BATTAASH (Dark Angel), Group 1 Moyglare Stud Stakes winner Fallen Angel (Too Darn Hot), Group 2 winners Aloa (Cracksman) and Purpleplay (Zarak), along with pattern winners The Antarctic (Dark Angel) and Patrick Sarsfield (Australia) are all out of mares by Lawman (Invincible Spirit).

The Group 1 Prix du Jockey Club-French Derby winner now stands in France, still under the watchful eye of Ballylinch Stud, and the fillies among his six Group 1 winners are the brilliant Just The Judge and the European champion two-year-old filly Pretty Gorgeous. He is also sire of the Group 2 May Hill Stakes winner Agnes Stewart, while his stakes-winning daughter Chartreuse is among the broodmare band at Ballylinch.

Little wonder then that Joseph O’Brien and her owners would persevere and try to win a stakes race with the five-year-old Lawman mare Adelaise, and they found the perfect opportunity when she took the honours in the Listed Snowdrop Stakes at Kempton. A 45,000gns yearling purchase by Dermot Farrington from her breeder, Ballylinch managing director John O’Connor, Adelaise joined Martyn Meade and won for him at three.

Frustrating year

Days before the Tattersalls July Sale in 2022, Adelaise was beaten just a head at Chelmsford, and she then sold for 75,000gns and joined Joseph O’Brien. She has a frustrating year in 2023, always running well but she kept missing out. She was beaten half a length when third at the Curragh, finished just over a length behind the winner when fourth at Royal Ascot in the Kensington Palace Fillies’, missed out by a neck at Leopardstown when second, was less than a length behind the winner when fourth in a listed race at Saint-Cloud, and was half a length off the runner-up when fifth in a listed race at Longchamp.

Bloodstock agent Amanda Skiffington, mentioned elsewhere this week in connection with A Lilac Rolla, bought the dam of Adelaise for 46,000gns as a three-year-old for John O’Connor. How could you go wrong, given that the two-year-old winner Adelasia (Iffraaj) had cost €300,000 as a yearling? Now she has a perfect record at stud, four winners with her first four foals, and the fifth is a yearling colt by the Arc winner Waldgeist (Galileo). One to watch for is Adelaise’s three-year-old half-brother Royal Supremacy (Make Believe). He won two of his three starts last year for Andrew Balding.

Adelasia is among 10 winners out of Flaming Song (Darshaan), and she gained her sole success at two in France. Her best offspring are the Group 2 five-time winner Fight Club (Lavirco) and the German Group 3 winner Flambo (Platini).

Interestingly, Legal Lyric, a half-sister to Adelasia and a winning daughter of Lawman, bred the stakes winner Haqeeqy (Lope De Vega).

Timely win for son of Free Eagle

ANNGROVE Stud stallion Free Eagle is among the stallions reviewed this week, and his five-year-old son Bolthole provided him with a timely boost at the weekend when he won the Listed Qatar Gold Trophy, one of that country’s most prestigious races.

This was the entire’s eighth win, taking his earnings to well over £600,000, and Bolthole is also a dual listed winner in France where he was placed a few times in group race company. Sold through Glenspring Farm by his breeder Patrick M Ryan as a newly-turned yearling at Goffs for €12,000, Bolthole didn’t sell in the ring later that year at Newmarket, but ended up in Michael Bell’s yard. He won on his debut, had wind surgery, was successful again at three and sold at the Tattersalls Autumn Sale to Wathnan Racing for 130,000gns.

Bolthole is the best of three winners, all her runners, from Weekend Getaway (Acclamation), and she will surely add to that tally in due course. She has a three-year-old colt Wakuda (U S Navy Flag), a two-year-old filly by Arizona (No Nay Never) who is Lot 71 at the Goffs UK Breeze Up Sale from Derryconnor Stud, while last year Peter Nolan spent €42,000 on what is now her yearling filly by Lucky Vega (Lope De Vega).

Weekend Getaway is a full-sister to the Group 3 Haydock winner Absolutely So (Acclamation), and their dam was an unraced daughter of the then Group 2 Pretty Polly Stakes (now Group 1) winner Tarfshi (Mtoto). That mare’s unraced daughter Agbalat (Cape Cross) bred the South African Group 1 winner Pacific Trader (Sail From Seattle).

King’s Apostle

Tarfshi’s dam Pass The Peace (Alzao) won the Group 1 Cheveley Park Stakes and was runner-up in the Group 1 Poule d’Essai des Pouliches – French 1000 Guineas. She bred seven winners, including another winner of the Cheveley Park Stakes in Embassy (Cadeaux Genereux). None of Embassy’s eight winners earned any blacktype, though her grandson did, King’s Apostle (King’s Best) winning the Group 1 Prix Maurice de Gheest, and she is the third dam of a pair of Group 1 winners in Chile.

Puck’s Castle (Shirley Heights), a stakes-placed daughter of Pass The Peace, bred the stakes winner Emerald Peace (Green Desert). The latter is grandam of Group 3 winner East (Frankel), and she was runner-up in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf and placed in the Group 1 Poule d’Essai des Pouliches-French 1000 Guineas.

Another daughter of Pass The Peace to make her mark is Nanshan (Nashwan) and she is grandam of Australian Group 1 winners Atlantic Jewel (Fastnet Rock) and Commanding Jewel (Commands). The former was a dual champion in Australia and her 10 wins included four at Group 1 level, the All Aged Stakes at Randwick, and the Memsie Stakes, The 1000 Guineas and Caulfield Stakes at Caulfield. This is also the immediate family of the Hong Kong champion and three-time Group 1 winner Russian Emperor (Galileo).