THANKFULLY, horses don’t know what they cost. The Rod Millman-trained two-year-old Anthelia was bought by her trainer at the Goffs UK Premier Yearling Sale for £6,000, and she won on her debut at Bath to get her first-season sire Supremacy (Mehmas) off the mark with just his second starter.

For added pleasure, though they may not have felt much of that at the time of her sale for half of the sire’s yearling filly median, Anthelia was bred by Yeomanstown Stud. Things didn’t get better after the filly was born and the O’Callaghan’s decision to sell the dam, All On Red (Red Clubs), in foal again to Supremacy, resulted in her being purchased by Lee Waite and Abbeyleix Stud for a mere €3,000. She went on to have a colt last year.

All On Red was stakes-placed at two in the Listed Rose Bowl Stakes at Newbury, in a season that saw her win twice. She sold that year for 44,000gns after her form tailed off somewhat, and she did not train on. Her breeding career looked for a time like it would follow the same pattern, no doubt prompting her sale, as her first two foals were winners. The best of that pair of full-brothers was Punchbowl Flyer (Dream Ahead) who won seven times. Anthelia, her sixth living produce, is her third winner.

All On Red’s precocity was matched by that of her half-sister Applecross (Sir Prancealot), as she was a winner at two and, sent to the USA, she was placed in a listed race that same year in Del Mar. Applecross was a successful pinhook for Gay O’Callaghan’s brother Tony, costing €10,500 as a yearling and selling for £60,000 the following spring as a breezer.

All On Red and Applecross are two of the five winning progeny of the unraced Champion Tipster (Pursuit Of Love). You have to go back to Anthelia’s fifth dam to find a stakes winner, though the family has no shortage of winners under the first four removes.

Supremacy is covering this year at a fee of €8,000, and his first crop of some 130 foals will surely provide him with many opportunities to hit the board on multiple occasions. Supremacy raced seven times over two seasons, but he was at his best at two, He got off the mark at the second attempt, winning a Windsor maiden by three and three-quarter lengths, and on his next start he established himself as one of the leading juveniles of his year, winning Goodwood’s Group 2 Richmond Stakes by four lengths. His final juvenile run that year saw him land the Group 1 Middle Park Stakes, beating Lucky Vega, Minzaal, Tactical and The Lir Jet.

Growing list

Joining the growing list of Nando Parrado, Space Blues, Lope Y Fernandez, Starman and Supremacy with first crop winners is A’Ali (Society Rock), available at Newsells Park Stud this season for just £5,000. His first runner, the filly Ali Shuffle, won at Redcar from nine opponents for Karl Burke, and he had purchased her for 32,000gns in Book 2 of the Tattersalls October Sale.

Bred by Bickmarsh Stud in Worcestershire, Ali Shuffle is the first foal out of Always Dreaming (Oasis Dream), and she was bought in utero by Barry and Philippa Green for 30,000gns. Ali Shuffle’s sale for 2,000gns more was a nice return on their investment, and this year they will offer for sale a yearling colt out of Always Dreaming by Lope Y Fernandez (Lope De Vega). He was born on March 3rd last year, after which the mare visited Triple Time (Frankel).

Always Dreaming placed six times over three seasons, and all but one of her 19 starts were on the all-weather. On the two occasions she was second, she got to within half a length of the winner. While she failed win herself, five of her siblings did, and the best was Feliciana De Vega (Lope De Vega), and she won the Group 3 Darley Stakes at Newmarket and a listed race in France.

Their dam, Along Came Casey (Oratorio), won a pair of listed races for Dermot Weld, and her group-placed half-sister Hallie’s Comet (One Cool Cat) is the dam of the recent classic-placed Group 2 winner Matilda Picotte (Sioux Nation).

High-profile sprinter

A’Ali was among the leading juveniles of 2019, and a high-profile sprinter at three who looked set to excel again at four, but that season sadly resulted in just a single run, a Group 2-placing at Meydan. A £135,000 Goffs UK Breeze-Up graduate, A’Ali is a Tally-Ho Stud-bred son of their late Group 1-winning sprinter Society Rock (Rock Of Gibraltar), a stallion who gave us the top-level scorer Unfortunately.

Narrowly beaten on his debut, A’Ali landed Royal Ascot’s Group 2 Norfolk Stakes 15 days later. He won the Group 2 Prix Robert Papin at Deauville a month after that, and bounced back from finishing fifth to Earthlight in the Group 1 Prix Morny to take the Group 2 Flying Childers Stakes at Doncaster.

His first win at three came in the Group 3 Coral Charge at Sandown and, following that, he came to the Curragh and ran the five furlongs in under a minute to win the Group 2 Sapphire Stakes. That was a month before his fourth to the brilliant Battaash in the Group 1 Nunthorpe Stakes at York, where he was the best-placed three-year-old. His final start was the aforementioned Group 2 Meydan Sprint where he was third to Equilateral and Acklam Express, beaten by a length and a neck.