WHAT a memorable two days it was last Saturday and Sunday for Al Shira’aa Racing. At the Curragh they welcomed Vespertilio home for her first win, in the Group 2 Debutante Stakes, and 24 hours later Jannah Rose showed her wellbeing when she bounced back to land the Group 2 Prix de la Nonette at Deauville, her fourth win in five starts.
Jannah Rose (Frankel) won the Group 1 Prix Saint-Alary earlier this year, is clearly in the top rank of three-year-old fillies in Europe, and last week earned her breeder, John Hayes, a Connolly’s Red Mills/The Irish Field Breeder of the Month award. A €650,000 yearling purchase at the Goffs Orby Sale, Jannah Rose could well be the best of her sex and year by the end of the season.
What of the Willie McCreery-trained Vespertilio? Bred by Henri Bozo’s Ecurie des Monceaux and Lady O’Reilly’s Skymarc Farm, the filly sold at last August’s Arqana Yearling Sale for €320,000, and she is the fourth foal and third winner for her Dansili (Danehill) winning dam, Prudente. By Night Of Thunder (Dubawi), Vespertilio is the third-highest priced yearling from her dam.
Prudente’s first foal, Hinoshita Kaizan (Galileo), was the top-priced colt at the 2019 Arqana Yearling Sale, and he went to Japan where he is a minor winner last year of three races. His price at that sale was bettered by his relation Philomene (Dubawi) – they are out of full-sisters – but the latter went on to become a Group 3 winner, run second in the Group 1 Prix de Diane-French Oaks, and therefore justify the investment made in her.
Hinoshita Kaizan was followed by Ad Debel (Siyouni), a €525,000 yearling, and while he earned money on four of his five starts, he has not lived up to expectations. Fort Vega (Lope De Vega) is Prudente’s third offspring, and he sold for €150,000. Twice a winner this year for Sheila Lavery, he has shown himself to be a smart performer and will add successes in the future. After Vespertilio, there is a yearling colt by Camelot.
Sheikha Fatima
Al Shira’aa Racing is headed by Sheikha Fatima bint Hazza bin Zayed Al Nahyan and managed by Kieran Lalor.
Meadow Court Stud, which was purchased by Al Shira’aa in 2016, is now the base for the Irish company’s breeding operation. The farm is shrewdly investing in pedigrees, and their filly purchases are all from outstanding female lines. Success on the racecourse is a major added bonus.
Prudente is from a family that not only stars on the racecourse, but it makes waves in the sale ring. A half-sister to Group 3 winner and successful stakes-producer Pacifique (Montjeu) and stakes winner English King (Camelot), Prudente’s stakes-winning full-sister Prudenzia (Dansili) bred the previously mentioned Philomene, in addition to the Group 1 winners Magic Wand (Galileo) and Chicquita (Montjeu). The latter sold for a sensational €6 million at Goffs and is dam of current Group 2 winner Emily Dickinson (Dubawi).
Magic Wand was a sale topper at Arqana in 2016, knocked down to Peter and Ross Doyle for €1,400,000. A Group 2 winner in Ireland and of the Ribblesdale Stakes at Royal Ascot, she eventually won a well-deserved Group 1 in Australia, amassing £3.7 million. Her single Group 1 success does not do justice to a racing career that saw her finish second at Group/Grade 1 level in the Irish Champion Stakes, Pretty Polly Stakes, Prix de l’Opera, Prix Vermeille, the Hong Kong Cup, Arlington Million, and twice in the Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational.
Fifth crop
Vespertilio is a member of Night Of Thunder’s fifth European crop. The Kildangan Stud stallion covered this year at a fee of €100,000, a career high and well ahead of the £15,000 he commanded during his two seasons when based at Dalham Hall. Night Of Thunder (Dubawi) returned to Kildare after that.
His first Irish-conceived crop, born in 2017, contained the brilliant Highfield Princess and the Group 1 Pretty Polly Stakes winner Thundering Nights, and 2017 also saw the birth in New Zealand of Kukeracha, his Group 1 Queensland Derby winning son.
The current juvenile crop by Night Of Thunder, all conceived at a fee of €25,000, is headed by last weekend’s Debutante Stakes winner, but Vespertilio is not the only talented runner among his two-year-olds. Ornellaia was runner-up in the Group 2 Prix du Calvados after winning her maiden at Goodwood, Noce Magica ran second in the Group 3 Marble Hill Stakes after her debut win at Cork, while the Roger Varian-trained Al Musmak looks smart and he followed up his debut win at Ascot with a runner-up effort in a listed race at the same course.