STEVE Parkin’s Dullingham Park Stud sent two daughters of the Invincible Spirit (Green Desert) mare Beyond Desire to the Tattersalls July Sale this year, and sold both.

The stakes-winning Queen Of Desire (Dubawi) realised 42,000gns, while the placed Backstreet Girl (Shamardal) sold for a modest 9,000gns. The former was covered by Group 1 July Cup and Commonwealth Cup winner Shaquille (Charm Spirit), who went to stud this year, while Backstreet Girl was covered by Group 2 winner Space Traveller (Bated Breath). Both purchasers will have been overjoyed to watch their half-brother Starlust capture the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Del Mar on Saturday night.

A second European-bred Group/Grade 1 winner for Zoustar (Northern Meteor), Starlust was bred by Parkin’s Branston Court Stud, and as Clipper Logistics he raced the dam, Beyond Desire. She won a Group 3 in France, a pair of listed races in England, and was runner-up in the Group 2 Lowther Stakes. Her best runner, another big race success for trainer Ralph Beckett, Starlust was sold to Dermot Farrington for 55,000gns in Book 2 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale.

Winner of the Group 3 Sirenia Stakes on the all-weather at Kempton last year, Starlust contested the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint at Santa Anita and was part of a European 1-2-3 when he chased home Big Evs and Valiant Force. His run at Del Mar was his tenth start of 2024, and en route to his 34/1 victory at the weekend he won a listed race at York and placed third in the Group 1 Nunthorpe Stakes at the same track, a length behind the winner, Bradsell.

While Starlust has bagged a highly respectable £220,000 from his British and UAE runs for owner Fitri Hay, his two starts in the USA have boosted his earnings by more than £500,000. He is the first top level winner in his female family for three generations, but the fourth unearths two more, the European champion juvenile and subsequent classic winner Mastercraftsman (Danehill Dancer), and the Italian and German Group 1 winner Pressing (Soviet Star).

Whether by design or otherwise, Steve Parkin retains ownership of a yearling full-sister to Starlust, though she had been catalogued at Tattersalls last month, and withdrawn. She is worth a few guineas more today than she potentially was then.

Starlust is from the second northern hemisphere crop by the dual Group 1-winning Zoustar, and the first included the Group 1 Cheveley Park Stakes winner Lezoo. In June this year, a share in the stallion, who stands at Widden Stud in Australia, sold for A$1.3 million (£675,000/€800,000) at an Inglis online sale. It valued the stallion at A$78 million (€48,000,000).

Zoustar’s 58 stakes winners are headed by nine elite-level winners, and he is standing this season for a fee of A$275,000 (€170,000). His fee at Tweenhills this year was private, but was advertised at £30,000 last season.

Sierra Leone

The disappointing run by City Of Troy, set to cover at Coolmore for a fee of €75,000 in 2025, in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Classic, was offset for his owners by the fact that they race the winner, Sierra Leone, with partners, and own a significant number of breeding rights to the runner-up, Fierceness, and will also earn half of any money the latter colt wins in 2025.

The question remains, will Sierra Leone run again, or will he head to stud? It appears that a final decision has yet to be made, but he is a readymade stallion now. A headliner even as a yearling, selling for $2,200,000, he has now won $6 million in purses. His latest win was his second Grade 1, after the Blue Grass Stakes, and he was second in the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby.

A son of Gun Runner (Candy Ride), Sierra Leone was bred by Debby Oxley, and he is the first winner for his dam Heavenly Love (A.P. Indy), herself a Grade 1 winner at two of the Alcibiades Stakes. Oxley raced Heavenly Love, and that mare’s dam, Darling My Darling.

A head and three-parts of a length were all the came between Darling My Darling twice being runner-up in Grade 1 races, the Frizette Stakes and Matron Stakes. What a pity she did now win one of them, because then Sierra Leone could lay claim to having his first three dams as Grade 1 winners.

Horse of the Year

Sierra Leone’s third dam was Roamin Rachel (Mining), and the best of her nine wins, from 15 starts, came in the Grade 1 Ballerina Handicap. She only bred three winners, but even better than Darling My Darling was the Japanese Horse of the Year and Group 1 Japan Cup winner, Zenno Rob Roy (Sunday Silence). Roamin Rachel was sold to Japan in 1998 for $750,000.

Gun Runner has just completed his seventh season at stud at a career-high fee of $250,000, and Three Chimneys has just announced that he remains unchanged for 2025. An incredible 10 of his 33 stakes winners have won at least one Grade 1 race, and include the champion, Echo Zulu. Her victories included the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, also run at Del Mar, the Grade 1 Ballerina Handicap, Grade 1 Frizette Stakes, and the Grade 1 Spinaway Stakes.