IT was quite the week for Darley’s Blue Point (Shamardal), as his first-crop son Action Point won the Listed Rose Bowl Stakes at Newbury, crediting the stallion with his second blacktype winner, while Shady Lady’s win in France brought his tally of individual winners to 20.

Ironically, Action Point finished down the field in the Listed Windsor Castle Stakes at Royal Ascot, and the winner that day was Big Evs, a son of the triple Royal Ascot Group 1-winning sprinter.

Bred by Rabbah Bloodstock, Action Point failed to sell as a yearling last year, being led out at 45,000gns. He has now won two of his four starts and was runner-up once. All of this is good news for Gary Mullins, who purchased the two-year-old stakes winner’s dam two years ago for only €20,000.

At the time, the unraced Khaleesi Wind, a daughter of Exceed And Excel (Danehill), was carrying a colt, now a yearling, by Ghaiyyath (Dubawi), and that Darley stallion had just completed his first season at stud, where his advertised fee was €30,000.

Mullins was already on a winner, and now he has the dam of a listed winner, and a valuable yearling proposition. Khaleesi Wind had a colt foal this year by Yeomanstown Stud’s Invincible Army (Invincible Spirit).

Smart juvenile form is nothing new in this family. Khaleesi Wind is an own-sister to Excelette (Exceed And Excel), and though she had to wait until the age of three to gain her sole listed victory, she was runner-up a number of times in similar contests at the age of two. Her winners now include Well Done Fox (Acclamation), a 255,000gns yearling who won a couple of listed races at two.

Khaleesi Wind is a daughter of Madam Ninette (Mark Of Esteem), and though unraced, she was a half-sister to nine winners, the most significant being Bolshoi (Royal Academy), winner of the King’s Stand Stakes when it was a Group 2 race.

Shady Lady

Two weeks after making her debut at Deauville, Shady Lady has started to repay her €80,000 Arqana October Yearling Sale price when she won at Compiegne. She was purchased by Nicolas Clement who trains here, and she is now the ninth winner for her dam, the Tobougg (Barathea) mare Akrivi. Two years ago, Akrivi was sold for €16,000 in foal to Hello Youmzain (Kodiac), after which she had a filly, now a yearling.

Not only is Shady Lady her dam’s ninth winner, but these are the nine offspring of racing age for Akrivi. They include the Group 2 May Hill Stakes runner-up Grecian Light (Shamardal), and the three-year-old Mqse De Maintenon (Muhaarar), a stakes-placed winner who recently sold for €185,000 to Oakgrove Stud. Plans at the time were to try and gain a stakes win with the filly, who hails from a very smart female line.

Hands up here, I am biased when it comes to this family. Akrivi’s siblings include the dual Group 1 winning juvenile and successful sire Dutch Art (Medicean), and the Group 2 Blandford Stakes winner and Group 1 Poule d’Essai des Pouliches-French 1000 Guineas second, Up (Galileo). Already dam of the Group 1 Keeneland Phoenix Stakes runner-up Monarch Of Egypt (American Pharoah), Up had her first stakes winner this year when Aspray (Quality Road) won the Hilltop Stakes at Pimlico in the USA.

Palacegate Episode

Dutch Art and Up are out of Halland Park Lass (Spectrum), sold to Trickledown Stud at the age of six for 12,000gns, and resold the following year for 710,000gns following the success of Dutch Art. Halland Park Lass was a daughter of Palacegate Episode (Drumalis), a group winner in Italy, winner of the Listed St Hugh’s Stakes at two in England, and a multiple listed winner in Germany. She was also group-placed in Ireland and France.

Palacegate Episode was one of three stakes-winning juveniles out of the unraced Pasadena Lady (Captain James), and they were all bred by my late parents, Benny and Sheila Powell. While this is the more successful branch of the family descending from Pasadena Lady, another of her daughters, four-time winner Sports Post Lady (M Double M), is responsible for the smart sprinter, Group 2 winner and Group 1 King’s Stand Stakes runner-up Pearl Secret (Compton Place).

As if you need reminding, Blue Point was one of the most brilliant European sprinters of recent decades, undefeated in his final season racing. While many top sprinters don’t excel until they are three, four or older, Blue Point was among the leaders of his generation at two. He won first time out over six furlongs, just over a month before trouncing five rivals by 11 lengths and more over the same trip at Doncaster.

Leading juvenile

He went down by a neck to Mehmas in the Group 2 Richmond Stakes a fortnight later, but quickly bounced back and won the Group 2 Gimcrack Stakes. He also made the frame in both the Group 1 Middle Park Stakes and Group 1 Dewhurst Stakes. The latter was his only attempt at seven furlongs. No surprise then that he would get off to such a blistering start at stud with his first runners in 2023.

Blue Point beat Harry Angel in the Group 3 Pavilion Stakes at Ascot first time out at three, but the order was reversed in the Group 1 Commonwealth Cup, when the pair were second and third to Caravaggio. Fourth to Harry Angel in the Group 1 Sprint Cup at Haydock in September, there was a good excuse as the ground there was heavy, and Blue Point needed good or better.

Victory in Ascot’s Group 3 Bengough Stakes rounded off his second season and, when Blue Point returned to the venue the following June, he put up a brilliant performance, beating Battaash by almost two lengths to land the Group 1 King’s Stand Stakes. That was only his second run over five furlongs; he had lost narrowly to Ertijaal in a Meydan Group 2 four months earlier.

Back for a fourth season racing, Blue Point ran away with a five-furlong Group 2 and six-furlong Group 3 in Meydan before beating Belvoir Bay in the Group 1 Al Quoz Sprint, all on good ground. He then made it back-to-back King’s Stand Stakes wins against Battaash at Ascot just four days before his career finale, beating Dream Of Dreams in the Group 1 Golden Jubilee Stakes.

Large books

Blue Point covered large books in each of his first four seasons at stud, 198 in 2020, 183 in 2021, 142 last year, and the number rose again this year to 190 He went to stud at Kildangan for €45,000, this fell to €40,000 for the following two seasons, and this year he covered at €35,000. His fee will be going in a different direction from now on.

Last year Blue Point’s 74 yearlings sold averaged €116,000.

He is among over 165 stakes winners by the late Shamardal (Giant’s Causeway), and is by the sire of leading international stallion Lope De Vega, while his siblings feature the Group 2 Railway Stakes victor Formosina (Footstepsinthesand), who was second in the Group 2 Mill Reef Stakes

Blue Point’s dam is a half-sister to the five-time Group 3-scorer Tumbleweed Ridge (Indian Ridge) and to the good broodmare Tumbleweed Pearl (Aragon), dam of the Group 2 Queen Mary Stakes winner Gilded (Redback), grandam of the multiple stakes winner Fort Del Oro (Lope De Vega), and third dam of the 2021 Group 3 Oh So Sharp Stakes winner, Fast Attack (Kodiac).