DUBAWI’S (Dubai Millennium) position as one of the all-time great British stallions is well-established and it was excellent news to hear that his top-class son Space Blues would join the team at Kildangan Stud. It was appropriate too.

Relationship to previously successful sires is one of the things we look for when assessing new sire recruits and this exciting prospect is related to an important one who held court at the Co Kildare base for many years.

Space Blues won his only start at two and went on to add a further 10 wins over three seasons.

A blacktype winner in each of those multi-race campaigns, he was Group 1-placed twice at three, won the Group 1 Prix Maurice de Gheest at four and struck twice at the highest level at five. He beat Hello Youmzain and Lope Y Fernandez, both also now young stallions, in that top Deauville sprint, and he also landed Goodwood’s Group 2 Lennox Stakes over seven furlongs and ParisLongchamp’s Group 3 Prix de la Porte Maillot that summer.

Space Blues kicked off 2021 with victory in an ultra-valuable conditions race in Saudi Arabia and then landed the Group 2 City of York Stakes before making two more trips abroad. He beat the notable Irish filly Pearls Galore to win the Group 1 Prix de la Foret at ParisLongchamp on the first Sunday in October and then, on quite different underfoot conditions, landed the recent Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Mile at Del Mar.

His distant relation and famous former Kildangan team-mate also won at a Breeders’ Cup. Al Kazeem, Makfi, New Bay, Night Of Thunder, Poet’s Voice, all Group 1 winners on the track, are sons of Dubawi who have sired at least one winner at the highest level, so far. This is a good sign for all those younger ones coming through.

Space Blues, a half-brother to the Group 2-scorer Shuruq (Elusive Quality), is out of the Group 2 Challenge Stakes winner Miss Lucifer (Noverre) and he has a significant third dam in High Spirited (Shirley Heights). In addition to being the dam of Amfortas (Caerleon) and Legend Maker (Sadler’s Wells) and ancestress of the Group 1-winners Virginia Waters (Kingmambo) and Chachamaidee (Footstepsinthesand) and last year’s Group 2 Park Hill Stakes winner, Free Wind (Galileo), she is a full-sister to High Hawk, the Group 1-winning dam of the multiple top-level star and classic sire In The Wings. The Breeders’ Cup Turf hero was the best stallion son of Sadler’s Wells (Northern Dancer) until Galileo and Montjeu came along, and he gave us influential stars such as Adlerflug, Singspiel and Soldier Hollow, plus classic scorers such as Central Park, Winged Love and Zanzibar, among others of note.

All of this makes Space Blues a fascinating addition to the stallion ranks and while he will surely get plenty of winners at two, his long-term potential promises to be with three-year-olds and older horses who, depending on input from the mares, could excel anywhere from five furlongs to the Derby distance.

SPACE BLUES (IRE), Chesnut 2016. Top rated older sprinter in France in 2020. Won eleven races, £1,917,282, from 6½ furlongs to 1 mile, from 2 to 5 including, Breeders’ Cup Mile, Del Mar, Gr.1, Prix Maurice de Gheest, Deauville, Gr.1, Prix de la Foret, ParisLongchamp, Gr.1, City of York Stakes, York, Gr.2, Lennox Stakes, Goodwood, Gr.2, Prix de la Porte Maillot, ParisLongchamp, Gr.3, Investec Surrey Stakes, Epsom Downs, L, Spring Trophy Stakes, Haydock Park, L, also placed second in Qatar Prix Jean Prat, Deauville, Gr.1, Jersey Stakes, Ascot, Gr.3, and third in LARC - Prix Maurice de Gheest, Deauville, Gr.1.

Retires to Stud in 2022.

Stands at: Kildangan Stud, Monasterevin, Co Kildare, W34 HR98, Ireland.

Contact: Eamon Moloney (nominations manager), Anthony O’Donnell, Tom Fogarty

Telephone: +353 (0)45 527600

Email: hello@darley.co.uk

Web: www.darleystallions.com

Fee: €17,500