A’ALI was among the leading juveniles of 2019, and a high-profile sprinter at three who looked set to excel again at four, that season sadly resulting in just a single run, a Group 2-placing at Meydan.
He is a representative of the powerful Danehill (Danzig) sire line, the son of a promising stallion lost too soon, and he comes from a family that has a strong record of producing blacktype scorers plus prolific winners.
That sounds like just the sort of horse who will become a popular source of two-year-olds, sprinters and milers, those who could succeed at any level and will include the durable types who make plentiful visits to the winners’ enclosure.
A’Ali, a £135,000 Goffs UK Breeze-Up graduate, is a Tally-Ho Stud-bred son of their late Group 1-winning sprinter Society Rock (Rock Of Gibraltar), a stallion who gave us the top-level scorer Unfortunately (freshman sire in 2022), talented filly The Mackem Bullet, 14-time winner Corinthian Knight and several other six-figure earners.
Narrowly beaten on his debut in early June, A’Ali landed Royal Ascot’s Group 2 Norfolk Stakes 15 days later. He added the Group 2 Prix Robert Papin at Deauville a month after that and bounced back from a heavy-ground fifth to Earthlight in the Group 1 Prix Morny to take the Group 2 Flying Childers Stakes on fast ground at Doncaster.
His first win at three came in the Group 3 Coral Charge at Sandown and, following that one-length defeat of Liberty Beach, he came to the Curragh and ran the five furlongs on good-to-soft ground in under a minute while beating Make A Challenge in the Group 2 Sapphire Stakes.
That was just a month before his fourth-place finish to the brilliant Battaash in the Group 1 Nunthorpe Stakes at York, beaten by three and a half lengths but being the best-placed three-year-old.
His final start was the aforementioned Group 2 Meydan Sprint where he was third to Equilateral and Acklam Express, beaten by a length and a neck. The winner is a son of Equiano, the former Newsells Park Stud-based Group 1 sire who joined the Irish National Stud team last year; A’Ali is filling the berth he vacated.
A’Ali, a five-furlong specialist, is a half-brother to a multiple sprint winner and out of Motion Lass (Motivator), a half-sister to 10 winners headed by the Group 3 Darley Stakes victor and dual Group 1-placed Enforcer (Efisio). That horse won five times but has three siblings with a higher tally, although none quite matched that of Willowy Mood (Will Win), A’Ali’s third dam.
Eight of her 14 wins were blacktype races, two were Grade 3s, and her string of blacktype placings featured third in the Grade 1 Mother Goose Stakes. Willowy Mood’s nine successful siblings included a stakes-winning pair that notched up a total of 12 wins, plus a filly who went on to become the dam and grandam of stakes and graded winners whose overall tallies ranged from six to 11 races won.
A’ALI (IRE), Bay or Brown 2017. Won five races, £261,767, from 5 furlongs to 5½ furlongs, at 2 and 3 years viz., Darley Prix Robert Papin, Deauville, Gr.2, Norfolk Stakes, Ascot, Gr.2, Sapphire Stakes, Curragh, Gr.2, Wainwrights Flying Childers Stakes, Doncaster, Gr.2, Sprint Stakes, Sandown Park, Gr.3, also placed third in Meydan Sprint, Meydan, Gr.2.
Retires to Stud in 2022.
Stands at: Newsells Park Stud, Barkway, Royston, Herts SG8 8DY, England.
Contact: Julian Dollar, Gary Coffey or Richard Knight
Telephone: +44 (0)1763 846000 (Julian or Gary) or +44 (0)7769 349240 (Richard)
Email: info@newsells-park.com
Web: www.newsells-park.com
Fee: £7,500