SOCIAL media pictures caught Derek and Gay Veitch admiring the winner of the Group 1 Haydock Sprint Cup at the weekend, and no wonder.

Minzaal had finally done what he has promised to do since he was a juvenile, and win at the top table. The four-year-old son of Mehmas (Acclamation) was bred by the couple at their Ringfort Stud, and they sold him as a foal for 85,000gns, before he was resold from Glenvale Stud the following October to Shadwell Estate for 140,000gns.

He is from the first crop of his sire, based at the O’Callaghan’s Tally-Ho Stud, and what an initial crop that has proven to be. Supremacy, now at stud, won the Group 1 Middle Park Stakes, while Going Global was successful in last year’s Grade 1 Del Mar Oaks, and she is odds-on to win another at that level this year.

If they were produced from a bargain fee of €12,500, imagine how people with yearlings to sell this autumn feel, having used the stallion at an advertised fee of only €7,500. Two years later and the same service is a tasty €50,000. Hats off to the intrepid breeders who supported Mehmas in 2020.

By the sire of sires, Acclamation (Royal Applause), Mehmas only raced at two, winning the Group 2 July Stakes and Group 2 Richmond Stakes, and chased home Churchill in the Group 1 National Stakes at the Curragh. In addition to his three Group/Grade 1 winners, he has sired four other Group 2 juvenile winners, including this year’s July Stakes winner Persian Force. His tally of 18 blacktype winners, and as many who have also been stakes-placed, is growing daily.

Stud duties

What a prospect Minzaal, along with Shadwell’s Baaeed, is for his owner for stud duties. He has overcome plenty of difficulties in his career, having been off the track for more than a year from two to three. He may have missed out on some opportunities, but he certainly lost none of his ability.

As a juvenile Minzaal won the Group 2 Gimcrack Stakes at York on his third start, before running behind Supremacy, with Lucky Vega dividing them, in the Group 1 Middle Park Stakes.

He was thrown in at the deep end on both his starts at three, just a fortnight apart, and was a hugely creditable third in the Group 1 British Champions Sprint Stakes.

His current season has been his best to date. Apart from his victory at the weekend and in the Group 3 Hackwood Stakes at Newbury, Minzaal has been runner-up, beaten less than a length, in the Group 1 Prix Maurice de Gheest at Deauville, and he is a credit to Owen Burrows who has fashioned his career with great aplomb.

Greater interest

Minzaal is the best of the winners from the unraced Pardoven (Clodovil). Her son Cabo Da Cruz (Cape Cross) won five times in South Africa after his purchase as a yearling for €220,000.

After Minzaal appeared at two, greater interest was sparked in the progeny of Pardoven. Her now two-year-old, Maxi King (Belardo), sold as a foal for 280,000gns, while her yearling, owned by Sean Mulryan, is a filly by Footstepsinthesand (Giant’s Causeway), and she sold last year for 80,000gns.

The good news down in Co Offaly is that Pardoven is back in foal to Mehmas, and what an exciting time will be had awaiting that birth next spring.

An important part of a stallion prospect’s appeal, apart from conformation, looks, form and a good sire line, is a smart dam line. Pardoven was bred by Derek Veitch in partnership, from a Sadler’s Wells (Northern Dancer) mare he bought for what now looks to be a bargain 38,000gns. She was Dancing Prize, a non-winner who was placed on three of her four starts for Sir Michael Stoute, racing in the colours of her breeders, Cheveley Park Stud.

With profit

On her penultimate start Dancing Prize was beaten less than two lengths into third place in a listed Oaks trial at Lingfield. Derek sent her the next spring to Daylami (Doyoun) and got all his outlay, with profit, back when the resulting colt sold as a foal for 120,000gns to Shadwell. In fact, six of the 10 winners out of Dancing Prize were bred at Ringfort, as were two of the mare’s quartet of blacktype earners.

Dancing Prize is a half-sister to Polar Bear (Polar Falcon), a listed winner in England and Australia, and he was runner-up down under in the Group 1 Underwood Stakes. He was the best of eight winners out of the Group 3 winner Aim For The Top (Irish River), but there is one other of that group worth mentioning.

She was Dance To The Top (Sadler’s Wells), a full-sister to Dancing Prize, and she came even closer to a Group 1 success, finishing second behind Fairy Heights in the Fillies’ Mile at Ascot.

