Paul & Marie McCartan, Ballyphilip Stud

Battaash (Ire), 2014 g. by Dark Angel out of Anna Law, by Lawman

VICTORY for the speedster Battaash in the Group 1 King’s Stand Stakes was one of the highlights of Royal Ascot 2020. This brought his career tally of victories to 11 and followed other top-level victories in the Group 1 Coolmore Nunthorpe Stakes, in record time, and the 2017 Prix de l’Abbaye de Longchamp. The McCartans also bred another fast runner in 2014, the dual Group 1 winner and now Darley stallion Harry Angel.

Battaash is the first winner for his dam who was bought by the McCartans for just 14,000gns. Last year they sold a full-sister to Battaash for 800,000gns to Shadwell Estate and she is named Altaayshah. Anna Law is a half-sister to the Group 2 winning juvenile Etlaala who was placed in the Group 1 July Cup, and a half-sister to the dam of the Group 2 winning sprinter Tasleet who was three times runner-up at Group 1 level. Etlaala and Tasleet also carried the familiar colours of Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum.

Paul and Marie McCartan are no strangers to the Connolly’s Red Mills/The Irish Field awards and Harry Angel’s exploits earned them the Breeder of the Year Award in 2017-18. A 200,000gns yearling, Battaash has earned more than €1.7 million in his racing career and he was twice runner-up to Blue Point in the Group 1 King’s Stand Stakes at Royal Ascot. He has only twice been out of the first four in 21 starts and was champion older sprinter in Europe in 2018 and 2019.

James Cloney, Cn Farm Ltd

Golden Horde (Ire), 2017 c. by Lethal Force out of Entreat, by Pivotal

DARK Angel featured prominently at Royal Ascot 2020 and one of the ways in which he did so was as the sire of Lethal Force, whose son Golden Horde, a £65,000 Goffs UK Premier Yearling Sale graduate, annexed the Group 1 Commonwealth Cup on just his seventh start. The three-year-old colt has provided his sire with a number of firsts – notably his first stakes winner, in the Group 2 Richmond Stakes last year, and now at Group 1 level.

Lethal Force, winner of the 2013 Group 1 Diamond Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot and the same year’s Group 1 July Cup, stood his first six seasons at Cheveley Park Stud, but moved to stand the 2020 season at Haras de Grandchamp.

One of four winners from the winning Pivotal mare Entreat, Golden Horde was bred by James Cloney in Co Kilkenny. His half-sister Exhort was a stakes-winner, while last year Cloney sold Line Of Departure, a Mehmas half-brother to Golden Horde, for £260,000. This year he has a Zoffany half-sister.

This is a female line which has enjoyed huge international success. Entreat’s half-brother Producer was a Group 2 winner, while Golden Horde’s third dam Imagining bred the champion Serena’s Song, herself dam of the Group 1 Royal Ascot Coronation Stakes heroine Sophisticat. Other Group and Grade 1 winners in the immediate family include the US champion Honor Code, champion filly Rizeena, and Prix d’Ispahan winner Zabeel Prince.

Dermot Weld, Springbank Way Stud

Ghaiyyath (Ire), 2015 c. by Dubawi out of Nightime, by Galileo

A GOFFS graduate as a foal when he sold for €1.1 million, Ghaiyyath earns his nomination as a result of winning the Group 1 Coronation Cup at Epsom. Since then he has added the Group 1 Eclipse Stakes to his tally which also includes a runaway win in the Group 1 Grosser Preis von Baden. All but one of his eight wins now’ have been at group level and it is only a matter of time before he joins his sire at stud. However, he is also at his racing peak.

Springbank Way Stud was established by Dermot’s mother Marguerite following the sale of her Piper’s Hill Stud just outside Naas. Dermot’s son Mark is manager at Springbank Way. Ghaiyyath is one of five winners for his Galileo dam Nightime. She gave Dermot Weld one of his most emotional and satisfying victories as a trainer when she won the 15-runner Group 1 Boylesports Irish 1000 Guineas on just her third start in the colours of his mother, who also bred the filly. Pat Smullen was in the saddle and she won by a comprehensive six lengths.

Nightime has gone on to become a dual Group/Grade 1 producer, her daughter Zhukova, by Fastnet Rock, winning the Man O’War Stakes and five other stakes races when trained by Dermot Weld. At the 2017 Tattersalls December Sale she sold for 3,700,000gns to Godolphin. Nightime’s yearling colt by Dubawi sold for €1.2 million last year and she has a colt foal by Kingman.

John Magnier, Michael Tabor and Derrick Smith, Orpendale, Chelston and Wynatt

Magical (Ire), 2015 f. by Galileo out of Halfway To Heaven, by Pivotal

SIMPLY put, there are few more successful current families in the stud book than that of Magical, an outstanding racemare whose earnings are now almost €4 million. Following her recent success in the Pretty Polly Stakes, she has now recorded half of her 10 victories at the highest level, adding to wins in the QIPCO Fillies and Mares Stakes, Tattersalls Gold Cup, QIPCO Irish Champion Stakes and the QIPCO Champions Stakes at Ascot. She has been five times runner-up at the highest level, notably in the Breeders’ Cup Turf.

She is the fifth foal and winner for the triple Group 1 winner Halfway To Heaven, and what a great investment she was when bought by Demi O’Byrne for €450,000 at the 2006 Goffs Million Sale. She won the Irish 1000 Guineas and is now dam of two Group 1 winners, the other being triple Group 1 winner Rhododendron, Magical’s year older own-sister. Her third stakes winner is Magical’s Group 3 winning own-brother Flying The Flag.

Halfway To Heaven is one of three group winners bred by Cassandra Go and that mare won the King’s Stand Stakes, now a Group 1. Other winners include Group 3 heroine Theann and she in turn is dam of the dual Grade 1 winner Photo Call, by Galileo. She sold in 2015 for $3 million and last year for $2.7 million.

Another star to emerge from the female line in recent times has been the 2018 Group 1 Lexus Melbourne Cup winner Cross Counter.