soon after the sad death of his breeder Sheikh Hamdam Al Maktoum.

“I don't think it could be overstated how important Baaeed coming along, and the timing of it, was,” Gold told Brian Sheerin.

Baaeed's significance as a racehorse was exemplified by his recent ratification as the top-rated turf horse in the world in 2022, his mark of 135 making him the clear leader among the offspring of his sire Sea The Stars (Ire), ahead even of the former Horse of the Year Crystal Ocean (GB), who shared that accolade with Enable (GB) and Waldgeist (GB) in 2019 on a rating of 128. But when a colt retires to stud, the slate is in a sense wiped clean and he has it all to prove once more.

Baaeed will not be without support in this regard, however. It is perhaps no surprise to hear Will Wright, Shadwell's UK nominations and European marketing manager, say, “He has gone down exceptionally well.”

Since late November, breeders have been inspecting him, first at Beech House Stud during the December Sales, and later at his new base at Nunnery Stud's stallion unit, which was once home to his relations Nashwan, Unfuwain, and Nayef, with the latter still in residence in retirement. 

“It's a privilege to have a horse like Baaeed,” Wright continues. “From a Shadwell perspective, it has obviously been a wonderful journey right from moment one and his win at Leicester, and all the way through. All that excitement is now transferred to the Nunnery. Everyone here has got that buzz. To have a horse who was as good as him, bred in the Shadwell blue, and who traces all the way back to Height Of Fashion, it's a credit to Sheikh Hamdan and his family for all that work that he put in.”

Baaeed's dam, the French listed winner Aghareed (Kingmambo), had quite the year in 2022, and it was Baaeed's full-brother Hukum (GB) who who got the ball rolling for the 14-year-old mare with his victory last March in the G2 Dubai City of Gold at Meydan, a win naturally enjoyed by his owner Sheikha Hissa on her home turf. Hukum, now six, backed that up with his first Group 1 success in the Coronation Cup at Epsom, though his winning performance sadly came at a high price as he sustained an injury that kept him sidelined for the remainder of the season.

Baaeed in the meantime was diligently adding to the two Group 1 races he won as a three-year-old by bowling from race to race at four, winning the Lockinge in May, Queen Anne in June, Sussex in July, and then, stepping beyond a mile for the first time, adding the coveted Juddmonte International to his record at his trainer William Haggas's beloved York in August. As history relates, Baaeed's perfect ten remained just that, and he was defeated for the first time in his eleventh and final race on Ascot's Champions Day, where the previous year he had beaten Palace Pier (GB) in a thrilling renewal of the Queen Elizabeth II S.

That transpired to be the final occasion on which the late Queen attended her racecourse, making Baaeed, with his roots firmly in the royal broodmare band, a fitting winner of the race named in her honour. That same day, Shadwell's homebred filly Eshaada (GB) won the QIPCO British Champion Fillies & Mares S., and for her first cover this season the daughter of Muhaarar (GB) will be among Baaeed's smart first book, as will the dual Group 1 winner Nazeef (Ire) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}).

The hallmark of Baaeed's racing career, along with his obvious athletic talent, was his apparently rock-solid temperament, a facet of his nature which was referred to regularly by his jockey Jim Crowley. The buzz of the big days didn't bother him, and this laidback attitude has continued as Baaeed settles in to his new Norfolk home. 

“When he first came in we were actually a little worried that he was too relaxed, but that's just him,” Wright notes. “His temperament is something else and that's a sign of him being the complete package: the ability to listen to the handler, to the rider, and that has helped him settle in. He's not fussed over at all. He's just a relaxed horse and that makes everyone's life a lot easier.”

He adds, “We had our parade during the December Sales and my phone has not stopped ringing. Stephen Collins's phone has not stopped ringing. We had nominations being applied for from before he retired. It has to be a careful selection, and it's been incredibly difficult, but we've got an exceptional book of mares, and breeders that have seen him have not been disappointed.”

Baaeed may come with an obvious wow factor but he will still have to earn his laurels in the stallion yard along with his three fellow young residents. Farthest ahead in this regard is Tasleet (GB). One of two sons of Showcasing (GB) on the roster, he made an encouraging start with his first juveniles last season. Leading the pack was Bradsell (GB), winner of the G2 Coventry S. for Archie Watson and Bahrain-based Victorious Racing.

“We were gutted when [Bradsell] picked up a setback that knocked him out for the rest of the year. In the Coventry he defeated Blackbeard, Persian Force, Royal Scotsman, and did it in fine style. That shows us the mark of [Tasleet's] ability as a sire and that was recognised last year as he covered his biggest and best book yet. If they can replicate anywhere near what his two-year-olds did last year with the quantity that's going to be on the track, he'll be an incredibly hot prospect.”

