STUDENTS on the 2022 Irish National Stud Thoroughbred Management course had many visiting lecturers throughout their six months at Tully. One of them was this columnist.

The subject I speak about is the small number of broodmares globally who ever produced four or more Group 1 winners. Local Group 1 wins do not count, and the races that qualify are those that entitle the winner to such a designation in international sales catalogues.

The Blue Hen Award is given, along with a cash prize, to the student who presents the best essay, as judged by this columnist. For the first time, students, who are limited to 500 words, were offered a choice of topics.

This year’s winner was Annie O’Rourke from Newmarket, a psychology graduate who is now about to embark on the Godolphin Flying Start Programme. She tackled the subject, ‘Why I believe Darara is not fairly credited as the dam of five Group/Grade 1 winners’. Here is her winning essay.

IT is no secret that few things in this world are as unpredictable, and ever-changing, as the fashions that adorn and propel the industry of racing and breeding thoroughbreds.

One such fashion is the projected discrepancy between a mare who has produced five Group 1 winners on the flat, and a mare who has produced four Group 1 winners on the flat but also a Grade 1 winner over fences. One mare who has achieved the latter is Darara.

A neat, bay mare by Top Ville, a half-sister to Darshaan and bred by HH Aga Khan in the early eighties, Darara proved herself elite on the racecourse, winning the Group 1 Prix Vermeille and finishing a gallant sixth in what can be argued was one of the most spectacular editions of the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, won by the great Dancing Brave. Nonetheless, her true prowess lies in her stud career.

Her first foal by Shahrastani, placed in Group 1 company, immediately made Darara noteworthy. However, she would go on to produce a plenitude of high-class animals over a 20-year career. Across a dozen foals, Darara produced 11 runners, 10 winners, four Group 1 winners (Rewilding, Dar Re Mi, Darazari and River Dancer), and a Grade 1 novice chase winner in Dardjini.

Headliner

These results surely prove Darara to be nothing less than a headliner in thoroughbred breeding, though some question her being compared with other ‘top-tier’ blue hens such as Eight Carat and Hasili, who both produced five Group 1 winners, all on the flat. Why is this?

An obvious argument against this stance, for me, is that a Grade 1 winner at the age of seven surely demonstrates not only a significant talent, but a soundness of body and mind that shorter careers cannot. At four, and in the care of trainer Noel Meade, Dardjini was running in smart flat races, keeping company with horses such as Vintage Crop, all before peaking over fences three years later. This is a significant length of time to maintain and progress, something that few horses achieve.

Excellence

Additionally, Darara’s exploits through her female descendants – she had three fillies – highlight her excellence. The first two fillies, Dararita and Evita, may not have been champions on the turf themselves, but the former produced a Group 1 performer in Darasim, whilst Evita has so far produced three Group 1 performers in Moohaarib, Argentello and Trethias.

However, the female flagbearer is Dar Re Mi, who not only collected multiple Group 1s herself, but has produced a champion colt in Too Darn Hot, whose progeny have sold for up to 250,000gns in their first sales season as foals in 2021, suggesting market confidence in his future success at stud.

This facet of Darara’s line is particularly important when comparing her to other blue hens. In Too Darn Hot, Darara displays an ability in her matrilineality to produce a prospective top-class stallion, something other mares have not done, and something that you could criticise Darara for until now. Furthermore, through descendants such as Too Darn Hot and Trethias, this blue hen’s line lives on and may yet add more Group 1 or Grade 1 winners to an already brimming page.

Taking all this into consideration, I would strongly argue Darara’s right to be accorded the status of one of the greatest blue hens there has been.

Beamish starts his rise to fame

at Roscommon

AS the graduates of the Irish National Stud course were enjoying Natalie Collins’ cooking after the graduation ceremony, Paddy Twomey’s fine run of success was continuing at Roscommon, where his four-year-old Beamish was extending his unbeaten run to three in the Listed Lenebane Stakes.

I imagine that Paddy’s telephone has been ringing nonstop since the weekend, and many of the recent calls may well have been from bloodstock agents and intermediaries asking about the sale prospects for the son of Teofilo. After all, the race was won last year by Layfayette, and look what he has done since.

Bred by Alexander Rom, and sold for €33,000 as a foal in France, Beamish resold as a yearling for 21,000gns. All his three wins have come over distances from a mile and a half to 14 furlongs, and he could yet become a leading fancy for the Group 1 Irish St Leger, and maybe he will be a target for owners looking for a Melbourne Cup runner. After all, his sire got the winner of that race, not once but twice, in the shape of Twilight Payment and Cross Counter.

Seven winning offspring

Beamish is one of seven winning offspring from the unraced Lomitas (Niniski) mare Bearlita, and that number will surely grow, as her yearling is a colt by Lope De Vega (Shamardal). The best of Beamish’s siblings was the German champion juvenile filly Bourree (Siyouni), a Group 3 winners in France and her native country.

Teofilo’s 22 Group 1 winners, an average of just over two from his first 10 crops, also include stayers such as Subjectivist (Ascot Gold Cup), Scope (Prix Royal-Oak), Quest For More (Prix du Cadran), and Voleuse De Coeurs (Irish St Leger).