Though she failed to win a stakes race, Dance To The Top bred a pair of group winners, the better of the two being Bankable (Medicean), a Group 2 winner in the UAE where he finished second in the Group 1 Dubai Duty Free Stakes at Meydan.

Jumping to success with the latest Berlais

YOU know that winter is around the corner when you start taking notice of jump racing results, and the French autumn season kicked into another gear this week with the first listed race of the period.

This was the Listed Prix des Platanes Hurdle for three-year-olds at Auteuil, won by David Du Berlais from St Donats. Both the winner and the runner-up share something in common – they are sons of that giant of a stallion, Saint Des Saints (Cadoudal), and they are each out of a daughter of King’s Theatre (Sadler’s Wells).

In the case of the winner, David Du Berlais, he is from a family that I don’t need to trawl back a few generations through; it will suffice to look at the first two dams. There is nothing wrong with the pedigree further back, in fact both the third and fourth dams are responsible for five listed winners on the flat between them, but the jumping story really starts with David Du Berlais’ grandam.

She was Bint Bladi (Garde Royale), a winner at two who might have been expected to give her own dam Tksiam (Olantengy) another stakes performer on the flat. However, alone among her dam’s nine winners, she was the one to go on and earn some blacktype over jumps in the Listed Prix de Chambly Hurdle at Auteuil.

Highlighting

No slouch in the breeding shed, Bint Bladi had five winners, two of them worth highlighting. Lyreen Legend, also a son of Saint Des Saints, was the youngest of the pair, and this Grade 2 winner over hurdles at Thurles was placed a number of times at Grade 1 level over hurdles and fences, and he chased home the subsequent Gold Cup winner Lord Windermere in the Grade 1 RSA Chase at Cheltenham.

Lyreen Legend was born six years after his half-sister King’s Daughter (King’s Theatre), and six of her seven wins were over hurdles in France, including two at listed level. She was certainly durable, running 43 times and being placed on 21 occasions in addition to her wins, and this didn’t hinder her ability to breed winners, as she has since shown.

Her first eight foals have all run, and seven have won. The odd one out is an unplaced filly who has bred a couple of winners to compensate for her lack of ability on the track. The three-year-old David Du Berlais is the eighth offspring of King’s Daughter, and the mare’s fourth blacktype winner. It is likely that he will follow the path of the other three and go on to win a graded level too.

At stud

David Du Berlais, still a colt, is a full-brother to Goliath Du Berlais (Saint Des Saints), and that seven-year-old has just completed his third season at stud, where his first two crops number more than 150 foals.

Among his seven wins at three and four was the Grade 1 Prix Ferdinand Dufaure Chase at Auteuil, while his other wins included the Grade 3 Prix Fleuret Chase. That race was also won last year by his half-sister Queen Du Berlais (Muhtathir).

The fourth winner from King’s Daughter is James Du Berlais (Muhtathir), a multiple Grade 3 and listed winner in France where he was also runner-up in a Grade 1. He moved to Willie Mullins this year and on his second start was a wide-margin runner-up to Klassical Dream in the Grade 1 Tipperkevin Stayers Hurdle at the Punchestown Festival.

Given last weekend’s win, his second victory on just his fourth start, I wonder what the odds are that David Du Berlais will have export papers prepared for a move abroad?

Young sires move from Newmarket to Manton Park

ADVERTISE and Aclaim will be moving to Manton Park Stud in Marlborough later this year and will continue their stallion careers there in 2023, after standing successfully at the National Stud for three and five years respectively, the farm to which they retired upon the completion of their racing careers with Martyn Meade.

Aclaim’s first crop of three-year-olds includes the Group 1 Qipco 1000 Guineas winner Cachet, while Advertise will have his first runners next year.

Martyn Meade said: “We would like to thank the team at the National Stud for their energy and commitment to Advertise and Aclaim since the start of their stallion careers. It has been an ambition for these two horses to return to Manton ever since they were trained here, and we are now in a position to welcome them home to continue their time at stud.”

Anna Kerr, CEO of the National Stud, added: “We are delighted to have launched the careers of two such exciting young stallions; it has been very rewarding for the whole team to see what a strong start both Aclaim and Advertise have made to their stud careers. They both have bright futures ahead of them and we wish them every success at Manton Park.”

