WHAT a weekend it was for Ballylinch Stud. Their CEO John O’Connor was at Ascot to celebrate a Group 1 double for two sons of New Bay, and within the space of an hour the farm had a third stakes winner, the three-year-old Self Belief (Make Believe) winning the Listed Trigo Stakes at Leopardstown on just his third start.

Trained by Willie McCreery, Self Belief won on his debut at the Curragh in June, was just out of the places in a blanket finish to a listed race in Listowel, but showed at Leopardstown that he is a horse with a bright future in group company. Bred and racing for Ballylinch, his win follows recent successes for his year older half-sister Statement (Lawman) in both the Group 3 Concorde Stakes at Tipperary and the Listed Navigation Stakes at Cork.

Two stakes winners with her first two foals for Fact Or Folklore (Lope De Vega) puts her in a new light, and Anthony Stroud was well aware of the growing importance of the family when he spent 425,000gns on a New Bay (Dubawi) son of Fact Or Folklore in Book 2 of the Tattersalls Yearling Sale recently. The colt is for Peter Harris and goes to Jane Chapple-Hyam.

O’Connor loved the yearling, judged by his post sale comments. He said: “This horse was a beautiful horse, free-moving, well-balanced and he took everything really well. The trainers really like the New Bays, and with the kind of mares he is covering now he has the opportunity now to step to a higher level again. Every horse has to take that opportunity, but we believe he can.”

Premier winner

Also trained by Willie McCreery, Fact Or Folklore was a premier handicap winner and stakes-placed at Leopardstown and Galway. Bred by Ballylinch, she was for them and David Hyland of Oghill House Stud before the breeders bought out their partners, giving €150,000 for the mare in 2016.

Statement always promised to win a good race, and last year she was a short-head runner-up to Alcohol Free in the Group 3 Fred Darling Stakes. Bought for 300,000gns last December, her recent form suggests that this was a sound investment, and she is being reoffered from Baroda Stud at this year’s sale in Newmarket.

Make Believe (Makfi) is a classic winner and a classic sire. Winner of the Group 1 Poule d’Essai des Poulains-French 2000 Guineas and Prix de la Foret, Make Believe is the sire of Mishriff in his first crop,