MONT-DE-MARSAN is a racecourse in south-west France, holding about 13 meetings a year, both flat and over jumps. Boasting a covered grandstand with 500 seats, it offers free admission to patrons. I cannot say that I knew it by name until this weekend.

Why did it come to my attention? Well, it hosted a pair of listed races, the six-furlong Criterium du Bequet-Ventes Osarus for two-year-olds, and the Prix La Sorellina for three-year-old fillies over a mile. Ballylinch Stud will be well aware of the racecourse and these two races, as Bayside Boy had his second stakes winner from his first crop with Belisa Bay, and the stallion’s own sire, New Bay (Dubawi), sired the second winner, Repel.

The latter filly is a Juddmonte homebred, trained by Francis Graffard, and she was one of a pair of stakes winners on Sunday for New Bay, as the 1,000gns 2025 July Sale graduate Bint New Bay won a seven-furlong listed race at Munich. This was the four-year-old’s fourth win of the year, with the others having come in Poland.

First blacktype

Repel was winning for the third time in six starts, and gaining her first blacktype. She is the fourth winner out of the stakes-placed Battlement (Dansili). The others include a pair of daughters, Crenelle (Kingman) and Alice Knyvet (Acclamation). Crenelle was purchased by Stroud Coleman in 2024 for 160,000gns on behalf of Normandie Stud, while Alice Knyvet, also a winner, sold a year earlier for one-tenth of that price to Alex Elliott. She was later in the ownership of Sue Magnier, with Simon Callaghan in the USA, but never raced there.

Battlement is from a family that has a long association with Juddmonte. She is half-sister to Group 1 St Leger winner Logician (Frankel), and half-sister to the dams of dual Grade 1 Diana Stakes winner Whitebeam (Caravaggio) and the recent Group 1 Pretty Polly Stakes winner Estrange (Night Of Thunder). I reviewed this family in depth recently.

Only last week I wrote about Bayside Boy having his first stakes winner, and as we went to press he sired a second stakes horse. Now he has a third, and is the only first-season sire in Europe with two stakes winners, thanks to Belisa Bay. Bred by Eileen Farrelly at her Misty Lodge Stud, Belisa Bay was unsold as a foal for €18,000. When she reappeared as a yearling in Part 2 of the Tattersalls Ireland September Sale, she was consigned by Caroline Hannon’s Annaca Bloodstock, and sold for €23,000.

A bargain

The purchasers were listed as Westfield Bloodstock and Henri-Francis Devin, and the filly went to France. She made her first four starts in the name of Ballylinch Stud, and placed twice before winning twice when stretched to six furlongs. Her second win, at Saint-Cloud, was in a claimer, and she left Devin to go to Spain after being claimed for just €20,000. That was a bargain, as she is now a four-in-a-row winner, once in Spain and of a listed race.

Belisa Bay recorded her first win in France two days after Royal Bay Cen (New Bay) won the Listed Polonia Stakes at Cork. She was less than a length off the winner when fourth in a Group 3 at Naas next time out. The dam of Belisa Bay, two-time winner Belisa De Vega (Fascinating Rock), and Royal Bay Cen are half-sisters, and among four winners from as many runners out of the Group 3 Cornwallis Stakes winner Royal Razalma (Lope De Vega).

Trained by Jonathan Portman, Royal Razalma was one of four pattern-winning juveniles from the first crop of her sire, the best of which was Belardo. Now he is one of the world’s great stallions. Royal Razalma was also bred by Eileen Farrelly.

Ghaiyyath’s banner day with fillies

LAST Thursday week was a good day for Darley stallion Ghaiyyath (Dubawi), with a listed race double within hours, both fillies winning at that level for the first time.

First to strike was his two-year-old daughter Aperoll, and she earned blacktype when making all the running in the Listed European Bloodstock News Star Stakes at Sandown. She went into the race on the back of an excellent third in the Listed Chesham Stakes at Royal Ascot, beaten less than a length. At the start of June Aperoll made a winning debut at Newbury.

For her second success Aperoll had to battle gamely to win by a neck. She impressed trainer Richard Hannon, who boldly suggested that she is a Guineas filly. He says that she has tons of improvement in her, and is a most promising sort for owner Samantha de la Hay. She and her husband Johnny have enjoyed lots of success with National Hunt runners, notably Grade 1 winners Pic D’Orhy, Cyrname, Diego Du Charmil and Adrien Du Pont.

Michael O’Leary

Bred by Michael O’Leary’s Plantation Stud and unsold as a foal, Aperoll realised 80,000gns the next year to Peter and Ross Doyle Bloodstock. She is the fifth offspring of the Exceed And Excel (Danehill) mare Rue Cambon who raced five times at two, showing little sign of racing ability. It did not stop O’Leary paying 57,500gns for her at the end of that season, investing in her pedigree rather than her racing prowess, or lack thereof.

When Rue Cambon joined the broodmare band at Plantation Stud she was a half-sister to eight winners, the best of which was one of the best three-year-old fillies of 2005, Gorella (Grape Tree Road). A Group 2 winner in France and runner-up in the Group 1 Prix du Moulin, she went on to Grade 1 success in the USA in the Beverly D Stakes, and placed in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Mile. Gorella is the dam of a number of winners in Japan, none of them blacktype.

Born a year after Rue Cambon (named after a street in Paris near Place Vendôme and the Tuileries Garden, and home to the headquarters of Chanel) was her full-sister Royal Intervention (Exceed And Excel), and she proved to be much more talented than her sibling, becoming a Group 2 winner in Germany and winning at up to Group 3 standard in Britain.

She was the ninth and final winner for Exciting Times (Jeune Homme) who sold for 900,000gns in the aftermath of Gorella’s emergence.

Czechia-trained

Another of Ghaiyaath’s daughters made it a stakes double later in the day at Vichy.

Madame Fayette won on her first attempt in stakes company when narrowly getting her head in front in the Listed Prix Madame Jean Couturie. Trained in Czechia by Dalibor Torok, the three-year-old previously landed a maiden at Lyon-Parilly.

Named after a famous French writer, Madame Fayette was bred by and races for Haras de Beaufay, the Normandy farm owned by Czech breeder and businessman Jirí Trávnícek. She is the first winner out of the stakes-placed mare Lexington Grace (Sir Prancealot).

Kildangan Stud-based Ghaiyyath is having his best year and is sire of 21 blacktype performers in 2026, eight of whom have won at listed level or higher. They are headed by the Group 1 Jebel Hatta winner Opera Ballo, and the Australian-bred Observer who is standing on the Darley roster at Northwood Park for the first time on the back of victories in the Group 1 Victoria Derby and the Group 1 Australian Guineas.