SOMETIMES it takes a bit of digging to come up with a bargain of the week, but this week has been different, and I am going to feature two horses.

After the Andy Oliver owned and trained Fighting Tears won the second race at the Curragh on Sunday, the Irish EBF Median Sires Series Maiden, I thought my search was over. The debut winner, who clocked a faster time than the nursery winner earlier, cost Oliver €3,000 at the Goffs Autumn Yearling Sale, and could now tackle a Group 3. Maybe she will carry new colours then, as I am sure there have been enquiries for her.

My delight at selecting Fighting Tears as my bargain of the week lasted three hours, when Armor Supreme (Armor) provided Diego Dias with his first stakes winner as a trainer, after a comfortable victory in the Listed William Hill Irish EBF Juvenile Sprint Stakes. She was returning to the track after winning a maiden at Goodwood, beaten a head in the Listed Marygate Stakes at York, and finishing four lengths behind Victorious in the Group 2 Queen Mary Stakes at Royal Ascot.

A majority stake in Armor Supreme was acquired by Team Valor after her debut win, and her future looks bright. She will race for now in Europe, with talk of travelling to France or England, and in time it would be no surprise if she was to head stateside. It is certain that whatever Team Valor paid to get into ownership of Armor Supreme was far in excess of the €4,000 she cost as a yearling in Part 2 of the Tattersalls Ireland September Yearling Sale.

Much better

Armor Supreme is the third stakes winner for her sire, and the second from Armor’s current crop of two-year-olds. His first crop raced last year and included the group-placed Canalejas (who is now a stakes winner this year), as well as Nocturne Blou who raced 18 times last year, and won five. Armor (No Nay Never) has done even better this year, and has already notched up seven individual juvenile winners, two of them at listed level. He stood this year at Haras de Bouquetot for €4,000.

Raced only at two, Armor won on his debut at Doncaster for Richard Hannon before running fifth in the Listed Windsor Castle Stakes at Royal Ascot, beaten less than three lengths. Next up he won the Group 3 Molecomb Stakes by three and a quarter-lengths, was favourite when a neck runner-up to Caturra in the Group 2 Flying Childers Stakes, and was only beaten a total of two lengths when out of the frame in the Grade 2 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint at Del Mar, all over the minimum trip.

He raced twice over six furlongs, and finished fourth to Perfect Power in the Group 1 Prix Morny at Deauville before, one month later, heading to Newmarket for the premier English juvenile sprint race, the Group 1 Middle Park Stakes. Perfect Power won again, but this time Armor was only three-parts of a length behind.

Stakes winner

On the dam side, Armor Supreme becomes the first stakes winner among five successful offspring of the winning Arch (Kris S) mare Hayaku. She was sold for €4,000 carrying Armor Supreme, a long way from the 250,000gns she brought as a yearling. She is also dam of the listed-placed Bijin (Holy Roman Emperor). Hayaku’s half-brother Fantastic View (Distant View) was a Group 3 winner at two and runner-up in the four-runner Group 1 Racing Post Trophy.

Fighting Tears is a twelfth juvenile winner in 2026 for the Irish National Stud’s Lucky Vega (Lope De Vega), who is halfway towards matching his tally of 24 winners in his first northern hemisphere crop. He shuttled and has 13 two-year-old winners down under, where three of his runners are Group 2 winners, and Within The Law has been Group 1 second twice. Lucky Vega’s runners in this part of the world include two stakes winners, three group-placed horses and a couple of stakes-placed winners.

Fighting Tears was not something Andy Oliver was doing after the filly won, unless they were tears of joy, and the Curragh was also the scene of Lucky Vega’s best day racing when winning the Group 1 Keeneland Phoenix Stakes. The Kilcarn Stud-bred colt was trained by Jessica Harrington, and that day at the Curragh he had St Mark’s Basilica nearly five lengths in arrears.

Irish National Stud

Fighting Tears was bred by the Irish National Stud from the Gulfstream Park stakes winner American Frolic (Blame). She is the second winner from the first three foals out of her dam, and the other was placed.

This latest success will be welcomed by Luke Coen at Woodside House who offers Fighting Tears’ yearling half-sister by Starspangledbanner (Choisir) as Lot 233 in the upcoming Tattersalls Ireland Yearling Sale. She sold for €31,000 as a foal at Goffs.

Cathal Beale must have been happy with Fighting Tears as a youngster as he sent the dam back to Lucky Vega and she had a colt this spring. What an attractive breeding prospect Fighting Tears would make if she were to win a stakes race. Her first five dams – at least – are stakes winners in the USA, and they won between four and 16 times.