TALLY-HO Stud is quite simply one of the most successful commercial farms in Europe. It is primarily flat-focused, but you will see the O’Callaghan team present at every major National Hunt sale, not afraid to purchase, and they sell a number of stores each year too.

Their most obvious sign of success is thanks to the achievements of its stallions, whom they support in great numbers, and who are guaranteed to have the backing of breeders from Ireland and further afield. They like horses who will reap a quick reward, and Tally-Ho sires have regularly been top of the tree when it comes to stallions with their first runners.Two decades ago now, Kodiac was bought for stallion duties, serving his first four years at €4,000 and €5,000. He became a favourite with breeders with plenty of winners, though he was a few years at stud before his first group winners appeared, in 2014, and among them was the champion juvenile filly and Group 1 Cheveley Park Stakes winner Tiggy Wiggy. It was no surprise when his fee jumped from €10,000 to €25,000, and after that the top-level winners flowed.

Among them were Tally-Ho-bred winners Campanelle and Fairyland, while Kodiac’s Group 1 Prix Jean Prat winner Good Guess has joined the roster in Mullingar, near the waters of Lough Ennell, and his own first crop of yearlings will face the market test this autumn. Kodiac had a memorable year in 2017 when no fewer than 61 of his two-year-old sons and daughters were winners, setting a world record.

The record was momentarily challenged with the first runners in 2020 by Mehmas (Acclamation). His initial crop contained 55 individual winners, by miles better than any of his peers, but unlike Kodiac who had no pattern winners with his first runners, Mehmas had an explosive starts, getting Group 1 Middle Park Stakes winner Supremacy, and Group 2 Gimcrack Stakes hero Minzaal. The latter, later to win a Group 1, is among the leading sires with their first runners in 2026.

Champion sires

Cotai Glory (Exceed And Excel) with 35 winners in 2021 and Starman (Dutch Art) who had 45 winners last year have also been champion first-season sires, with the latter already responsible for a dual Group 1 winner in Venetian Sun, and at the time of writing another eight blacktype winners.

Can Tally-Ho supply back-to-back champions when the 2026 season comes to a close? There is still some way to go, and the contest has perhaps yet to hit top gear, but Persian Force, a son of Mehmas, is currently leading the way with 16 winners, while his paternal half-sibling Minzaal has made a fine start with nine winners and two stakes horses. Between these two are Bayside Boy and Blackbeard with 12 and 11 winning offspring respectively. Persian Force and Bayside Boy are the leading pair at the time of writing this, and are going head-to-head with stakes horses. They have three each, with Ballylinch Stud’s Bayside Boy best when it comes to stakes winners, being the only first-season stallion with a pair of them. Where Persian Force’s connections will claim bragging rights is that he is the sole member of his peer group with a pattern winner.

Molecomb Stakes

This is thanks to Pershaada, and she confirmed her love affair with Goodwood when capturing the Group 3 Molecomb Stakes at Goodwood. This race was won 12 months ago by Lady Iman (Starman), and in 2023 by Big Evs who has just completed his second season at stud in Tally-Ho, and whose first crop born this spring includes a half-sister to Pershaada. The Molecomb winner is being spoken of as a possible for the Group 1 Nunthorpe Stakes. The catalogue for Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale was recently published, days before Pershaada won the Molecomb Stakes. Her Good Guess half-sister id Lot 112. Pershaada had already shown that she was among the best fillies this year when fourth in the Group 2 Queen Mary Stakes, having won a Goodwood maiden. The Queen Maru was won by Victorious, by then a Group 3 winner and who remains unbeaten.

The Queen Mary runner-up Senorita Bonita is a subsequent Group 2 Duchess of Cambridge Stakes winner, while the fifth, Crownbreaker, gave Minzaal his first stakes winner in a Deauville listed race. The tenth past the post at Ascot, Wild Blossom, was a very smart winner at the recent Goodwood festival, while a slew of others who were down the field have paid tribute to the form.

Mild Illusion

Pershaada is the third foal and winner for her dam, and it is no surprise that the others are by Tally-Ho stallions. This is because they own the dam, Mild Illusion (Requinto), and she was a fairytale story a few years ago. Bred by Marston Stud, she cost trainer Jonathan Portman 1,000gns as a yearling, and had a fine season at two, her only year to race. She did not run until late June, made eight starts between then and November 1st, and won three times over six furlongs.

At the Tattersalls December Sale that same year, and having just won the Listed Bosra Sham Stakes at Newmarket, Tony O’Callaghan gave 160,000gns for Mild Illusion, and quickly sent her to the breeding shed.

Her first three yearlings sold realised 27,000gns, 52,000gns and 88,000gns, and that trajectory should take a huge leap forward in October. Pershaada was bought as a yearling by Peter & Ross Doyle Bloodstock and they had extra reason to celebrate her Goodwood win as a few days later they had an 80th birthday celebration for Peter.