DUBAWI’S (Dubai Millennium) position as one of the all-time great British stallions is well-established and it was excellent news when we heard that his top-class son Space Blues would join the team at Kildangan Stud. It was appropriate too as he is related to an important sire who held court at the Co Kildare base for many years.

Foal buyers showed their appreciation for those members of Space Blues’ first crop who came under the hammer last autumn, one of his sons realising €140,000 at Goffs, while a daughter sold for 95,000gns in Newmarket.

Space Blues won his only start at two and went on to add a further 10 wins over three seasons. A blacktype winner in each of those multi-race campaigns, he was Group 1-placed twice at three, won the Group 1 Prix Maurice de Gheest at four and struck twice at the highest level at five. He beat Hello Youmzain and Lope Y Fernandez, both also now at stud, in that top Deauville sprint, and he also landed Goodwood’s Group 2 Lennox Stakes over seven furlongs and ParisLongchamp’s Group 3 Prix de la Porte Maillot that summer.

Space Blues kicked off 2021 with victory in an ultra-valuable conditions race in Saudi Arabia and then landed the Group 2 City of York Stakes before making two more trips abroad. He beat the Irish filly Pearls Galore to win the Group 1 Prix de la Foret at ParisLongchamp on the first Sunday in October and then, on quite different underfoot conditions, landed the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Mile at Del Mar in the USA.

His distant relation and famous former Kildangan team-mate In The Wings also won at a Breeders’ Cup. Too Darn Hot, Zarak, Al Kazeem, Makfi, New Bay, Night Of Thunder, and Poet’s Voice, all Group 1 winners on the track, are sons of Dubawi (Dubai Millennium) who have sired at least one winner at the highest level, so far.

Space Blues, a half-brother to the Group 2-scorer Shuruq (Elusive Quality), is out of the Group 2 Challenge Stakes winner Miss Lucifer (Noverre) and he has a significant third dam in High Spirited (Shirley Heights).

In addition to being the dam of Amfortas (Caerleon) and Legend Maker (Sadler’s Wells) and ancestress of the Group 1-winners Virginia Waters (Kingmambo) and Chachamaidee (Footstepsinthesand), she is a full-sister to High Hawk (Shirley Heights), the Group 1-winning dam of the multiple top-level star and classic sire In The Wings. That Breeders’ Cup Turf hero was the best stallion son of Sadler’s Wells (Northern Dancer) until Galileo and Montjeu came along, and he gave us influential stars such as Adlerflug, Singspiel and Soldier Hollow, plus classic scorers such as Central Park, Winged Love and Zanzibar.

All of this makes Space Blues a fascinating prospect at stud, and while he will surely get plenty of winners at two, his long-term potential promises to be with three-year-olds and older horses who, depending on the input from the mares he covers, could excel anywhere from five furlongs to the Derby distance.

Race record

SPACE BLUES (IRE), Chesnut horse, 2016. Top rated older sprinter in France in 2020. Jt top rated older sprinter in France in 2021. Won 11 races, value £1,917,282, at 2 to 5, from 6½ furlongs to 1 mile ½ furlong, Prix de la Forêt, ParisLongchamp, Gr.1, Prix Maurice de Gheest, Deauville, Gr.1, Breeders’ Cup Mile, Del Mar, Gr.1, City of York Stakes, York, Gr.2, Lennox Stakes, Goodwood, Gr.2, Prix de la Porte Maillot, ParisLongchamp, Gr.3, Surrey Stakes, Epsom, L., Spring Trophy Stakes, Haydock, L., also placed second in Prix Jean Prat, Deauville, Gr.1, Jersey Stakes, Ascot, Gr.3 and third in Prix Maurice de Gheest, Deauville, Gr.1.

At stud

Retired to stud in 2022. First crop now yearlings.

Information

Stands at: Kildangan Stud, Monasterevin, Co. Kildare W34 HR98, Ireland

Contact: Eamon Moloney, Anthony O’Donnell or Tom Fogarty

Telephone: +353 45 527600

Email: hello@darleystallions.com

Web: www.darleyeurope.com

Fee: €16,000