DAVID Skelly first came to my attention in 2019 when he won The Irish Field Blue Hen Essay Award on his graduation day from the Irish National Stud Management Course. He went on to complete the Darley Flying Start programme.
He is in the news this week thanks to being a winning owner for the very first time in his own colours, the three-year-old New Bay (Dubawi) daughter Royal Bay Cen landing the spoils in the five and a half-furlong Listed Polonia Stakes at Cork by a sensational nine lengths. Bloodstock agent Skelly only owns the filly since February when he bought her at Arqana for €20,000.
Speaking with the agent this week, it was clear that he had his homework done, and he also had some good fortune. Skelly is happy to admit that he “nicked” Royal Bay Cen at the price he paid, but he also purchased her with the intention to target the Cork race, hoping that her French form would be good enough to perhaps see her being placed. She won twice last year in France, just missed out on blacktype in a Group 3, but that is all history now.
Skelly also hopes to turn Royal Bay Cen over if the price is right, and this could yet happen, but the current thinking is to race on with her and see how far she can go. She is with Johnny Murtagh, a trainer that Skelly holds in the highest regard, and one who has trained Group 1 winners of both sexes. That said, Royal Bay Cen is the 19th filly or mare who has won a blacktype race for Murtagh, headed by the Group 1 winner Champers Elysees.
Little wonder then that Skelly should entrust Murtagh with Royal Bay Cen, and plans will surely be to step her up to pattern level. Her dam, Royal Razalma (Lope De Vega), was bred by Eileen Farrelly and is from the first crop of her sire, who went to stud at Ballylinch in 2011 for a fee of €15,000. This year he is at an all-time high of €200,000, thanks to 92 group winners and 68 other stakes winners.
Certainly dazzled
That first crop by Lope De Vega (Shamardal) dazzled, and Royal Razalma was one of four juvenile group winners among then, joined by Group 1 Dewhurst Stakes winner Belardo, Group 2 Gran Criterium winner Hero Look, and another Group 3 winner in Burnt Sugar. A 24,000gns foal and 15,000gns yearling, Royal Razalma raced for David Joseph, trained by Jonathan Portman, and her two juvenile wins included the Group 3 Cornwallis Stakes at Newmarket.
Royal Razalma’s four winners are all by Ballylinch Stud stallions, and among them is a full-sister to Royal Bay Cen. They also include two-time winner Belisa De Vega (Fascinating Rock). She won twice, also for Portman, and is back in the ownership of Eileen Farrelly and Dermot Murphy. Her first foal, the two-year-old filly Belisa Bay (Bayside Boy), won in France two days after Royal Bay Cen did at Cork, and is one of four first-crop winners for her Ballylinch Stud sire at the time of writing.
Royal Bay Cen is stakes winner number 26 in the first six crops by New Bay, four of them – Saffron Beach, Bay City Roller, Bay Bridge and the aforementioned Bayside Boy – being Group 1 winners.
TWO days after the death of his mother Ann (née Taaffe), Willie McCreey saddled the five-year-old mare Jancis (Tamayuz) to land the Group 2 Dahlia Stakes at Newmarket, and perhaps this is the year that she truly comes of age.
Jancis ran in the Group 1 Matron Stakes on her third start, her trainer having won the race in 2014 with Fiesolana. Only eighth of nine, she was five and a half lengths behind Porta Fortuna. Jancis had won both her starts over seven furlongs, including the Group 3 Brownstown Stakes at Leopardstown. She was highly tried last year, running second in listed company on her first and last outings, and was beaten a neck, a head and a nose in an Ascot Group 3.
Owned and bred by Arturo Cousino, whose interests are managed by Nancy Sexton, Jancis is the only foal out of Blame The Ruler (Ruler Of The World), and that mare carried Cousino’s colours to victory in France over a mile and a half as a three-year-old. Trained by John Hammond, Blame The Ruler only raced twice, also running second on her debut.
Few chances
Blame The Ruler was one of two foals out of Blameless (Authorized). The latter showed little for her owner/breeder Sheikh Mohammed in three starts, and her only other produce was Acquitted (Night Of Thunder). He won six times in all, capturing two listed races in Australia.
Blameless was a half-sister to a pair of blacktype horses, Desert Fire (Cape Cross) and Criza (Smarty Jones). The former won the Group 2 Al Rashidiya Stakes in Dubai, while Criza won in Argentina and was group-placed there. Their dam Crystal House (Golden Voyager) won twice at Group 1 level in Chile where she was the joint-champion filly at three. She was a daughter of Cristalline (Northair), who nine years earlier was the champion filly, and Crystal House is a full-sister to a Group 1 winner.
This is an outstanding family in Chile, and descending from Cristalline are six Group 1 winners, all in that country.
Maybe Jancis can add to that total in Europe.
ONE month after winning a Cork maiden by a short-head, the juvenile Velozee took on just three opponents for the Listed First Flier Stakes at the Curragh, won last year by Lady Iman. The latter filly went on to a couple of Group 3 successes.
Velozee was bred by Grange Stud with Luke Barry’s Manister House Stud, and sold through the Co Limerick farm in Book 1 of last year’s Orby Sale for €92,000 to Paddy Twomey. A day before her most recent win, her three-year-old half-sister Glen And Tonic (Gleneagles) was placed for the third time, and a winning bracket would be important for her broodmare value as the year progresses.
Sales companies will be eager to obtain Velozee’s Blackbeard (No Nay Never) yearling half-sister for their autumn sales. They are out of the unraced Ocean Life (Territories), herself a daughter of the German listed winner Etive (Elusive Quality) who was stakes-placed on a number of occasions in France. Etive is the dam of three winners.
The next two generations are full of quality, especially with regards to Velozee’s third dam, Firth Of Lorne (Danehill). Beaten a length by Zenda in the Group 1 Poule d’Essai des Pouliches-French 1000 Guineas, it was disappointing that she went to stud having won a listed race at Nantes. She was a success at stud, with 10 winners headed by the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Mile winner Master Of The Seas (Dubawi). She is grandam of a pair of Group 1 winners in Australia, Cascadian (New Approach) and Just Fine (Sea The Stars).
Velozee is the 22nd stakes winner for Sioux Nation, and this year he stands at Castlehyde Stud for a high of €37,500. All but five of those 22 earned their blacktype in group-race company.