ADRIAN Murray broke Joseph O’Brien’s stranglehold on one of the maiden races for two-year-olds at Bellewstown when Lady Craftsman improved on her debut run to land the Irish EBF Median Sires Series Fillies Maiden. One of the O’Brien winners was Pretty Gorgeous, and she later won the Group 1 Fillies’ Mile.

Given the great season Murray is having with his juveniles, perhaps he can improve Lady Craftsman further and get some valuable blacktype, something that would increase her value substantially as a potential broodmare in time. The filly is already a winner for connections, as her prizemoney of almost €15,000 is more than seven times what Lady Craftsman cost as a yearling at last year’s Goffs Autumn Sale.

Bred by Michael Kraft, Lady Craftsman is the first winner and third foal out of the Sir Prancealot (Tamayuz) mare Hi Milady. Kraft purchased her for €5,000 as a filly out of training, and her first two foals are the placed two-year-old Pull The Lever (Tagula) and the three-year-old Gamesonfield (James Garfield), and he is in training in Qatar.

Given that Mastercraftsman (Danehill Dancer) stood for €25,000 in the year Hi Milady visited him, getting €2,000 for the resulting yearling daughter was not a good result. Regardless of any other circumstances, Mastercraftsman’s record with his daughters has been outstanding, and they include the Group 1 winners Alpha Centauri, Discoveries, Amazing Maria, and six others.

Hopefully the Donworth family at Torard House Stud will reap the reward of their €10,000 investment in Lady Craftsman’s yearling half-brother by Soldier’s Call (Showcasing) when they reoffer him for sale.

A 30,000gns yearling buy, Hi Milady won a seven-furlong Chester maiden at two, and she is one of 11 winning progeny of Hi Katriona (Second Empire). Hard Yards (Moss Vale) was sent to Hong Kong after he won at Roscommon at two and finished second in the Group 3 Anglesey Stakes at the Curragh. He added three more wins and more than £220,000 to his bank roll there.

The most recent of Hi Katriona’s 11 winners is the three-year-old Chillhi (Churchill), and he visited the winner’s enclosure twice last year. Bred by Miss Pat O’Kelly at Kilcarn Stud, Hi Katriona went from being a €60,000 foal, a placed two-year-old, to a €2,000 mare purchase by John Webb at Moorfield Stud. In addition to getting winners on the track, some of them did well too in the sale ring. They included Grand Oasis (Arcano), a €62,000 foal, Lehbab (Fast Company), a €55,000 foal and €150,000 yearling, and Faraah (Awtaad), a €64,000 foal who turned into a 200,000gns yearling.

11 winners

Hi Katriona bred 11 winners and she was a half-sister to 11 winners, two of which were successful in stakes races. Both were sons of Danehill (Danzig), and the better of the pair was Fred Bongusto.

He was a prolific winner in Italy, and his multiple pattern successes included the Group 2 Premio Melton in Rome.

Their dam, Hi Bettina (Henbit), raced just for times for Miss O’Kelly, trained by Michael Grassick. She won twice, at two and three, and finished second to Fairy Gold in the Group 3 Debutante Stakes at the Phoenix Park in 1987.

A half-sister to Group 3 Norfolk Stakes winner Marouble (Double Form) and the listed winner and Group 1 Irish Oaks and Group 1 Irish 1000 Guineas runner-up Kitza (Danehill), Hi Bettina was a daughter of the dual listed winner and Phoenix Stakes-placed Pitmarie (Pitskelly).

Can Henry Adams also become a masterpiece?

THE No Nay Never (Scat Daddy) colt Henry Adams has a lot to live up to if he is to reach the heights of the previous winner of the seven-furlong Irish Stallion Farms EBF Maiden at Naas. That colt was none other than Auguste Rodin.

At the time of writing Henry Adams is one of 15 juvenile winners this year for his Coolmore-based sire, and was bred by Aidan and Annemarie O’Brien’s Whisperview Trading.

The second foal of his dam Jigsaw (Galileo), he is her first winner. Jigsaw is a full-sister to the Group 2 Royal Lodge Stakes winner Mohawk, and they are out of the Group 3 Leopardstown 1000 Guineas Trial winner Empowering (Encosta De Lago).

Kylian

Eighteen crops of racing age. That is the proud record of the Irish National Stud’s Invincible Spirit (Green Desert), now a 26-year-old veteran.

His current crop of two-year-olds include Kylian, winner of the five-furlong Listed Dragon Stakes at Sandown on his fourth start. He has been in the frame every time, and was winning for the second time.

Bred by Rabbah Bloodstock and carrying the colours of Sheikh Hamed Dalmook Al Maktoum, Kylian pushed his sire ever closer to a landmark, as he became the 148th stakes winner sired by the Group 1-winning sprinter.

No less than 22 of that list won at the highest level. Kylian is the first foal out of Hikmaa, herself a listed winner at two and a daughter of Roderic O’Connor (Galileo).

Equality proves his sprinting ability

Another Irish National Stud stallion with a stakes winner this week was Equiano (Acclamation). Available at a bargain €2,000 this year, the dual Group 1 King’s Stand Stakes winner is the sire of the five-year-old gelding Equality, and his fifth career success was gained in the Group 3 Sprint Stakes at Sandown Park. The £50,000 Goffs UK yearling buy was bred by Gary and Lesley Middlebrook, and is actually out of a daughter of Invincible Spirit.

That is Penny Drops, and while she won just once, half of her 10 placed efforts were in listed races. This is a solid female line, though Equality is just the second stakes winner in the first three generations. The other, Priors Lodge (Grand Lodge), won the Group 2 Celebration mile, and he was one of eight winners out of Equality’s third dam, Addaya (Persian Bold).

Greater Queen

Connections of China Horse Club might not want to read the next bit, but Paula Flannery will.

Last year she paid €20,000 for a colt foal by Australia (Galileo), but must have been disappointed when the dam, Greater Good (Fastnet Rock), a winner in her native Australia, was sold for just €2,000 the following week.

Reoffered at the Goffs February Sale, Greater Good was unsold for €2,500, and just as well. Since then, her first foal Just A Care (Australia) has become a three-year-old winner in the USA and finished second in a stakes race, and the mare’s two-year-old Greater Queen (Ten Sovereigns) is unbeaten in two starts in Italy.

Adding to the pain, Greater Queen was unsold for €30,000 at the Orby Sale and traded for €4,000 at the following Goffs Autumn Yearling Sale.

Stories such as these, while hard to stomach for some, must give hope to breeders on a tight budget, along with those shopping at the sales for racehorses, that it is not all about spending vast sums. Greater Good is one of three winners out of the US Grade 3 winning juvenile Necessary Even (Harlan’s Holiday), and that mare’s placed half-sister Orchard Beach (Tapit) is the dam of Sergei Prokofiev (Scat Daddy). That $1.1 million yearling was a group winner at two and covered more than 150 mares in his first season at stud. His first yearlings will be sold this autumn.