FORTY Group or Grade 1 winners. That is the latest landmark reached at the weekend for Banstead Manor Stud’s Frankel (Galileo), the uneaten champion on the track who is now firmly ensconced in the pantheon of great sires.

The horse that secured this noteworthy achievement for Frankel is the four-year-old Sir Delius, though he achieved his ‘knighthood’ after he arrived in Australia to join Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott. In France he raced as plain old Delius! Bred by David and Trish Brown of Furnace Mill Stud, Sir Delius is out of Whatami (Daylami), and twice made headlines in the Tattersalls sale ring, selling to M.V. Magnier as a foal for 675,000gns, and then as a horse-in-training last October for a sale record 1,300,000gns.

The sale in December 2021 represented a high for the Brown’s Furnace Mill Stud, the best result for the farm with a foal and a figure that reduced breeder Trish Brown to tears after bidding developed into a fight-out between Magnier and Juddmonte Farms. Trish said: “It is fantastic; worth all the sleepless nights. He has been brilliant all the way through, a lovely horse. It was lovely to see him making that money. We bought the mare here; she cost 25,000gns from New England Stud and she has been a star.”

A record-breaking Tattersalls Horses In Training Sale purchase, Sir Delius is favourite for the Group 1 Melbourne Cup after he gained a maiden top-flight success in the Underwood Stakes at Caulfield. The colt will likely tackle the Group 1 Cox Plate. With a long-term plan coming to pass, Waterhouse and Bott have a real chance to win the race that stops a nation in November.

Coolmore team

Racing for the Coolmore team, Delius as he was known in Europe won the Group 3 Prix du Lys when in the care of Jean-Claude Rouget, and his placed efforts included running third in the Group 1 Grand Prix de Paris and second in the Group 2 Prix Niel. He was eighth behind Bluestocking in the Arc. Delius sold after that to Waterhouse and Bott, Sir Owen Glenn’s Go Bloodstock, Hubie De Burgh and Johnny McKeever.

Waterhouse won the 2013 Melbourne Cup with the Irish-bred Fiorente, and she plans a very similar programme with Sir Delius – the Group 1 Might And Power Stakes (October 11th), the Group 1 Cox Plate (October 25th), and the Melbourne Cup at Flemington about 10 days later. That 1.3 million guineas might yet look to be a bargain price.

Sir Delius is an own-brother to Listed Wolferton Stakes winner Juan Elcano (Frankel), and that Royal Ascot hero was placed many times at group-level. The pair’s half-sister Nkosikazi (Cape Cross) won a Group 3, and their dam Whatami is a full-sister to the Listed Chesham Stakes winner Whazzat (Daylami). That mare bred Group 2 Mill Reef Stakes winner James Garfield (Exceed And Excel), and is grandam of two current stars, Jm Jungle (Bungle Inthejungle), and Wimbledon Hawkeye (Kameko).

Sepals takes Calyx to the next level

“THE Group 2 Coventry Stakes winner Calyx (Kingman) is waiting for his first Group 1 winner, and a possible contender for that honour is the Group 2 Blandford Stakes winner Barnavara.”

I wrote this a week ago following the Irish Champions Festival weekend. Well, the sire, who died in May this year, has proven me wrong, and as you were reading this in last weekend’s paper, the Australian-bred Sepals was indeed supplying the former Coolmore sire with his first Group 1 success as a stallion.

The brilliant Group 1 victory of the four-year-old gelding in the A$1 million Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes capped an outstanding run of form for Vinery Stud graduates this spring (down under). Group 3 winner of the C S Hayes Stakes earlier in the year, Sepals returned in style to win by more than four lengths before successfully stepping into Group 1 company. Back in third on Saturday was Australian Guineas winner Feroce. Sepals now boasts an impressive record of five wins from seven starts and earnings of A$905,990.

Singapore

Bred by Greg Perry and offered through Vinery Stud at the Inglis Classic Yearling Sale, Sepals was purchased by his trainer Cliff Brown for A$80,000. This was the first Group 1 win for Brown since he moved back from Singapore, and Sepals’ pedigree is familiar to the trainer. He trained the gelding’s dam What’s New (Casino Prince) to win six times in Singapore, where she was the champion older horse.

This is still a young family. What’s New has since produced a three-year-old gelding Cashemcowboy (Star Turn), as well as a yearling colt by the same sire. Adding an exciting new chapter to the family story, Sepals’ grandam Pussycat Dream (Oasis Dream) recently foaled a colt by Vinery’s young sire Hawaii Five Oh (I Am Invincible).

While this is very much a New Zealand family, it did enjoy a brief sojourn in Britain. Sepals’ third dam, The Cat’s Whiskers (Tale Of The Cat), won twice for Henrietta Tavistock’s Bloomsbury Stud in New Zealand. The Cat’s Whiskers foaled Pussycat Dream in England, and that filly was sold to John Fretwell as a yearling for 65,000gns.

Pussycat Dream ran once, won, and sold to Paul Moroney that same year for 40,000gns, and was brought back to New Zealand. The Cat’s Whiskers is a daughter of the New Zealand champion two-year-old and Group 1-winning filly Good Faith (Straight Strike).

Beyond Reason’s new star

SOMETIMES it can be frustrating to write about another big race winner with no stallion prospects, not because they lack a good enough pedigree but because they are gelded. It is even more galling in the case of a two-year-old who supposedly has the racing world at their feet.

Such is the case with Words Of Truth, the Godolphin-bred winner of the Group 2 Mill Reef Stakes at Newbury, his third success in four starts. The son of Lope De Vega (Shamardal) is the second juvenile blacktype winner of 2025 for his Ballylinch sire, and the second successive Group 2 winner at this age for his dam, Beyond Reason (Australia). Keeping that particular sequence going, Beyond Reason was also a Group 2 winner at two!

Last year, Beyond Reason’s then juvenile Ancient Truth (Dubawi) also won three of his four starts, the highlight being success in the Group 2 Superlative Stakes at Newmarket. He rounded out his season with a return to Newmarket for the Group 1 Dewhurst Stakes where he finished third. Ruled out of the 2000 Guineas following a setback, it was revealed a few days later that the injury was a serious one, and the talented colt could not be saved.

Paget Bloodstock

Two Group 2 winners among your first three foals – the other, Great Truth (Dubawi) also won at two – is a great start for Beyond Reason, and that Paget Bloodstock-bred mare holds a special place in the stud story of Australia (Galileo). Her victory in the Group 3 Prix Six Perfections at Deauville was a first pattern win for the stallion. This was also noteworthy as Beyond Reason carried the Godolphin silks, having cost Rabbah Bloodstock 370,000gns as a yearling. She is one of three progeny of her dam No Explaining (Azamour). The other two, both colts, ran and placed.

No Explaining started her racing career with Barney Curley and won at the third time of asking. She then went to the USA and won five more races there and in Canada. Her best success came in a Grade 3 and she placed a few times in Grade 2 company.