THE National Stud in Newmarket is headed by Irish woman Anna Kerr and is home to five sires for the 2024 season. Time Test and Rajasinghe are off to winning starts, Stradivarius is one of the best-loved racehorses of recent years, while Mutasaabeq is new to the roster. The quintet is completed by Lope Y Fernandez.

The Group 1-placed pattern-winning son of a Dansili (Danehill) mare is standing his third season at an unchanged £8,500, and the depth of his popularity is shown by the fact that he covered 134 mares in his first year, and that grew to 152 last season. He had his first foals under the hammer last year, headed by a colt sold to Amanda Skiffington for 100,000gns.

Trained by Aidan O’Brien, Lope Y Fernandez was a wide-margin debut winner over seven furlongs at the Curragh in early June of his two-year-old year, chased home Pinatubo when runner-up in the Listed Chesham Stakes and third in the Group 2 Vintage Stakes, and then dropped to six furlongs for victory in the Group 3 Round Tower Stakes.

At three he finished third in Siskin’s Group 1 Irish 2000 Guineas, was runner-up to Pinatubo in the Group 1 Prix Jean Prat, third to Space Blues in the Group 1 Prix Maurice de Gheest, and closed that campaign with an honourable third-place finish to Order Of Australia in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Mile.

Raced at four, Lope Y Fernandez ran away with a one-mile listed Leopardstown contest before going on to chase home Palace Pier in the Group 1 Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot. The €900,000 Arqana Deauville August yearling sale graduate achieved a Timeform rating of 120 at three and four, is by a leading international young sire of sires, and his first runners in 2025 will be well anticipated.

Lope De Vega (Shamardal), his sire, is well-established as a leading international stallion and his sons at stud include Group 1 stallion Belardo, classic winning miler Phoenix Of Spain and the classic-placed juvenile Group 1-scorer Lucky Vega

Black Dahlia (Dansili), the dam of Lope Y Fernandez, won five times from seven to 10 furlongs including a six-length score over the shorter trip at Kempton, the venue at which she was listed-placed at a mile. The daughter of listed-scorer South Rock (Rock City) is also responsible for the talented Dark Vision (Dream Ahead), the Group 2 Vintage Stakes winner who went on to add the Group 2 Oettingen-Rennen over a mile at four.

Speedy pattern winners Majestic Dubawi (Dubawi), Majestic Colt (Clodovil) and Isabella Giles (Belardo) appear under a branch of the third generation of the pedigree, whereas the dual Group 1 Lockinge Stakes victor Soviet Line (Soviet Star) is the headline act in the fourth one.

This is also the family of pattern winners such as Quay Line (High Line), Ancholia (High Line), Goncharova (Gone West), My Generation (Young Generation) and Group 1 Irish Oaks heroine Pure Grain (Polish Precedent), and while those are remote connections, they are part of the strong roots that this family has.

Race record

LOPE Y FERNANDEZ (IRE), Bay 2017. Champion 3yr old sprinter in Europe in 2020. Won three races, £423,663, from 6 furlongs to 1 mile, at 2 and 4 years including, Round Tower Stakes, Curragh, Gr.3, Heritage Stakes, Leopardstown, L, also placed second in Prix Jean Prat, Deauville, Gr.1, Queen Anne Stakes, Ascot, Gr.1, Chesham Stakes, Ascot, L, and third in Breeders’ Cup Mile, Keeneland, Gr.1, Irish 2000 Guineas, Curragh, Gr.1, Prix Maurice de Gheest, Deauville, Gr.1, Qatar Vintage Stakes, Goodwood, Gr.2.

At stud

Retired to Stud in 2022. First crop are yearlings.

Information

Stands at: The National Stud, Newmarket, Suffolk CB8 0XE, England.

Contact: Anna Kerr or nominations department

Telephone: +44 1638 675929

Email: stallions@nationalstud.co.uk

Web: www.nationalstud.co.uk

Fee: £8,500