PHOENIX Of Spain is starting the current racing year well with seven winners at the time of writing, and just as in 2023 when his first runners appeared, his son Haatem is the star.

Trained by Richard Hannon, the bay colt built on a fifth-placed finish in the Group 2 Coventry Stakes at Royal Ascot to chase home the outstanding City of Troy in the Group 2 Superlative Stakes at Newmarket. A little over two weeks later he was successful in the Group 2 Vintage Stakes at Goodwood where he beat Iberian and Mountain Bear. Fifth on his final start of the year in the Group 1 Dewhurst Stakes, he showed on his recent sophomore bow that he is ready to challenge for top prizes, landing the Group 3 Craven Stakes.

With 23 individual winners posted already, the Irish National Stud’s Phoenix Of Spain has made a most pleasing start at stud, where Haatem is joined on the roster of blacktype performers by Alpheratz, a maiden winner last year who was beaten half a length by Brilliant on her seasonal reappearance in the Group 3 Lodge Park Stud Park Express Stakes at the Curragh.

Phoenix Of Spain was one of the leading juveniles of his year. Bred by the late Cherry Faeste, he finished fourth to King Of Comedy on his debut over seven furlongs at Sandown and easily won over the same trip just three weeks later. His third start advertised his potential to make an impact at the highest level when he won the Group 3 Acomb Stakes at York. In his final two juvenile runs he chased home the champion Too Darn Hot in the Group 2 Champagne Stakes, followed by the Group 1 Vertem Futurity Trophy in which he made Magna Grecia fight, finishing only a head down at the line.

Inspired

The forward-thinking team at the Irish National Stud made their move for Phoenix Of Spain before he made his first start at three. It proved to be an inspired decision after the colt’s three-length win in the Group 1 Tattersalls Irish 2000 Guineas, where he made all to beat Too Darn Hot and a dozen others that included Magna Grecia and Group 1 sprint ace Emaraaty Ana.

Phoenix Of Spain represents Giant’s Causeway’s branch of the Storm Cat (Storm Bird) line. He is a son of Lope de Vega (Shamardal) whose first sire son Belardo, a Group 1 winner at two and four, is now also a successful sire himself at that level. Along with another son of Lope De Vega, Lucky Vega, this pair of sires are proving to be exceptionally popular with breeders.

Winners of the Group 2 Vintage Stakes in the past decade include Highland Reel, Galileo Gold, Expert Eye and Pinatubo, while recent winners of the Craven Stakes include Native Trail, Master Of The Seas and Masar. While Haatem’s trainer keeps saying that he has better at home, the colt is delivering, and he could well develop into a Group 1 performer. After all, his breeder has also been responsible for a recent classic winner in Cachet.

Hyde Park Stud

Haatem was bred by John Bourke’s Hyde Park Stud and the Co Westmeath-based breeder offered the colt as a foal at Goffs, though he failed to sell in the ring for €28,000. When he next appeared in Book 2 of the Tattersalls October Sale, Haatem was in a consignment from Ger and Yvonne Kennedy’s Sherbourne Lodge in Tipperary, and he sold to Peter and Ross Doyle Bloodstock for just 27,000gns.

Eighth appearance

His dam, the Cape Cross (Green Desert) mare Hard Walnut, sold for 11,000gns carrying Haatem, and it was the seventh time she had been in a sale ring.

Highlights of those visits include realising 62,000gns as a foal, and 75,000gns when in foal and carrying Groundnut (Rip Van Winkle), a subsequent two-year-old winner. She made an eighth appearance last December but was retained at 92,000gns.

Now the mare’s record stands as having bred three winners and a couple of placed runners, and last year she welcomed a filly by Inns Of Court (Invincible Spirit). The good news is that she is back in foal to Phoenix Of Spain.

Hard Walnut is one of four winners out of Yaria (Danehill), two of whom earned blacktype, Father Frost (Rip Van Winkle) at group-level in Italy and Born To Be Alive (Born To Sea) in the Listed Doncaster Mile. Yaria’s dam was the late Lady O’Reilly’s Yara (Sri Pekan) who failed to win, but was placed 15 times, notably running second in the Group 1 Phoenix Stakes. Two of Yara’s six winners at stud were successful in stakes races.

Emirates Gold (Royal Applause) twice won the Listed National Day Cup in Abu Dhabi, while his half-sister Yarastar (Cape Cross) was a stakes winner in France. The latter’s grandson Megarry (Inns Of Court) won the Listed Blenheim Stakes at Fairyhouse last year for Gavin Cromwell.

Bargain purchase is an unbeaten star

FOLGARIA, a €10,000 yearling purchase at Tattersalls Ireland, was unbeaten in five starts last year in Italy. Four of the five were blacktype races, and they were the Group 2 Premio Dormello and Group 3 Premio Primi Passi at Milan, and a pair of listed contests. She banked £175,000 for connections.

Trained by Stefano Botti in Italy, she is now with his brother Marco, and remains unbeaten after landing the Group 3 Fred Darling Stakes at Newbury. The last three winners of this race have been Remarquee (runner-up in both the Group 1 Coronation Stakes and Falmouth Stakes), Wild Beauty (Grade 1 winner) and Alcohol Free (four-time Group 1 winner and sold for 5,400,000gns last year).

Bred in Co Kildare by Terry Boylan, Folgaria is one of five stakes winners sired by the former Whitsbury Manor Stud stallion Due Diligence (Ear Front), and Folgaria is the second winner for her Azamour (Night Shift) dam, Full Moon Fever. That mare was acquired for a mere €2,000 through BBA Ireland carrying Folgaria, and last year Boylan sold a yearling colt out of the mare by Highland Reel (Galileo) for just €5,000.

It was not a surprise really that Boylan got back into the family as he bred Folgaria’s dam from Hasaiyda (Hector Protector), a mare he purchased in 2009 for €20,000, carrying Glorious Protector. A dual winner, Full Moon Fever is an own-sister to the listed winner Glorious Protector (Azamour), while their half-sister Hassaya (King’s Best) also clicked with Azamour to produce the Italian Group 2 winner and classic-placed Amore Hass. Hassaya is the dam of a second stakes winner in Cime Tempestose (Gleneagles).

Aga Khan

This is an Aga Khan family that has spread its wings far and wide. Folgaria’s third dam Hasainiya (Top Ville) won the Listed Trigo Stakes from just four runs, and bred the dual stakes winner Hasanka (Kalanisi). The fourth dam, Hanzala (Akarad), numbered three stakes races among her four wins, and bred eight winners at stud.

Hanzala’s winning daughter Halawa (Dancing Brave) has made the most significant impact, her pair of stakes winners headed by the Group 3 heroine Afaf (Spectrum).

Halawa’s daughter Hawala (Warning) bred the Group 1 Irish St Leger winner Flag Of Honour (Galileo), Group 3 winner and Group 1 Phoenix Stakes runner-up Air Chief Marshal (Danehill Dancer), and the stakes-winning duo of Slip Dance (Celtic Swing) and Misu Bond (Danehill Danver).

Another son of Hawala is Foxtrot Romeo (Danehill Dancer), second in the Group 1 Irish 2000 Guineas.