ONE thing is for certain. There was no happier man on Saturday, in spite of being unable to attend the races, than Sheikh Fahad. The popular figure watched with delight as Kameko strode to victory in the Group 1 QIPCO 2000 Guineas, denying Wichita on the line. The victory was sweeter still (the name of Kameko’s dam!) as the son of Kitten’s Joy will surely already have a place at Tweenhills Stud lined up, an appropriate replacement in time for the much-missed Roaring Lion.

Some may have felt that the value of Kameko’s victory last year in the Group 1 Vertem Futurity at Newcastle, transferred to Tapeta from the turf, was questionable, given that he also met defeat twice, though only by a nose and a neck in the Group 3 Solario Stakes and Group 2 Royal Lodge Stakes. However, the handicappers knew their job and he was rated the joint-second top-rated colt in Europe behind Pinatubo.

What Kameko has earned in prize money at this point is somewhat irrelevant – but he has more than handsomely repaid the $90,000 outlay made in him on Sheikh Fahad’s behalf at Keeneland by David Redvers. Bred at Calumet Farm, the colt was sold through Pat Costello’s Paramount Sales. The Irish connection does not stop there.

Sweeter Still, a daughter of Rock Of Gibraltar (Danehill), was bred and raced by Annemarie O’Brien, her dam Beltisaal (Belmez) having been acquired by her father, Joe Crowley, for just €8,000. Trained by husband Aidan, Sweeter Still was obviously well-regarded at home and she made her debut in a listed race at the Curragh, the Flame Of Tara EBF Stakes. She finished fourth of nine, enough to see her sold on to race in the USA.

Grade 3 winner

There she was successful five times, all but once in stakes races, and her victories included the Grade 3 Senorita Stakes at Hollywood Park, while she placed a couple of times at Grade 2 level. Sweeter Still sold at the Keeneland January Sale in 2014 for $750,000 in foal to Galileo (Sadler’s Wells). Just short of three years later her value had plummeted to $35,000, the price at which Calumet Farm purchased her carrying Kameko.

Sweeter Still’s sale ring value had not yet reached the bottom, and, luckily for a man named T Lesley Thompson, she sold in 2018, in foal to Optimizer (English Channel) for $1,500 – less than a third of the stallion nomination cost to the sire! For her new owner she produced a filly, now a yearling.

Nice profit

No doubt Mr Thompson made a nice profit when Qatar Bloodstock came calling and bought Sweeter Still, all the while knowing what they possessed back in England. Though she has no foal on the ground, Sweeter Still is safely in foal to Kitten’s Joy (El Prado).

This is a story to warm the hearts of small breeders who may feel that there is never a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. When Sweeter Still passed through the Keeneland ring in November 2018, the only thing she appeared to have going for her as a broodmare was that her fifth produce, the subsequent Kameko, had two months earlier sold for $90,000.

However, her first foal, the unraced Dreaming Of Stella (Giant’s Causeway) now has two foals of racing age, the second being a two-year-old son of Lanwades Stud’s Bobby’s Kitten (Kitten’s Joy), and she was a member of the broodmare band at Geoff and Sandra Turnbull’s Elwick Stud. Last year she visited their resident stallion Mondialiste (Galileo), the Grade 1 Arlington Million and Grade 1 Woodbine Mile Stakes winner. She had a colt this year but is now in Turkey where she was covered by Paco Boy (Desert Style).

Sweeter Still’s progeny by Galileo is the unraced Catchingsnowflakes and she sold last November in Keeneland, carrying to English Channel (Smart Strike). She cost Mini Bloodstock $120,000. Meanwhile, for a mere $5,000 last September, Atlantic Bloodstock acquired Kameko’s three-parts yearling sister by Big Blue Kitten (Kitten’s Joy). She is catalogued as Lot 346 in the Arqana Breeze-Up Sale on July 1st.

Joe Crowley’s €8,000 investment in Beltisaal reaped an immediate reward as the foal she was carrying, Belle Artiste (Namid) won the Group 3 Derrinstown Stud 1000 Guineas Trial Stakes, and better was to come. In 2010 Beltisaal foaled a colt, Kingsbarns (Galileo) and he, like Kameko, was the second highest-rated juvenile colt in Europe after victory in the Group 1 Racing Post Trophy.

Kitten’s Joy

The 19-year-old Kitten’s Joy stands at Hill ‘n’ Dale Farms in Kentucky. Raced 14 times over three seasons, he won nine and was runner-up on four occasions and he was rated the champion turf male. His greatest achievements were gained at three when he won both the 10-furlong Secretariat Stakes at Arlington and the mile and a half Joe Hirsch Turf Classic at Belmont Park. For the last seven years he has been the leading turf sire in the USA, and arguably he might have been an even greater success as a stallion had he come to Europe.

Kameko is one of 14 Group or Grade 1 winners for his sire, and now he has the added bonus of being so on two different surfaces. In Europe we are also very familiar with the performances of Roaring Lion, four-time Group 1 winner, and Group 1 Dubai Sheema Classic winner Hawkbill who, like the former Tweenhills Stud stallion, also won the Group 1 Eclipse Stakes.

Thankfully, Kirsten Rausing thinks outside the box and she had the foresight to find a place at Lanwades Stud in Newmarket for Kitten’s Joy’s son Bobby’s Kitten, winner of the six and a half furlong Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint at Santa Anita, beating No Nay Never. Bobby’s Kitten has about 77 two-year-olds and Sands Of Time, bred by and racing for Miss Rausing, made a sparkling debut at the weekend, beating seven rivals by five lengths over the minimum trip at Lingfield. Then, on Wednesday, he doubled up at Kempton when Miami Joy won on his debut over seven furlongs.

Bobby’s Kitten is one of three Breeders’ Cup winners for Kitten’s Joy. Bred and raced by Ken and Sarah Ramsey, Kitten’s Joy went to stud in 2006 at a fee of $25,000. He stood at Ramsey Farm until 2017 and for his last four seasons there he reached a high of $100,000. Now he is completing his 15th term at stud and breeders could access one of the best sires around for $75,000.