A RECENT advertising campaign by Darley for Territories (Invincible Spirit) was teasing people for a while, before the name of the stallion was revealed. It listed a number of metrics and how the bay had a better record than many other sires.

Then, days after they unveiled Territories as the sire they were promoting, the stallion himself delivered when his five-year-old son Regional made the giant leap from being a listed winner of four races, and can now be described as a Group 1 winner of five races. His biggest success came in the Haydock Park Sprint Cup.

This was a first Group 1 training success for Ed Bethell, and what a transformation he has brought about with this gelding. Sold as a foal for 35,000gns, and from the first crop by his sire, Regional was resold as a yearling by the Burns’ Lodge Park Stud for 120,000gns to John and Jake Warren. After winning on his debut and running twice more without success, though he was only beaten a length and a half by the subsequent Group 1 winner Winter Power when fourth in a listed race, Regional was sold to Ed Bethell and Blandford Bloodstock for just 3,500gns.

Regional made a winning seasonal debut in a handicap at York before striking in the five-furlong Listed Achilles Stakes at Haydock, where he broke the track record. He went to York last month where he lined up in the Group 1 Nunthorpe Stakes, his first try in pattern company, and lost nothing in defeat when finishing fifth.

Bred by Razza del Sole Societa Agricola Srl, Regional is one of two winners out of the Italian stakes-winning mare Favulusa (Dansili), herself a half-sister to the Group 2 Oaks d’Italia heroine Folega (Oasis Dream) and multiple Group 3 winner Agiato (Bated Breath).

Last year Woodstock purchased a Too Darn Hot (Dubawi) half-sister Regional, now a yearling, for 46,000gns, and this year Favulusa had a filly foal by Palace Pier (Kingman).

Territories is now the sire of 26 individual blacktype performers, including the Grade 1 E.P. Taylor Stakes heroine Rougir (sold for €3 million) and Group 1 Derby runner-up Hoo Ya Mal, and he sold for £1.2 million. Territories is also responsible for Australian Group 2 victors Berkeley Square and Navajo Peak.