SPACE Blues (Dubawi) made a near perfect start to his stud career when his son Power Blue was an impressive winner of the opening two-year-old race of the season in Ireland, the Castle Star at Capital Stud Irish EBF Maiden at the Curragh on Sunday. The Darley stallion is bound to be the subject of enquiries from more breeders for this season at Kildangan Stud, where his fee is €16,000 for a third consecutive season.

This is the third year in succession that an Adrian Murray-trained runner has won this race, Bucanero Fuerte doing so in 2023, and Arizona Blaze last year. The former is standing his first season at Tally-Ho Stud at a fee of €12,500, having gone on to become a Group 1 winner of the Keeneland Phoenix Stakes. Arizona Blaze became a Group 3 winner, opened his second season with a win recently at Dundalk, and went down by half a length to Magnum Force in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint in November.

Bred by Finanza Locale Consulting, Power Blue is the first foal out of Visions, a group-placed, dual winner in Italy by Worthaad, and he, like Space Blues, is a son of Dubawi (Dubai Millennium). Visions has a yearling colt by Starman (Dutch Art), and was covered last year by Bayside Boy (New Bay).

As a foal Power Blue sold through Oak Lodge and Springfield House Stud at Goffs for €30,000, purchased by the Blind Leading The Blind syndicate, and went to Luke Barry’s Manister House Stud.

Reoffered as a yearling at Goffs UK, in the Premier Yearling Sale, the colt made a small profit when he realised £44,000, signed for by Simon Cavanagh’s and Aisling Noone’s Drumloose Stables who were pinhooking him with Rodrigo Goncalves. Simon and Aisling do sales preparation and consigning, pretraining and breaking at their base in Mullingar. In fact, the weekend was a magic one for the pair, as a few hours after the Curragh win, Bestaline won a mares’ open point-to-point, and on Monday Milan Forth won the hunter chase at Down Royal. All three winners were purchased in Doncaster.

Charming Woman

Most of the female side of this family has enjoyed success in Italy, though there is a Grade 2 winner back in the fourth generation, Golan Way (Golan), but his victory at that level was gained in a novices’ hurdle at Cheltenham. The only other blacktype winner in the first four removes, until now, has been Power Blue’s grandam Charming Woman (Invincible Spirit). Both of her wins were in stakes races at Rome, a listed contest and the Group 3 Premio Tudini. Visions is the best of her two winning progeny.

Dubawi needs no introduction and his son’s place on the Darley stallion roster was guaranteed when his racing career ended. His offspring first made a splash when foal buyers showed their appreciation for those members of his first crop who came under the hammer, one of Space Blues’ sons realising €140,000 at Goffs, while a daughter sold for 95,000gns in Newmarket. His 74 yearlings sold last year averaged €67,838. At Arqana’s October Sale last year two of Space Blues’ sons sold for €420,000 and €320,000.

Space Blues won his sole start at two before going on to add a further 10 wins over three seasons. A blacktype winner in each of those campaigns, he was Group 1-placed twice at three, won the Group 1 Prix Maurice de Gheest at four, and struck twice at the highest level at five. He beat Hello Youmzain and Lope Y Fernandez in that top Deauville sprint, and landed Goodwood’s Group 2 Lennox Stakes over seven furlongs and ParisLongchamp’s Group 3 Prix de la Porte Maillot that same summer.

Group 1 wins

At five, Space Blues kicked off with victory in an ultra-valuable conditions race in Saudi Arabia (now a Group 2 race) and then landed the Group 2 City of York Stakes before making two more trips abroad. He beat Pearls Galore to win the Group 1 Prix de la Foret at ParisLongchamp and then, on different underfoot conditions, landed the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Mile at Del Mar. His relation and famous former Kildangan sire In The Wings (Sadler’s Wells) also won at a Breeders’ Cup.

Space Blues, a half-brother to the Group 2-scorer Shuruq (Elusive Quality), is out of the Group 2 Challenge Stakes winner Miss Lucifer (Noverre) and he has a significant third dam in High Spirited (Shirley Heights). In addition to being the dam of Amfortas (Caerleon) and Legend Maker (Sadler’s Wells) and ancestress of the Group 1-winners Virginia Waters (Kingmambo) and Chachamaidee (Footstepsinthesand), she is a full-sister to High Hawk (Shirley Heights), the Group 1-winning dam of the multiple top-level star and classic sire In The Wings.

That Breeders’ Cup Turf hero gave us influential stars such as Adlerflug, Singspiel and Soldier Hollow, plus classic scorers such as Central Park, Winged Love and Zanzibar.

A fine race record, and an outstanding pedigree, all pointed to Space Blues being a fascinating prospect at stud, and while plenty believed that he would sire many winners at two, his long-term potential promised to be with three-year-olds and older horses, depending on the input from the mares he covered. Making such a good start, and with a first crop of some 110 youngsters to possibly run for him, marks Space Blues out as a sire to watch closely.