Waiting in the wings with his first runners for the coming season is the imposing homebred Eqtidaar (Ire), winner of the G1 Commonwealth Cup and an Invincible Spirit (Ire) half-brother to the 2,000 Guineas runner-up Massaat (Ire) (Teofilo {Ire}).

“He's the sort of horse who I think is flying under the radar but we could be telling a different story come May if he has a few early runners, and we've been hearing good things from from buyers and trainers alike,” says Wright.

Then there's Mohaather (GB), another son of Showcasing bred by Gaie Johnson Houghton from her classy family which includes the G1 Queen Anne S. winner Accidental Agent (GB) (Delegator {GB}). His first foals caught the eye of many a good judge last November and that commercial popularity looks sure to carry through with the sleek dark brown Mohaather's first yearlings. 

“He was an incredibly talented racehorse. His Sussex Stakes win, when he defeated Circus Maximus, Kameko and Siskin, wasn't his only his day in the sun. He was a  group winner at two, three and four, winning the Horris Hillß at two, and the Greenham at three,” says Wright.

“The foal prices during the sales reached 110,000gns and we supported him ourselves. People are coming to him in the third year off the back of that.” 

Baaeed is not the only newcomer at Nunnery Stud as Will Wright only joined the Shadwell team last October, taking over the role of Tom Pennington.

“I have to pinch myself joining at this time,” he admits. “To have a horse like Baaeed on your doorstep along with an exceptionally exciting roster of stallions, you really can't ask for much more.”

If you missed seeing the Shadwell stallions in November but are in Newmarket for this week's February Sale, Eqtidaar, Mohaather and Tasleet will all be available for viewing at Shadwell's Beech House Stud, close to Tattersalls, on Thursday and Friday from 10am to 3pm.

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Value Sires Part IV: Moving On Up

It is perhaps at this level of the market that bookings have not yet been finalised for this year's matings. While a number of those named here have since moved up in fee bracket on the back of success with runners and subsequent market response, there is still plenty of value to be found in the hope that stallions coming through could be similarly upwardly mobile.

The aim of this exercise has been to show the average profit for stallions at each of four different levels of the market according to their yearling prices of last year. Those youngsters were of course conceived in 2020, and the table takes into account the stallions' fees at that time plus a general keep fee for the mare and foal/yearling as well as sundry costs and sales expenses of £20,000. Only stallions showing an average profit with five or more yearlings sold last year have featured in these tables and assessments have already been published for stallions standing at £50,000 and above, between £20,000 and £49,999, and earlier this week for those at £10,000 to £19,999.

Next week we will also consider the value among those sires who have not yet had yearlings at the sales, but for now we will deal with the end of the market that will particularly resonate with a wide range of smaller breeders, involving stallions who were standing at less than £10,000 in 2020.

We can sadly discount the name at the top of the list as Adlerflug (Ger) is no longer with us. The German champion died in April 2021, halfway through covering the mares who will have provided his small final crop. This penultimate crop was not large either, which tends to be the norm for Germany, but his yearling results reflect what was then Adlerflug's growing international status on the track. He was standing at his highest level when he died, but even then a €16,000 fee looked incredibly reasonable. With this class act no longer available we can look instead to his sons at stud, which include the brilliant Arc winner Torquator Tasso (Ger), who is about to embark on his first season at Gestut Auenquelle, and the German Derby winner In Swoop (Ire), who covered a large book at the Beeches Stud in Co Waterford and whose first foals are expected imminently. In Swoop's full-brother and fellow Group 1 winner Ito (Ger) was recently transferred from Germany to stand at Yorton Stud in Wales.

Still very much in active service and now flying high beyond this tier is Mehmas (Ire), a horse we've heard plenty about over the last few years and it is easy to imagine that will continue. The son of Acclamation (GB) actually stood at his lowest fee in 2020 of €7,500 in his fourth season but then his first runners woke everyone up to his prowess and he hasn't looked back, climbing to €25,000 then €50,000 and now €60,000. There will be no trouble encouraging mare owners to use him even at this level, and as our table shows, his first runners helped Mehmas's second crop of yearlings to sell for an average price which was 11.6 times his fee back then.

He will soon face competition from his own sons as three of them — Minzaal (Ire), Persian Force (Ire) and Caturra (Ire) — have already been retired to studs in Ireland and Britain and he can be regarded as one of the most exciting young stallions in Europe.

Ardad (Ire) was a year behind Mehmas in retiring to stud and the yearlings shown here represent his smallest crop of only 19. Once his first runners hit the track in 2021 and started winning early, the mares visiting him at Overbury Stud suddenly increased in number and he has 98 yearlings registered this year. In 2020, Ardad's fee had remained at his opening mark of £6,500 (it dropped to £4,000 in 2021 and is now £12,500) and, like Mehmas, they sold for an average price which was more than 11 times his fee. He too has been joined in the stallion ranks by one of his sons, the treble Group 1 winner Perfect Power (Ire). 

