THERE were a trio of winners in Ireland, England and Germany that are worthy of mention this week, starting with the home success.
Sheila Lavery has a stunning success rate with horses bought relatively cheaply. The latest to benefit from her tutelage is the runaway Curragh maiden winner Lady Kaya. This daughter of Dandy Man (Mozart) was bred by veterinary surgeon and Ballylinch Stud chief executive John O’Connor and progressed from finishing a eye-catching third on her Curragh debut over six furlongs to winning over a furlong longer – by 10 lengths.
Purchased for €15,000 as a foal at Goffs, she was bought with the intention to pinhook. Catalogued last year in Part 2 of the Tattersalls Ireland September Yearling Sale, she was retained at €12,000 – a decision that now looks inspired. She is the seventh winner for her dam, the stakes-placed Kayak (Singspiel) who is one of nine winners for Keland (Kris). Lady Kaya comes from a branch of a family that has had huge influence on racing and breeding.
Ballyhane Stud’s Dandy Man is one of the most consistent sources of winners available to commercial breeders, his growing reputation best gauged by the steady rise of his fee from €3,500 to €10,000. He is the sire of Group 1 winner Peniaphobia.
One horse who did sell at the Tattersalls Ireland September Sale was the weekend’s Group 3 Rose Of Lancaster Stakes winner Teodoro. This was the sixth, and most important, win for the four-year-old who was sold by his breeder John Connaughton for €68,000. Teodoro is from a family that has shown they improve with age and he may step up further in class.
Teodoro is a son of the champion European two-year-old Teofilo (Galileo) who is the sire of a host of Group 1 winners around the world.
Near to home he has been responsible for Pleascach (Group 1 Irish 1000 Guineas), Trading Leather (Group 1 Irish Derby) and Voleuse De Coeurs (Group 1 Irish St Leger). Teofilo cost breeders €40,000 this year at Kildangan Stud.
Teodoro is a half-brother to September Stars (Sea The Stars) and this 260,000gns yearling purchase won three races before being shipped to the USA where last year, at the age of four, she won the Listed Possibly Perfect Stakes at Santa Anita.
They are out of Altesse Imperiale (Rock Of Gibraltar) and she was bought by John Connaughton for 210,000gns carrying September Stars. Having foaled Teodoro the following year John traded her on for 330,000gns.
Altesse Imperiale won in France and she is a half-sister to the Grade 1 Diana Stakes and Grade 1 Beverly D Stakes winner Angara (Alzao), the Group 2 Prix Corrida winner Actrice (Danehill) and the listed winner and multiple stakes producer Arlesienne (Alzao).
Congratulations to Cecil and Martin McCracken on a well-deserved Group 1 win for Best Solution in the Longines Grosser Preis von Berlin. Twice runner-up at the highest level in France and Germany, this multiple group winning four-year-old son of Kodiac (Danehill) joins Tiggy Wiggy as the second Group 1 winner for his Tally Ho Stud sire, another whose star in in the ascendancy and whose 2018 fee of €50,000 is a long way from the €4,000 he once commanded,
Cecil McCracken spent 10,500gns at the 2012 Tattersalls February Sale for the Darley cast-off An Andalyya, a daughter of Kingmambo (Mr Prospector) out of a stakes-placed full-sister to Brian Boru (Sadler’s Wells). She had been purchased for $100,000 as a yearling but showed little on the racecourse. At the time of her sale she was the first foal of her dam and McCracken was taking a gamble on some of her future siblings turning out well.
Since then her half-sister Kosmiche (Fastnet Rock) won a listed two-year-old race in Germany, while her half-brothers Cape Clear Island (Fastnet Rock) and Squire Osbaldeston (Mr Greely) are stakes-placed. They are all out of the Aidan O’Brien trained Kushnarenkovo (Sadler’s Wells), group and listed placed in Ireland before being sold at Keeneland for $1,250,000.
Kushnarenkovo is a full-sister to Brian Boru and the unbeaten stakes-winner Kitty O’Shea. They are offspring of the American-bred Eva Luna (Alleged) and she is the grandam of the Group 1 Epsom Derby and Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner Workforce (King’s Best).