Aclaim

In addition to Cachet, also runner-up in the Group 1 Poule d’Essai des Pouliches-French 1000 Guineas, Aclaim has been represented by the stakes winner Royal Aclaim, the Group 2 runner-up Jacinda, and four other stakes performers. Winner of his only start at two, Aclaim improved with age, becoming a Group 2 winner in his second season, and winning the Group 1 Prix de la Foret at four.

A son of Acclamation (Royal Applause), responsible for fellow Group 1 stallions Dark Angel, Mehmas and Equiano, Aclaim’s appeal is obvious and he will now come under the wing of Irish National Stud graduate Fearghal Hogan who is the nominations and bloodstock manager at Manton Park.

One of the best sons of Showcasing (Oasis Dream), now emerging as a sire of sires, Advertise won the Group 1 Keeneland Phoenix Stakes at two, adding the Group 1 Commonwealth Cup and Prix Maurice de Gheest at three. He chased Too Darn Hot home in the Group 1 Dewhurst Stakes and Ten Sovereigns in the Group 1 July Cup. His first crop are yearlings, and he stood for £25,000 in his first three seasons.

Ocean Jewel could be a real gem

THE competitive nature of racing in Ireland is well-known, and some indication of how hard it is to win a race is that Ocean Jewel, a two-year-old filly bred in the purple and who cost €230,000 as a yearling, was sent by trainer Willie McCreery to Down Royal to land her maiden success.

Before I go any further, that is not to decry the value of a Down Royal win. Indeed, it is a compliment to them that they are attracting better runners, and the race won by Ocean Jewel was annexed two years ago by the ultra-smart Mooneista. This year’s winner is one of 30 sired by Sioux Nation (Scat Daddy) in his first crop, and there will be few of them better bred.

Carrying the colours of Al Shira’aa Racing Limited, Ocean Jewel is one of five winners out of Many Colours (Green Desert), and the best of them by far is Mother Earth (Zoffany). This Group 1 winner of the 1000 Guineas and Prix Rothschild was bred, like Ocean Jewel, at Grenane House Stud, and the farm is offering her own-brother for sale on the first day of the Goffs Orby Sale this month.

Mark and Adrian Wallace own and run Grenane House Stud, and this year they welcomed a colt foal by No Nay Never (Scat Daddy) out of Many Colours. Previously owned by Sheikh Mohammed’s Darley, Many Colours was a winner when trained by Jim Bolger, landing the Listed Dance Design Stakes at the Curragh. She failed to produce a winner from her first few foals at the time she was culled in 2016, and was cleverly bought by the Wallace brothers for €50,000 at Goffs.

In foal at the time to Night Of Thunder (Dubawi), in his first season at stud, she subsequently had a filly who sold for a disappointing €26,000 as a foal. Named Night Colours, she won a Group 2 race in Italy as a two-year-old, and in the process became her dam’s third winning offspring – quite a turnaround in the fortunes of Many Colours.

Better was to come in the shape of Mother Earth, a €150,000 yearling purchase by M.V. Magnier, and what a bargain he got. This is a family that produces a host of stakes winners. Many Colours is one of six winners out of First Of Many (Darshaan) and that mare’s siblings include Patience Alexander (Kodiac), a listed winner as a two-year-old at York eight years ago.

Their dam was the juvenile winner Star Profile (Sadler’s Wells), a daughter of the listed-winning sprinter Sandhurst Goddess (Sandhurst Prince). The latter mare’s best runner was Lady Alexander (Night Shift), a Group 3 winner in Ireland and England at two. At stud Lady Alexander has made her mark thanks to her daughter Anthem Alexander (Starspangledbanner) and her son Dandy Man (Mozart).

Anthem Alexander won the Group 2 Queen Mary Stakes at Royal Ascot and was beaten less than a length when runner-up to Tiggy Wiggy in the Group 1 Connolly’s Red Mills Cheveley Park Stakes. The Group 3 winning sprinter Dandy Man is now the flagbearer for Joe Foley’s Ballyhane and has sired three Group/Grade 1 winners, 10 additional Group 2 and 3 winners, 11 more stakes winners and more than 50 stakes performers.