Ardad still looks good value at his adjusted fee, and the same can be said for Havana Grey (GB), who was also standing at £6,500 in 2020 but has risen to £18,500 on the back his first-season sires' championship laurels. The winners came thick and fast for the Whitsbury Manor Stud resident last year and it will be intriguing to see how they fare as three-year-olds. He trained on himself, from starting his campaign as an April juvenile and running eight times each at two and three before landing his Group 1 on Irish Champions Weekend in his second season. With a whopping 81 of last year's yearlings making on average nine times the fee for which they were conceived and showing average profit of £31,871, it was clearly a good move to be in the Havana Grey camp in his second year at stud.

As we can see, and for obvious reasons, not many of the stallions near the top of this table are still covering at fees within this tier, and that is the case for Kodi Bear (Ire), whose lowest fee of €6,000 came in 2019 and 2020 and is now €15,000, while Cotai Glory (GB), who brought more first-season sire glory to Tally-Ho Stud the year after Mehmas, is now €12,500, having previously been €5,000. The Platinum Queen (Ire) was the star for the latter last year and she subsequently fetched 1.2 million gns when sold to Katsumi Yoshida. That obviously doesn't figure in Cotai Glory's yearlings figures which were good nonetheless, at an average nine times his fee and average profit of £17,478 for 47 yearlings sold. That figure was just slightly below Rathbarry Stud's Kodi Bear, whose average profit was £18,247 for 32 sold.

Two sons of Invincible Spirit, Invincible Army (Ire) and Inns Of Court (Ire) have potentially exciting seasons ahead of them with their first runners. The vibes appeared to be very positive about Yeomanstown Stud's Invincible Army, who was dropped from a starting fee of €10,000 to €7,500, where he remains. Given that these yearlings were conceived off that higher opening mark, his average profit of £14,896 is decent from 72 yearlings sold and he is at a level which makes him very attractive if his first crop of runners deliver in the way which appears to be anticipated. 

Similar comments apply to Tally-Ho's Inns Of Court, who had a massive group of yearlings at the sales last year with 122 sold for average profit of £3,052. His fee has been kept at a lower level, dropping from an initial €7,500 to €5,000.

With these two stallions, as with Highclere Stud's Land Force (Ire), who also has his first runners this year, there is of course the chance for things to go very much in the breeeders' favour if they make a promising start and sustain it through to when their later crops are being offered at the sales. The risk involved is often reflected in dips in fees in the third and fourth seasons, though in Land Force's case he started an acceptable level of £6,500 for one year and had been £5,000 since then. Again, there were some favourable comments from yearling buyers, to the extent that 75 of his first-crop yearlings sold for an average price of £32,779, or five times his fee, at average profit of £6,279.

We'll see what the coming months bring for these young stallions as the eagerly anticipated early juvenile races get underway. One whose early results were encouraging on the track last year was Tasleet (GB), one of two sons of Showcasing (GB) to be standing at Shadwell's Nunnery Stud. Considering the increasing focus on success at Royal Ascot, a first-crop G2 Coventry S. winner is just what the doctor ordered for any budding sire, and that is exactly what Tasleet had in Bradsell (GB), one of 16 winners for the sire last season. The Archie Watson-trained colt went amiss when contesting the G1 Keeenland Phoenix S. but is reported to be on the comeback trail. Bradsell clearly has plenty of talent, so let's hope he is able to show that again this year.

Tasleet started out at £6,000 and has returned to that fee after two years at £5,000, but he remains competitively priced to give breeders a return on their investment. His average profit last year was £6,304 for 23 yearlings sold. 

Cheveley Park Stud's Twilight Son (GB) is another who has remained at an accessible price for breeders. He's still at his 2020 fee of £7,000, and his yearlings from that crop made on average five times that fee, with an average profit of £8,942. Both his sire and grandsire, Kyllachy (GB) and Pivotal (GB), were hugely dependable and successful members of the Cheveley Park Stud roster and there is no reason that this dual Group 1-winning sprinter can't develop into a similarly reliable sire capable of getting some fast and commercial offspring if granted enough support. 

VALUE PODIUM

Gold: Tasleet

It is an important year for him but his support is growing and he has been kept at an affordable level to give both him and those who use him a chance.

Silver: Cotai Glory 

Yes, his fee has now crept up into the next bracket but not by much and his star package The Platinum Queen was no fluke. There is some depth to his stakes horses from just two crops to race so far, and he can continue the solid work of his sire Exceed And Excel (Aus) as a dependable source of good sprinters. 

Bronze: Ardad 

He too is now in a higher fee bracket, but his fee remains sensible. This year's crop of juveniles is small, but he covered bigger and better books in the last two years, making it a reasonable proposition to use him now in anticipation of plenty more to come from his offspring on the track.

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