IT started with the Irish National Stud’s Nando Parrado (Kodiac), and now four sires with their first runners, at the time of writing, have delivered winners from their initial crop.

Darley’s and Kildangan Stud’s Space Blues (Dubawi), the English National Stud’s Lope Y Fernandez (Lope De Vega) and Tally-Ho Stud’s Starman (Dutch Art) are the other three, and here we will pay special attention to the latter’s Lady Iman.

There must have been a special delight in Co Westmeath at the O’Callaghan’s various homesteads when the Ger Lyons-trained Lady Iman obliged on her debut at Dundalk for Starman. Apart from advertising the merits of your stallions in The Irish Field, obviously, there could be no better vehicle for promoting the talents of Starman as a sire than to have a winner, and there was added joy for Tony, Anne, Roger and Henry as Lady Iman is a homebred.

Listed for posterity as a sale to Creighton Schwartz Bloodstock as a yearling for £185,000, at the time Dan Creighton said that the filly would be trained by Karl Burke for Fenerbahce footballer Ryan Kent. Lady Iman in fact remains in the ownership of Tony O’Callaghan, and what a fortuitous thing it was that she does, as her year-older half-brother West Acre (Mehmas) could become a Group 1 winner this weekend, when he is set to go off as one of the favourites for the Group 1 Al Quoz Sprint at Meydan.

West Acre has shown this year that he has all the potential to win at the highest level, and his two most recent successes have come in the Group 3 Nad Al Sheba Sprint Stakes on Super Saturday, and the Group 2 Blue Point Stakes, both at Meydan.

In the former, West Acre beat his elders, while he set a five-furlong record at Meydan when winning the Blue Point. He is certainly providing his owner Michael Blencowe and trainer George Scott with lots of pleasure, and as a gelding he could be a name to reckon with in sprint races for a long time to come. After his brave victory on Super Saturday, jockey Callum Shephard gave what might be an important tip for punters this weekend when he said, “he dug deep, was gritty, and he still galloped out well after the line, so I fancy him even better over six furlongs for the Al Quoz.”

More modest

West Acre is one of a landmark 40 stakes winners for Mehmas (Acclamation) who stands this year at Tally-Ho for €70,000, but you could be clever and use his stud companion Starman for a more modest €10,000. Given that Lady Iman is the first of Starman’s crop of more than 200 juveniles to race, the odds must be good that he will deliver many more as the season winds up.

Lady Iman is a daughter of Lady Aria, and she is by another Tally-Ho star in Kodiac (Danehill). Lady Aria was Group 3-placed when second in the Dick Poole Stakes at Salisbury.

Lady Iman is the third foal and third winner for Lady Aria. The latter raced for Amo Racing, was trained by Michael Bell, and of course Amo now stands a couple of stallions at Tally-Ho. A 125,000gns yearling purchase by Alex Elliott, Lady Aria was bred by Llety Farms and earned her pattern placing when still a maiden, won on her final run at two, but she didn’t train on. Nevertheless, she was sold to Tally-Ho at the end of her second season for 160,000gns, and covered in her first year at stud by Showcasing (Oasis Dream).

The result of that liaison was Succession, and he won at two before being sold to race in Qatar where he was placed. Lady Iman is Lady Aria’s third produce, while her fourth is a yearling colt by Tally-Ho’s Persian Force (Mehmas), and last year she was covered by West Acre’s sire. Lady Aria and the Listed Windsor Castle Stakes runner-up Union Rose (Stimulation) are a pair of the five juvenile winners out of the unraced Dot Hill (Refuse To Bend), the most recent being Telford (Mohaather) last year. Dot Hill has six winning siblings, the best being the Group 2 Gimcrack Stakes second Taajub (Exceed And Excel).

Well-deserved

West Acre has given his family a well-deserved major stakes winner, but a half-sister to Dot Hill has also played a significant role in upgrading the pedigree in the last two years. She is the unraced Purplest (Iffraaj) who in 2023 was responsible for the listed sprint winner Iconic Moment (Harry Angel), and last year her then three-year-old daughter Bright Thunder (Night Of Thunder) won the Listed Prix de Bagatelle at Chantilly.

Noble Rose (Caerleon) is the fourth dam of West Acre and she raced for Sheikh Mohammed when trained by Luca Cumani. Winner of a single race in each of the three seasons she raced from two to four, Noble Rose gained her biggest win in the Group 3 Park Hill Stakes at Doncaster. At three she landed the Listed Galtres Stakes at York before going down by less than a length to Dalara in the Group 2 Prix de Royallieu.

In the breeding shed, Noble Rose was also a success with seven winning offspring. Her son Notability (King’s Best) was a Group 2 winner in Germany, where he was a leading miler, and was a Group 1 runner-up in the Premio Vittorio di Capua in Milan. His own-brother Simon De Montfort (King’s Best), born five years on, was more prolific, his six victories including the Group 3 Prix La Force. Their winning half-sister Illustria (Seeking The Gold) made her mark, after going to stud in Australia, when she bred a stakes winner in South Africa, Ocean Of Time (Refuse To Bend).

Cartier Award

Group 1 July Cup hero Starman was honoured with the Cartier Sprinter Award in 2021. Trained by Ed Walker for owner/breeder David Ward, the colt’s Newmarket triumph was a first at the highest level for both Walker and Ward. That same year he was also rated the champion older sprinter in Europe. Unraced at two, Starman won all but one of his four starts at three, including a listed victory, but he was a very much improved runner at four.

That season he again faced the starter on four occasions, and his second win that year was over his preferred distance, six furlongs, when he landed the Group 2 Duke of York Stakes. Starman found one too good for him in the Group 1 Haydock Park Sprint, and he was placed in the Group 1 Prix Maurice de Gheest. His first crop of yearlings provided plenty of chat among buyers, and was headed by three who made between 240,000gns and 260,000gns.

Starman, dual Group 1 winner Slade Power, and the Group 1 French winners Mabs Cross (Prix de l’Abbaye) and Garswood (Prix Maurice de Gheest), are the quartet of top-level winners for the former Cheveley Park Stud stallion Dutch Art (Medicean).

One of the best European juveniles of 2006, Dutch Art won both the Group 1 Middle Park Stakes and Prix Morny, was placed in the 2000 Guineas, and came close to two more Group 1 successes when runner-up in the July Cup and Prix Maurice de Gheest.