COMPETITION for a place at stud can be tough and there are many pattern winners and even Group 1 scorers who struggle to attract the sort of support that could see them make an impact in their second career, if they even get the chance to start one.
If he failed to win in blacktype company then it is likely to be an uphill struggle from the start, but sometimes a top prospect can emerge from those supposedly lesser contenders.
Walk In The Park (by Montjeu) looked full of promise when he chased home Motivator in the Group 1 Derby at Epsom, but he never again recaptured anything like that level of form.
He is out of the Group 1 Irish 1000 Guineas heroine Classic Park (by Robellino), who is also the dam of the pattern-placed stakes winner Soon (by Galileo), and his string of blacktype relations include the speedy Easy Option (by Pivotal), a stakes-winning sprinter who became the dam of the Group 1 Sussex Stakes and Group 1 Prix de la Foret scorer Court Masterpiece (by Polish Precedent).
Walk In The Park’s classic form and Group 1 relations earned him a berth at stud and the first signs that he could make the grade came when his second-crop daughter Dance In The Park, who was twice listed-placed at two, became a pattern-placed 10-furlong stakes winner in France as a three-year-old.
DOuvan
Those in that second batch of foals have turned six years old and they also include Douvan, one of the most exciting jumpers of recent years. He was a winner in France before joining the all-conquering Willie Mullins stable and since then he is undefeated in seven starts, with an accumulated winning margin of over 70 lengths, including a Grade 1 double in last year’s Supreme Novices’ Hurdle at Cheltenham and Champion Novice Hurdle at Punchestown.
His most recent three outings have been over fences and they include wide-margin victories in the Grade 1 Racing Post Novice Chase and Grade 1 Arkle Novice Chase, both at Leopardstown.
Mullins also trains Min, who comes from the stallion’s third crop, and the Grade 2-winning ante-post market leader for the Grade 1 Sky Bet Supreme Novices’ Hurdle has won his two Irish starts by an aggregate of 23 and a half lengths.
Walk In The Park’s top Derby Sale horses made €80,000 and €60,000 in Fairyhouse in 2015, his foals made up to €70,000 at Goffs in December, and with a new home for him in Ireland, and two brilliant young sons on their way to Cheltenham, he looks set to play a leading role among National Hunt sires over the coming years.
Won one race, £342,418, over 1 mile, at 2 years placed second in Vodafone Derby Stakes, Epsom Downs, Gr.1, Letheby & Christopher Derby Trial Stakes, Lingfield Park, Gr.3, and third in Criterium International, Saint-Cloud, Gr.1, Prix d’Hedouville, Longchamp, Gr.3.
Retired to stud in 2008, and sire of the winners of 17 races, and £313,523 including DANCE IN THE PARK (FR), and sire of the winners of 35 races, and £947,566 under N.H. Rules, including DOUVAN (FR), MIN (FR), Rollinginthedeep (FR), etc.
Stands at: Grange Stud, Fermoy, Co Cork, Ireland
Contact: David Magnier, Peter Magnier, Albert Sherwood, Andrew Magnier, David O’Sullivan, Catherine Magnier
Telephone: +353 (0)25 33006 or fax +353 (0)25 33247
Email: info@grangestud.com
Website: www.coolmore.com
Fee: Private