WITH half of his eight runners to date winning, Calyx (Kingman) has made a dream start to his career as a stallion.

While his winning daughters have ordinary enough names, Persian Dreamer and Classic Flower, his successful sons are more exotically titled. The Tom Dascombe-trained Nellie Leylax sounds more like the name for a female, while Grand Son Of Calyx is a rather awkwardly-named son.

However, both are fine advertisements for their Coolmore sire, whose non-winning starters include a pair who were runners-up on their debuts.

Already, connections of Grand Son Of Calyx are talking about him being targeted for the Group 1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere, but there are many others in the meanwhile, I am sure. Trained by Gianluca Bietolini, Grand Son Of Calyx was bred by David and Diane Nagle at their Barronstown Stud. He was certainly not among the stars of their yearling crop last year, selling at the Tattersalls Ireland September Yearling Sale for €38,000 to Marco Bozzi.

After a promising debut fourth to Myconian, in a race in which subsequent eight-length winner The Fixer was runner-up, Grand Son Of Calyx won his maiden at Saint-Cloud by four lengths. Afterwards his trainer could not hide his appreciation for the colt and his acceleration.

Juvenile winner

Grand Son Of Calyx is the fifth winner from the stakes-winning Darshaan (Shirley Heights) mare Asawer, and just his dam’s second juvenile winner. The other was Ghaawy (Teofilo) who won two of his five starts. The Nagles purchased Asawer, twice a winner and in the frame on eight of her 10 starts, for €80,000 at Goffs in 2014, and this was a decade or so after she cost Shadwell 600,000gns as a yearling.

Twice successful at three, including in the Listed John Musker Stakes at Yarmouth, Asawer’s placed efforts included running third in the Group 2 Ribblesdale Stakes when the Royal meeting was staged at York.

Asawer is one of a pair of stakes winners from Sassy Bird (Storm Bird), and the other is Chercheuse (Seeking The Gold). Chercheuse has one up on her sibling though, as the best of her progeny was the 2012 US champion three-year-old filly, Questing (Hard Spun). Among her victories were the Grade 1 CCA Oaks and the Grade 1 Alabama Stakes, and she is the dam now of a Grade 3 winner in America.

Sassy Bird was an own-sister to Mukaddamah and Contempt (Storm Bird), and while the former was only a Group 2 winner, he was runner-up in both the Group 1 Racing Post Trophy at two and the Group 1 Prix du Moulin de Longchamp the following year. This is a stellar female line.

Big winner

Calyx, his sire’s first big winner and from the first crop of Kingman (Invincible Spirit), ran away with a Newmarket maiden and beat Advertise by a length in the Group 2 Coventry Stakes at Royal Ascot, earning a Timeform 120p rating, at two. He was off the track for nearly a year but easily won the Group 3 Pavilion Stakes at Ascot on his return.

Sadly, an injury incurred when surprisingly beaten by Hello Youmzain in the Group 2 Sandy Lane Stakes a few weeks later ended his career. He went to stud with a Timeform rating of 124.

It is no great surprise that Calyx should make such an explosive start to his new career as a sire.

In an era of enthusiasm for juvenile form, Calyx is very closely related to 2021’s undefeated European champion two-year-old, Native Trail (Oasis Dream), being a son of the brilliant miler and now leading international sire Kingman and out of Helleborine (Observatory), a Group 3 Prix d’Aumale winner who was runner-up in the Group 1 Prix Marcel Boussac.

Native Trail, 7lb clear at the top of the juvenile rankings two years ago, won both the Group 1 National Stakes and Group 1 Dewhurst Stakes at two and the Group 1 Irish 2000 Guineas at three. He is by one of the best sons of Green Desert (Danzig), as both a racehorse and stallion, and out of Helleborine’s unraced full-sister Needleleaf (Observatory).

Notable

Helleborine and Needleleaf have another notable full-sister in African Rose (Observatory), the Group 1 Sprint Cup winner and Group 1 Prix Maurice de Gheest runner-up, whose daughter Fair Eva (Frankel) was a Group 3-winning two-year-old.

This is a speed-oriented branch of a classic-distance family. Calyx’s grandam New Orchid (Quest For Fame) was third in the Group 3 Lancashire Oaks, and her half-brother Distant Music (Distant View) was successful in the Group 1 Dewhurst Stakes.

Talent over a mile, 10 furlongs and further features strongly in the next two generations too, with US champion Vanlandingham (Cox’s Ridge), Grade 1 CCA Oaks heroine Funny Moon (Malibu Moon), Group 1 Moyglare Stud Stakes winner Termagant (Powerscourt) and US champion Temperance Hill (Stop The Music) on the page.

STEPHEN Hillen’s purchase of a yearling filly by Fastnet Rock (Danehill) out of an unraced Galileo (Sadler’s Wells) half-sister to the dual Group 1 winner Kingsgate Native (Mujadil) for just 5,000gns earns the accolade of bargain of the week, and deservedly so.

That sale was in December 2019 at Tattersalls, and to date the five-year-old Via Sistina has won more than £155,000. More importantly, she added the recent Group 2 Dahlia Stakes at Newmarket to a victory last year in the Group 3 Prix Fille de l’Air at Toulouse.

Bred by the Bryce family at their Laundry Cottage Stud Farm, Via Sistina has only raced nine times, winning four and being placed on a couple of occasions. Initially in the care of Joseph Tuite, she has made three starts since moving late last year to George Boughey, and both her group wins have been achieved subsequently, while her other start saw her beaten a neck by Creative Flair in the Group 3 Pride Stakes. Could Boughey work the oracle and progress her to Group 1 status?

Honour roll

After all, Fastnet Rock on a Galileo mare has already given us the following impressive roll of honour of Group and Grade 1 winners; Intricately (Moyglare Stud Stakes), Rivet (Racing Post Trophy), Qualify (Oaks), Zhukova (Man O’War Stakes), Magicool (Queensland Derby), Pizza Bianca (the 2021 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies’ Turf), Personal (Victoria Oaks), Age Of Fire (Levin Turf Classic) and Unforgotten (Australian Oaks). They are nine of Fastnet Rock’s 41 top level winners.

While Via Sistina is the only winner to date for her unraced dam Nigh, there are a number of young siblings in the wings, and surely more to come from them. Nigh’s half-brother Kingsgate Native won both the Group 1 Golden Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot and the Group 1 Nunthorpe Stakes, while their stakes-placed sibling Vanishing Grey (Verglas) is dam of the listed winner and Group 1-placed First Contact (Dark Angel).

Skip back to Spanish Habit (Habitat), the fourth dam of Via Sistina, and she bred the Group 1 1000 Guineas winner Las Meninas (Glenstal), successful in that classic 29 years ago. Spanish Habit is also the third dam of Signora Cabello (Camacho), and five years ago she won both the Group 2 Queen Mary Stakes at Royal Ascot and the Group 2 Prix Robert Papin. Runner-up in the Group 1 Prix Morny, Signora Cabello was sold at the end of her juvenile season for 900,000gns to Phoenix Thoroughbreds.