ACCLAMATION was blacktype-placed at two and three but did not become a stakes winner until his four-year-old season.
He landed the Group 2 Diadem Stakes at Ascot and a listed contest at Goodwood, and the races in which he was placed included the Group 1 Nunthorpe Stakes and Group 2 King’s Stand Stakes. He is a son of Royal Applause (by Waajib) who was a Group 1 winner over six furlongs at two and four, and he is now long-established as a notable source of speed and precocity.
The Rathbarry Stud veteran has sired 49 stakes winners of whom five have won at the highest level. Most of his best are sprinters – those Group 1 stars include Dark Angel, Equiano and Marsha – but he is also proven as a sire of horses who can excel over seven furlongs and a mile. Aclaim and Expert Eye are the most notable examples.
Dark Angel, whose seven Group 1-stars feature Battaash, Harry Angel, Lethal Force, and Mecca’s Angel, is one of the most sought-after stallions in Europe. Equiano’s double-digit tally of stakes-winning offspring features Group 1 star The Tin Man, while Lilbourne Lad and Harbour Watch have also sired blacktype scorers.
Their success augurs well for the prospects of the Acclamation stallions that are in earlier stages of their careers, a list that includes Tally-Ho Stud’s Mehmas. He won four of his eight starts, all as a juvenile, and got his top wins in the Group 2 July Stakes and Group 2 Richmond Stakes.
He chased home Caravaggio in the Group 2 Coventry Stakes at Royal Ascot, finished third to The Last Lion in the Group 1 Middle Park Stakes on his final start, and lost nothing in defeat when a four-and-a-half-length runner-up to Churchill in the Group 1 National Stakes at the Curragh, the seven-furlong trip looking just a bit beyond him.
The bulk of his speed comes from his sire, and we can say this as the distaff side of his pedigree is one noted for its top middle-distance horses.
The Group 1-stars Luso (by Salse) and Warrsan (by Caerleon), for example, are half-brothers to his grandam Lunda (by Soviet Star), whereas his dam Lucina (by Machiavellian) is an unraced half-sister to the Group 1-placed triple Group 3 scorer Blue Monday (by Darshaan). Lucina is also notable as being a full-sister to the grandam of dual French classic heroine Avenir Certain (by Le Havre).
Breeders have flocked to Mehmas since he retired to stud, his first foals fetched up to 85,000gns, and he looks sure to achieve some notable results at the 2019 yearling sales.
Beyond that, Mehmas looks a likely candidate to do well as a freshman sire, to get mostly sprinters but also some who will later do well at seven furlongs and a mile.
If he can achieve the latter, and if he becomes another good stallion son for his sire, then that gives him the chance to get a classic horse in time.
MEHMAS (IRE). Won four races, £305,953, from 5 furlongs to 6 furlongs, at 2 years including, Arqana July Stakes, Newmarket, Gr.2, Qatar Richmond Stakes, Goodwood, Gr.2, also placed second in Goffs Vincent O’Brien National Stakes, Curragh, Gr.1, Coventry Stakes, Ascot, Gr.2, BetVictor National Stakes, Sandown Park, L, and third in Juddmonte Middle Park Stakes, Newmarket, Gr.1.
Retired to Stud in 2017, first crop now yearlings
Stands at: Tally-Ho Stud, Mullingar, Co Westmeath, Ireland.
Contact: Tony O’Callaghan, Roger O’Callaghan or Henry O’Callaghan
Telephone: +353 86 2424416 (Tony), +353 87 9690629 (Roger) or +353 87 6536776 (Henry)
Email: info@tallyhostud.com
Web: www.tallyhostud.com
Fee: €10,000