THERE were a few raised eyebrows at the Goffs London Sale, staged in Kensington Palace on the eve of this year’s Royal Ascot meeting, when the final lot in the catalogue was unsold at a whopping £2,250,000.

Eight days earlier, Lazzat, a three-year-old gelded son of Territories (Invincible Spirit), had extended his unbeaten run in 2024 to five, adding the seven-furlong Group 3 Prix Paul de Moussac at ParisLongchamp to earlier wins in the Group 3 Prix Djebel at Deauville and the Listed Prix de la Californie at Cagnes-Sur-Mer.

The Jérôme Reynier-trained bay was described in the supplementary catalogue as being “a contender for many of the world’s richest horse racing purses”.

Even if Lazzat were to win some of these races, and with his stallion prospects a memory, his owner’s sale ring expectations appeared to many to be on the high side. Unraced at two, Lazzat lined up on Sunday for his biggest test, the Group 1 Prix Maurice de Gheest back at Deauville, and the field included a number of proven Group 1 performers, notably the recent Group 1 July Cup winner Mill Stream.

Even so, there was no real opposition as it transpired, and Lazzat remains unbeaten in six starts, claiming what is likely to be just his first Group 1 victory with relative ease, and winning by three lengths in the six and a half-furlong feature. He won from the year-older filly Exxtra, with Beauvatier back in third. The favourite, Mill Stream, faded to finish fifth. Lazzat holds entries in the Group 1 Prix du Moulin de Longchamp and the Group 1 Prix de la Forêt.

Australia landmark

Bred by his owner Nurlan Bizakov through his Sumbe breeding operation, Lazzat is the first foal out of Lastochka, a daughter of Australia (Galileo), who raced and won her only start at two for Bizakov in England when trained by Roger Varian. This Group 1 victory for Lazzat was a landmark success for the dual Derby winner Australia as a broodmare sire, being his first at that level for one of his daughters.

Lastochka was bred by Bizakov at his Hesmonds Stud in East Sussex, and she raced again at three, making just two starts in listed company, both times failing to make the frame. She has a yearling filly by Sumbe’s Golden Horde (Lethal Force), the Royal Ascot Group 1 Commonwealth Cup winner, and a colt foal by Lope De Vega (Shamardal). Hesmonds’ Tony Fry tells me that this year she was covered by Siyouni (Pivotal) and is in foal.

In 2010, bloodstock agent Charlie Gordon-Watson, acting for Nurlan Bizakov, spent $625,000 on a yearling filly at Keeneland by Mr Greeley (Gone West). It was the sixth highest price paid that year for a filly at the sale, and she was sent to be trained by Sir Michael Stoute in Newmarket. Named Lashyn, she won a 10-furlong maiden on her second star at three, but disappointed in two more starts in handicaps.

However, she was a worthy addition to the breeding shed, as Lashyn was a daughter of Charles Whacker’s Sleepytime (Royal Academy), a classic and Group 1 winner of the 1000 Guineas in 1997, and placed in another pair of Group 1 races, the Fillies’ Mile and two and the Coronation Stakes at three. Trained by Sir Henry Cecil, Sleepytime had Kieran Fallon in the saddle for her classic win.

Disappointment

Lashyn has been a slight disappointment at stud, albeit that she is now the grandam of a Group 1 winner, and her six foals of racing age have yielded three ordinary winners, and a placed runner. The latter is Lazym (Kodiac), and this three-year-old gelding sold for €30,000 at the Arqana July Sale last month. He never finished out of the first four in his first eight starts, but remains a maiden. On his final start for Bizakov and Reynier, Lazym served as pacemaker for Lazzat in the Prix Paul de Moussac.

Sleepytime may not have bred a runner as talented as herself, but she has left behind a sound legacy. Half of her eight winners were victorious at stakes level, and another pair were stakes-placed. Her sons Gentleman’s Deal (Danehill) and Hayhal (Speightstown) were Group 3 winners in England, while her son Ry’s The Guy (Distorted Humor) and daughter Dame Ellen (Elusive Quality) were stakes winners in the USA.

Lazzat’s fourth dam Alidiva (Chief Singer) won three of her five starts, including a listed race at Goodwood, and among the nine winning offspring she bred were four-time Group 1 winner Taipan (Last Tycoon), Group 1 Sussex Stakes winner Ali-Royal (Royal Academy), and Sleepytime. Taipan and Ali-Royal enjoyed success as sires in different codes.

Influence

Alidiva’s influence extends to more than breeding three Group 1 winners. Her daughter Oonagh Maccool (Giant’s Causeway) was a dual Grade 2 winner in the USA, and this year her three-year-old granddaughter Waskesiu (Giant’s Causeway) captured the Grade 3 Florida Oaks.

Three other daughters of Alidiva have been producers of stakes winners. Albanka (Giant’s Causeway) bred the Group 1-placed, Group 3 Oh So Sharp Stakes winner Altyn Orda (Kyllachy), Winds Of March (Sadler’s Wells) is dam of the US Grade 3 winner Freeport Joe (English Channel), but the unraced Sometime (Royal Academy) deserves special mention.

Three of Sometime’s sons are stakes winners. Somewhat (Dynaformer) was a stakes winner at two in England, placed in the Group 1 Eclipse Stakes, but he blossomed in Australia when he reached a peak with his victory in the Group 1 Doncaster Mile at Randwick. Prior to Somewhat’s arrival, Sometime bred Group 3 Dee Stakes winner Art Deco (Peintre Celebre) and the Listed Predominate Stakes hero Manyana (Alzao).

Lazzat is the third Group 1 winner for Territories, from his first four European crops, and the other two, Regional and Rougir, appeared in his first crop. Regional won the Haydock Sprint Cup last year, while Rougir was successful at the highest level on both sides of the Atlantic, landing the Prix de l’Opera in Europe and the E.P. Taylor Stakes in Canada. She sold for $3,000,000 at three. Territories now has 17 stakes winners and 19 other stakes performers to his credit.

Invincible Spirit

Kingman, Lawman and I Am Invincible are sons of Invincible Spirit (Green Desert) who have sired several Group 1 winners, and another is Dalham Hall Stud’s Territories. He can lay claim to be an unheralded gem at stud, and was available this past season for just £10,000. His statistics as a stallion are worth every breeder’s and every trainer’s closest attention, and such has been his consistency that he covered his first four seasons at €12,000, and the next four at his current price.

Territories enjoyed a most successful 2023, which was headed by his son Regional, and his 18 group and stakes performers that season also included pattern winners Navajo Peak, Que Tempest, Live To Tell and Master. He had half a dozen group horses among last year’s juveniles, while last week his son Intrusively, still a maiden, was third in the Group 2 Richmond Stakes at Goodwood.

Territories was a Group 1 runner-up on the last of his four starts at two, but excelled at three. He won the Group 3 Prix de Fontainebleau easily, chased home Gleneagles in the Group 1 2000 Guineas three weeks later, landed the Group 1 Prix Jean Prat over a mile, and was runner-up to Esoterique in the Group 1 Prix Jacques Le Marois.