IT was a weekend and a half for Darley stallions, with classic victories at the Curragh for Blue Point (Shamardal) and Too Darn Hot (Dubawi) among the highlights.

Throw in a Group 1 win in Hong Kong for Rebel’s Romance (Dubawi), a German classic win for Darnation (Too Darn Hot) and a Group 2 victory for Inisherin (Shamardal), and you get a real sense of how good the weekend was.

There was also a pair of Group 1 successes for progeny by Profitable (Invincible Spirit), thanks to Kerdos and Mitbaahy, though that former Kildangan Stud sire is just completing his first season at stud in Turkey.

A star performer among the first-crop runners last year by Blue Point, the Richard Hannon-trained Rosallion recorded his first Group 1 victory as a three-year-old when storming home to snatch the Tattersalls Irish 2000 Guineas on Saturday at the Curragh. He conceded first run to his stablemate Haatem in the straight before quickening impressively to catch him near the line.

A winner at the highest level when taking the Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere at ParisLongchamp last year, Rosallion has now won four of his six starts, and his win at the weekend made amends for finishing an excellent second behind Notable Speech in the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket. Having had the honour of being the first Group 1 winner for his sire, Rosallion is now his first classic winner.

Blue Point last year became the fastest first-crop sire to record 50 individual winners. As well as Rosallion, his initial crop included the Grade 1 Breeder’s Cup hero Big Evs, and that colt returned this season with an easy victory in the Listed Westow Stakes last month at York.

An Irish homebred for Sheikh Mohammed Obaid Al Maktoum, Rosallion was a listed winner at Ascot on his second start, before suffering his sole juvenile defeat in the Group 2 Champagne Stakes at Doncaster, running third. His subsequent Group 1 win in France proved to be a bonanza for those associated with his winning half-sister Needle Lace (Golden Horn).

Sam Haggas’ Hurworth Bloodstock picked the then three-year-old filly Needle Lace up at the 2021 December Mares Sale for a mere 1,000gns. Transferred to Ken Condon and racing for David Kelly, she won a maiden at Limerick at four and was placed a few times, finishing runner-up in a premier handicap at the Curragh on her last start. Last December Needle Lace reappeared at Tattersalls, consigned by Baroda Stud and carrying her first foal by Sioux Nation (Scat Daddy), and she sold for a whopping 200,000gns to Blandford Bloodstock.

Fairytale success

When Needle Lace sold for the first time, she was the second foal and only runner for her dam. Unplaced on her sole start in France at two, she joined George Boughey, hit the track quickly and was second on three successive starts before being sold. She was truly one of the fairytale success stories of 2023.

Andrew Balding failed to muster a victory for Needle Lace’s and Rosallion’s half-sister Rising Bay (Kingman), though she was second on her final start at three last season. Next up is a two-year-old colt, Lord Capulet (Make Believe).

Rosallion’s dam, the unraced Rosaline (New Approach), is a half-sister to a 2023 Royal Ascot hero, Triple Time (Frankel), and he is now proving to be immensely popular at Dalham Hall where he stands for just £10,000. He won the Group 1 Queen Anne Stakes from Inspiral. Triple Time is not the only Group 1 winner out of the outstanding matron Reem Three (Mark Of Esteem), and the other was also in the news on Saturday.

She is Ajman Princess (Teofilo), winner of the Group 1 Prix Jean Romanet eight years ago and runner-up at Royal Ascot in the Group 2 Ribblesdale Stakes. Her three-year-old son Inisherin (Shamardal), on just his fourth start, won the Group 2 Sandy Lane Stakes at Haydock Park. Also owned and bred by Sheikh Mohammed Obaid Al Maktoum, he will now be supplemented for the Group 1 Commonwealth Stakes at the forthcoming Royal Ascot meeting.

Ten winners

Triple Time and Ajman Princess are among 10 winners now from the stakes-placed Reem Three, six of whom are stakes winners, while another, Imperial Charm (Dubawi), was placed in the Group 1 Prix Saint-Alary. Reem Three’s three-year-old Bolsena (Kingman) is yet another to have earned some blacktype, and she was not beaten far when placed in a listed race at York in May.

Among the impressive list of stakes winners out of Reem Three is Ostilio (New Approach), and that French Group 2 winner is an own-brother to Rosallion’s dam. The list of stakes winners is completed by Group 3 Ascot winner and Group 2-placed Cape Byron (Shamardal), stakes winner and pattern-placed Third Realm (Sea The Stars), and last year’s listed winner Captain Winters (Lope De Vega).

Reem Three is a half-sister to the Group 2 Celebration Mile winner Afsare (Dubawi), and he was runner-up in Italy in a Group 1, and occupied the same position in the Grade 1 Arlington Million. The fourth dam of Rosallion was Donya (Mill Reef). She was a prolific winner-producer, and the most successful of her nine victorious offspring was Lost Soldier Three (Barathea). He won a listed handicap at York, was group-placed in the UAE, and amassed a dozen wins in Britain, France and Belgium.

Prestigious races

Lost Soldier Three’s winning full-sister Zeeba (Barathea) bred the Group 3 winner Danadana (Dubawi), and he also took the honours in one of Turkey’s most prestigious races, the Listed Anatolia Trophy. Zeeba’s half-sister Altaweelah (Fairy King) was a better racemare, winning twice and finishing second in a listed race, and she has also been more successful at stud, thanks in large part to her Group 3-placed daughter Qasirah (Machiavellian).

Qasirah bred a pair of stakes winners, both of whom gained their most significant victories at Ascot, and they were Toolain (Diktat) and Tantshi (Invincible Spirit). She is also grandam of the Group 2 Derby Italiano winner Summer Festival (Poet’s Voice).

Rosallion’s fifth dam was Dunette (Hard To Beat). In three seasons she won five of her 13 races and twice defeated the great Three Troikas. At three Dunette sprung a major surprise at 50/1 to land the Group 1 Prix de Diane-French Oaks, and she was rated the second-best filly of her generation in Europe in both 1979 and 1980. At stud she produced the Grade 1 Canadian International Stakes winner French Glory (Sadler’s Wells).

Championship honours

Rosallion is most certainly at the height of his racing prowess and looks set to be a leading contender for mile championship honours. His reappearance at Royal Ascot will be eagerly anticipated, a venue that showcased the best of his sire. Blue Point won the Group 1 King’s Stand Stakes twice there, as well as the Group 1 Diamond Jubilee Stakes.

Breeders who welcomed foals this year by Blue Point did so from a covering fee at Kildangan Stud of €35,000. This year they had to cough up €60,000.

Both of Blue Point’s pattern winners have won at the highest level, and his first crop also includes four other stakes winners. They are among 17 blacktype horses he has sired, five of them from his first southern hemisphere crop.

Other runners of note by Blue Point include his daughters Dazzling Star, who was third in the Grade 1 Natalma Stakes, and the Group 2-placed juvenile Les Bleus. In Australia he has sired a couple of Group 2-placed horses in Blue Rocket and Bosustow.