NOT for the first time, the Turkish breeding industry has invested well in a stallion, and months after his arrival in the country, Epaulette, the Group 1 winning son of Commands (Danehill), has come up with the goods.

The Group 1 Blue Diamond Stakes over six furlongs is one of the premier races for juveniles in the southern hemisphere, and the Godolphin-owned and bred Daumier won the 2022 edition, crediting the owner/breeder with its fourth win in the race, following on from Sepoy (2011), Earthquake (2014) and Lyre (2019).

This was just the third start for Daumier, all in stakes races, and his second win. He previously was successful in the Listed Blue Diamond Preview for colts and geldings over five furlongs, and was placed in the Group 3 Blue Diamond Prelude. There were simply precursors to the big one, and the latest victory took his career winnings already to more than A$1 million.

The decision to sell Epaulette, who stood for four of his five northern hemisphere seasons at Kildangan Stud, was probably easy enough for Darley. His five crops of racing age conceived in Ireland and Britain produced juts three group/graded stakes winners, though the best of these was the 2020 Grade 1 Del Mar Oaks winner Red Lark.

The crops of similar age down under fared much better and have yielded nine group winners, Daumier and the champion juvenile in South Africa, Soqrat, being the best of these. A dozen pattern winners among 17 stakes winners in all is hardly a failure, but still not enough to warrant keeping him on the Darley roster in Australia.

Epaulette

As a two-year-old Epaulette won the Group 1 Golden Rose Stakes at Rosehill, the following season adding another victory at that level. All his five career wins were gained between five and seven furlongs, so it would have been reasonable to assume he would get lots of precocious types. Daumier certainly lives up to this, and in more ways than one. He was born on one of the last days of November in 2019, so his Group 1 win came when he was 26 months old. This certainly begs the question as to what he might yet achieve. In spite of his late birth date, Godolphin Australia’s managing director Vin Cox said after the race that Daumier was always very forward.

The second foal and winner for his unraced dam Illustrate (Street Cry), Daumier follows the three-year-old winner Depiction (Exceed And Excel) who has now gone to race in Hong Kong, where he has been renamed Young Life Forever. Illustrate is one of just a pair of foals from Parables, the other being three-time winner and group-placed Marble (Exceed And Excel).

Smart racemare

Parables, a daughter of Lonhro (Octagonal), was a very smart racemare and the best of her three career wins came in the Group 2 Surround Stakes. A solid performer at that level, she did manage to place in the Group 1 Flight Stakes.

She was one of just four foals from the listed winner Fairytales (Night Shift), three of which ran and won. The other pair of winners amassed 18 victories between them.

This is a family whose success at stakes level in recent years has only been tempered by the fact that Daumier’s grandam and third dam produced just six foals. His fourth dam Mythos (Imperial Price) bred a pair of stakes winners, notably Thackeray (At Talaq), a dual Group 2 winner who was placed in the Group 1 Australian Cup.

Mythos is also grandam of the Group 1 Myer Classic winner Politeness (Street Sense), and third dam of the Group 1 winning juvenile On The Bubbles (Brazen Beau).

Epaulette has a decent strike rate with his winners to runners, and recently he sired his 300th individual winner.