GOODWOOD was not a scene of glory for Phoenix Of Spain during his racing career, but it has now provided the Irish National Stud resident with a major fillip as a stallion, his son Haatem giving him his first stakes winner, and in the Group 2 Vintage Stakes to boot.

Winners of the race in the past decade include Highland Reel. Galileo Gold, Expert Eye and Pinatubo.

Previously runner-up in the Group 2 Superlative Stakes at Newmarket, Haatem has only once been out of the frame in his six starts to date, and that was when he finished a close enough fifth behind River Tiber, Army Ethos, Bucanero Fuerte and Givemethebeatboys in the Group 2 Coventry Stakes at Royal Ascot. He is clearly a talented juvenile, but may yet have some competition to be the best of his sire’s first crop, as Ger Lyons trains the smart dual winner Spanish Flame. They are among six winners to date among Phoenix Of Spain’s first runners.

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

When his dam, the Cape Cross (Green Desert) mare Hard Walnut, sold for 11,000gns carrying Haatem, 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. Now the mare’s record stands as having bred three winners and a couple of placed runners, and this year she welcomed a filly foal by Inns Of Court (Invincible Spirit).

Four winners

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 frustrating Yara (Sri Pekan) who, despite the best efforts of Kevin Prendergast, failed to win, but she 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.

Bred by the late Cherry Faeste, Phoenix Of Spain was one of the leading juveniles of five years ago, and he went into winter quarters as a classic hopeful. He finished fourth on his debut over seven furlongs at Sandown in early July, and easily won over the same distance at Wolverhampton some three weeks later. On his third outing he won the Group 3 Acomb Stakes in good style at York and, while he was beaten on his final two runs, those performances enhanced his reputation.

In the Group 2 Champagne Stakes he chased home the unbeaten juvenile champion Too Darn Hot, and in the Group 1 Vertem Futurity Trophy he made Magna Grecia fight, finishing only a head down at the line. Both winners would go on to further stardom at three, one striking twice at the highest level and the other landing the 2000 Guineas, and both are, like Phoenix Of Spain, having their first runners.

Very well

Phoenix Of Spain is doing very well, his six winners from 97 first crop foals being headed by a group winner. He went to stud at a fee of €15,000, while Magna Grecia also has six winners from a crop of 109, and they include a stakes winner. Too Darn Hot had 120 foals in his first crop, conceived at a fee of £50,000, and his eight winners have a stakes-placed horse among them.

The Irish National Stud made their move for Phoenix Of Spain before he made his seasonal debut at three. It proved an inspired decision as he ran out a three-length winner of the Group 1 Irish 2000 Guineas, where he made all to beat Too Darn Hot and a dozen others, including Magna Grecia.

Phoenix Of Spain represents the Giant’s Causeway’s branch of the Storm Cat (Storm Bird) line. The omens are certainly good for him, in what looks to be an exceptional group of stallions with their first runners in 2023.

Meteoric rise continues apace

IS it too early to ponder what fee Havana Grey (Havana Gold) will command in 2024?

He went to stand at Whitsbury Manor in 2019 for £8,000, took a quick tumble to £6,500 in his second year, and moved down again to £6,000 for his third and fourth seasons. The success enjoyed by his first crop of runners last year was nothing less than incredible, and there was no surprise when breeders this year were asked to fork out £18,500 for him. They may yet have had a bargain.

That first crop now has nine stakes winners among its number, and while none has won at higher than Group 3 level, many have been placed at up to Group 2 status. Just in case you felt that those results couldn’t be maintained, how wrong you would be.

His current crop of juveniles now contains three pattern winners already, and two of these have been winners of Group 2 contests.

No mistake

Beaten a neck on his debut, Jasour has made no mistake since, and the second of his pair of wins came at Newmarket in the Group 2 July Stakes. Last weekend Elite Status travelled to France and made up for his sole defeat in four starts, finishing third in the Group 2 Norfolk Stakes at Royal Ascot, and he captured the Group 3 Prix de Cabourg.

To crown a brilliant run, Havana Grey’s son Vandeek kept his unbeaten record with success in the Group 2 Richmond Stakes at Goodwood.

With the runners in his second crop containing three stakes-placed horses, and this crop about to push past 20 individual winners, it is anyone’s guess what the yearlings this year by Havana Grey will bring. His first crop averaged €33,621 while last year that almost doubled to €66,775. The median growth was even more impressive, going from just over €22,000 to a shade under €51,000.

The story of the most recent winner, Vandeek, is one of those fairy-tales that make this business such a joy to be involved with from time to time. At the Craven Breeze Up Sale in mid-April, consecutive lots, among the very last to be offered over the two days, each sold for 625,000gns. First to the mark was a colt offered by Roderick Kavanagh under his Glending Stables.

Legitimate sire

Kavanagh sold his colt to Anthony Stroud, acting for KHK Racing, while Richard Brown of Blandford Bloodstock was underbidder. “Havana Grey has done really well, he is a legitimate sire and had the good filly win today,” Stroud said at the time. “The colt breezed well in good time and looks a two-year-old type.” The half-brother to four winners, from the family of Anabaa (Danzig), was bought by Kavanagh for just 42,000gns at the Tattersalls December Yearling Sale.

Now the colt looks to be something special. Bred at Maywood Stud, it would seem that his next outing will be the Prix Morny, and perhaps the Group 1 Dewhurst would be a fitting end to his first season. Sometimes fairy-tales come true, after all.

Meanwhile, Elite Status, who himself transformed from a 56,000gns foal to a 325,000gs yearling, is also a horse on the up and up. He was bred by Whitsbury Manor Stud who received 82,000gns last December for his now yearling full-brother. Could history repeat itself, as JC Bloodstock, who bought Elite Status as a foal, were again the purchasers of the foal in December?

Consider this

I will leave you with a final fact to consider, and that is the maternal sires of the dozen stakes winners by Havana Grey. Two are out of mares by Exceed And Excel (Danehill) and two out of mares by Sakhee’s Secret (Sakhee). The others are Bahamian Bounty (Cadeaux Genereux), Swiss Spirit (Invincible Spirit), Elnadim (Danzig), Holy Roman Emperor (Danehill), Cadeaux Genereux (Young |Generation), Foxwedge (Fastnet Rock), Equiano (Acclamation) and Compton Place (Indian Ridge).