GUY O’CALLAGHAN,

Grangemore Stud

Charyn (Ire), 2020 c. by Dark Angel out of Futoon, by Kodiac

A 250,000gns purchase as a yearling, the Nurlan Bizakov-owned, Roger Varian-trained Charyn stepped up from winning the Group 2 Sandown Mile in good style, and running second to Audience in the Group 1 Lockinge Stakes, to capturing the first race at this year’s Royal Ascot, the Group 1 Queen Anne Stakes.

He then followed up by defeating this year’s French 2000 Guineas winner Metropolitan in the Group 1 Prix Jacques Le Marois. He opened his season with a ready success in the Listed Doncaster Mile in March. These are his first victories since his juvenile year, which he began and ended with wins, taking the Group 2 Criterium de Maisons-Laffitte.

While winless last year at three, Charyn followed up a fourth-place finish behind Paddington in the Group 1 Irish 2000 Guineas with a placed effort to the same horse, and 2000 Guineas winner Chaldean, at Royal Ascot in the Group 1 St James’s Palace Stakes, and later he was third behind Paddington in the Group 1 Sussex Stakes at Goodwood.

Bought for 100,000gns by Grangemore Stud’s Guy O’Callaghan, the stakes-placed Futoon has had three offspring by Dark Angel sold at auction. Her first, a colt, realised £140,000 and went on to win the Group 2 Mill Reef Stakes at two.

Charyn sold for nearly twice that and also won a Group 2 as a juvenile, and last year their yearling full-sister made a whopping 850,000gns. Keep an eye out for her. She was purchased by Sumbe and is named Shinara.

JOHN MAGNIER,

Coolmore

Content (Ire), 2021 f. by Galileo out of Mecca’s Angel, by Dark Angel

WINNER of the most recent Connolly’s Red Mills/The Irish Field Flat Breeder of the Year award, Coolmore’s John Magnier is back again with another nomination, but this is a special one. It is for the filly who gave Galileo his 100th Group/Grade 1 winner.

Victory for Content in the Group 1 Yorkshire Oaks was not out of turn, as she had notched up a couple of placed efforts this season, running second to You Got To Me in the Group 1 Juddmonte Irish Oaks, and finishing third to Bluestocking and Emily Upjohn in the Group 1 Pretty Polly Stakes.

Content’s win at the Knavesmire came just days before her year-younger sibling, Bedtime Story, took her unbeaten run to four with victory in the Group 2 Debutante Stakes at the Curragh. The trajectory of the latter’s career has seen her progress from a maiden debut win to annexing the Listed Chesham Stakes at Royal Ascot, adding the Group 3 Silver Flash Stakes at Leopardstown, and now progressing to a Group 2 success. Next stop, the Group 1 Moyglare Stud Stakes? Currently, Bedtime Story is the favourite for the 1000 Guineas.

Following the death of their multiple champion Galileo, the team at Coolmore turned their focus to the sire’s son, the unbeaten Frankel, as a mate for their leading sprinter, Mecca’s Angel. Visits to Galileo resulted in a wide variety of progeny; one unnamed offspring, the winning juvenile Hudson River, the unraced four-year-old filly Sweetest Thing, and Content. The first foal for Mecca’s Angel by Frankel is last month’s Group 2 winner, and this year she foaled a full-sister.

TIM, TIMMY HYDE, & PAUL SHANAHAN,

Camas Park, Lynch Bages & Summerhill

Whistlejacket (Ire), 2022 c, by No Nay Never out of Adventure Seeker, by Bering

WHISTLEJACKET may have failed to emulate his full-brother Little Big Bear and add the Group 1 Keeneland Phoenix Stakes to his tally of wins, but eight days after that defeat at the Curragh he went to France and emulated his sire, No Nay Never, and won the Group 1 Sumbe Prix Morny.

Whistlejacket and Little Big Bear are the best of six winners out of stakes winner Adventure Seeker, and both were bought at public auction. Whistlejacket was the more expensive of the pair, costing 500,000gns. He won the first two-year-old blacktype race of 2024 here in Ireland, the Listed Gain First Flier Stakes at the Curragh, and later added the Group 2 July Stakes at Newmarket. He is being aimed by Aidan O’Brien at an ambitious Group/Grade 1 treble, to add the Middle Park Stakes to his tally before heading to the Breeders’ Cup.

In time, Whistlejacket will surely join Little Big Bear at stud. That 2022 European champion two-year-old has just completed his first season at Coolmore.

Their dam Adventure Seeker, a homebred by the Wildenstein’s Dayton Investments, was sold at a dispersal in 2016 at Goffs for €125,000 to Brendan Bashford on behalf of the Hyde family and partners.

Adventure Seeker is a granddaughter of All Along, rated the champion older horse in Europe and champion turf filly in the USA in 1983. Her nine wins included two Group 1s in France, the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe and the Prix Vermeille, two Grade 1s in the USA, the Washington DC International and the Turf Classic, and the Grade 1 Rothman’s International in Canada.

SHEIKH MOHAMMED,

Godolphin

Nations Pride (Ire), 2019 c. by Teofilo out of Important Time, by Oasis Dream

TWO years ago Nations Pride earned Sheikh Mohammed a nomination for a Breeder of the Month award. Denied in a controversial finish in the Grade 1 Belmont Derby, he gave that year’s Derby form a boost when he posted his first top-level win in the Saratoga Derby Invitational Stakes.

Last year he was back for another nomination after winning the Group 1 Bayerisches Zuchtrennan, beating last year’s German Derby winner Fantastic Moon, and then he travelled to Woodbine and won the Grade 1 Canadian Internation. Could it be third time lucky for Sheikh Mohammed, as Nations Pride’s fourth top-level win has come in the Grade 1 Arlington Million Stakes. He has now won 10 of his 18 starts, been second three times, and third twice. His earnings are now north of €2.68million.

Nations Pride is bred on a successful cross, as Teofilo and Oasis Dream mares are also responsible for Prix Saint-Alary winner Tawkeel and Melbourne Cup hero Twilight Agenda. His dam Important Time is a listed winning daughter of Satwa Queen, a three-time Group 1 winner bought for 3,400,000gns.

Satwa Queen bred just a single stakes winner, Important Time, but her stud record has been enhanced by the fact that three of her daughters are the producers of Group 1 winners. Important Time bred Nations Pride, the placed Dubawi mare Amerindia is the dam of the Australian Group 1 winner Militarize, while the unraced Queen Of Carthage is responsible for Group 1 Phoenix Stakes winner, and the classic-placed Lucky Vega. The best of Satwa Queen’s siblings was the Group 1 winner Spadoun.