TWENTY-ONE years of age, Dark Angel (Acclamation) has sired Group 1 winners in all but three of his first 14 crops. His grand total, to date, of winners at the highest level comes to 18, the most recent being the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes winner Almeraq, a Shadwell homebred.

The Yeomanstown Stud veteran is hale and hearty, covering 169 mares last year, and he is odds-on to add further to both his Group 1 record, and his Royal Ascot score. He has a special love affair with the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes, and this was the third win in four years in the race for a son of Dark Angel, Khadeem having won it in 2023 and 2024. Going a little further back, another son, Lethal Force, was successful in 2013.

Adding to that Group 1 Royal Ascot haul are some other sons of the Group 1 Middle Park Stakes winner, who only raced at two. They include, apart from the pair already mentioned, the amazing Battaash (King’s Stand Stakes) and Charyn (Queen Anne Stakes).

When Dark Angel retired to stud he was part of a fashion for some years of juveniles heading straight to the stallion barn, and he has been a great servant to the O’Callaghan family and the breeders who used him. It is hard now to remember that he stood a couple of seasons at €7,000, and was at a high of €85,000.

While Almeraq was something of a surprise winner of the Group 1 on the final day of Royal Ascot 2026, having landed a listed race on his previous outing, he has won four of his seven starts, and only once been out of the money. That was when he fell at York last year. How lovely it was to see Jim Crowley walk back in with Almeraq after this win, and how special it would be to see him reunited with the four-year-old colt. Meanwhile, Shadwell has a sire in the making.

Stallion’s pedigree

What is certain is that Almeraq has a stallion’s pedigree. He is the first foal of Manaajim (Muhaarar), a 925,000gns yearling thanks to her year-older half-sister Fairyland (Kodiac) winning the Group 1 Cheveley Park Stakes. She would go on the next season to capture the Group 1 Derrinstown Flying Five at the Curragh. Coincidentally, Fairyland sold as a yearling for 925,000gns!

Manaajim was trained by William Haggas but she never made it to the racecourse. If that seemed to an expensive failure, it was surely made up for by the trainer, who now handles the career of Almeraq. Haggas also trains Manaajim’s three-year-old daughter Albaydaa (Pinatubo), and she has won or placed on all of her six starts, recording a second success at the end of May. There is a juvenile half-brother, El Asjadi (Night Of Thunder), a yearling filly by Blue Point (Shamardal), and in a serious upgrade, a filly foal this spring by Dubawi (Dubai Millennium).

The grandam of Manaajim is the Group 2 Flying Childers Stakes winner Land Of Dreams (Cadeaux Genereux), and her outstanding runner was the champion Dream Ahead (Diktat). A five-time Group 1 winner, he has sired four top-flight winners among 36 blacktype winners.

Still spreading his magic

MASTERCRAFTSMAN (Danehill Dancer) died at the age of 15, just after finishing his twelfth season at stud in Ireland. He was kept busy too in the off-season, travelling to cover in Argentina, Chile and New Zealand. In excess of 200 of his offspring have earned blacktype on the flat, more than half of them winning such a race. You can add another 14 blacktype National Hunt winners to that total!

When it comes to earnings, one son of Mastercraftsman stands out, the recent Group 2 Hardwicke Stakes winner Giavellotto. Still a full horse, the seven-year-old is not far off pocketing £4 million for his connections. Bred, and raced latterly in partnership, by Scuderia Agricola La Tesa (the Franchini family), Giavellotto is a multiple Group 2 winner in England, but his best paydays have been abroad where he won and placed second in the Group 1 Hong Kong Vase, and was runner-up in the Group 1 Dubai Sheema Classic. A nine-time winner, he has been in the first four on 22 of his 26 runs.

The two-year-old listed winner King Of Cloughan and Group 3 Jersey Stakes-winning three-year-old colt Thesecretadversary advertised the talents of St Mark’s Basilica (Siyouni) to the widest possible audience, and they are members of his first and second crops. Their wins came hot on the heels of the unbeaten Diamond Necklace landing the Group 1 Prix de Diane-French Oaks, making her a dual French classic winner this year.

Bred by Coolmore and Cayton Park Stud, the Fozzy Stack-trained Thesecretadversary carries the colours of Cayton Park’s Gaynor Rupert. She also owns the hugely impressive Drakenstein Stud in South Africa. The Jersey Stakes winner was making his second trip to Royal Ascot, having finished second as a maiden last year in the Listed Chesham Stakes.

He is the second foal and first winner for Too Soon To Panic (Gleneagles), a listed winner at Gowran Park for the same owners, breeders and trainer. Her dam, Scream Blue Murder (Oratorio), was a Group 3 sprint winner at the Curragh, trained by Tommy Stack, and she raced for Rupert and Sue Magnier. The next two dams, both listed winners, were bred and raced by the late Queen Elizabeth.

‘Havana’ a great Norfolk exacta

THE Group 2 Norfolk Stakes belonged this year to the Harper’s Whitsbury Manor Stud. They bred the first two home, Orthodox and El Floridita, and both are by their sire Havana Grey (Havana Gold).

The runner-up was through the sale ring three times, unsold for 25,000gns at the Tattersalls Somerville Yearling Sale, sold for £50,000 at the Goffs UK Breeze Up Sale from Bansha House, and on the eve of Royal Ascot selling for £100,000 at the Goffs London Sale. He continues to race from Nigel Tinkler’s yard for new owner Kevin Dole.

Back to the winner. Clive Cox saddled the colt to win for the second time, and victory came nine years after he won the Group 2 Queen Mary Stakes with Heartache (Kyllachy), a half-sister to the dam of Orthodox. This is a family that has been nurtured at Whitsbury Manor, and each generation produces a horse or two of note. Heartache sold to M.V. Magnier for 1,300,000gns and she is dam of two stakes winners, most recently Exactly (Frankel). This pattern race winner has placed in three Group 1s, the Matron Stakes, Moyglare Stud Stakes and Prix Marcel Boussac,

Orthodox sold as a foal to Alexandra Butler for 175,000gns, but that gamble just failed to pay off when she resold for €175,000 at Goffs to Cox. The Norfolk Stakes has a history of making stallions, and Orthodox is another in the making.

Final race

The final race of Royal Ascot 2026 was the Queen Alexandra Stakes, and it was won by a horse whose previous visits to the meeting saw him win the Group 2 Queen’s Vase and finish second in the Group 1 Gold Cup.

Bred by Coolmore, the five-year-old entire Illinois (Galileo) is a half-brother to the Group 1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner Danedream (Lomitas), and a full-brother to two Group 3 winners, Venice Beach and Broadway. They are out of the unraced Danedrop (Danehill).

Can you believe these numbers? Illinois is among 262 group or graded winners by Galileo (Sadler’s Wells), one of his 392 stakes winners, and one of 633 blacktype performers, and these are just the ones on the flat.

Yulong Investments

Another homebred winner, this time in the Wokingham Stakes, was the four-year-old colt Double Rush (Blue Point). This was his fifth win, all over six furlongs, and he is the fourth winner for the placed Duet (Pivotal). The dam was a €60,000 Arqana purchase by BBA Ireland, carrying Double Rush. Duet is a sibling to three stakes winners.

The final mention goes to the Golden Gates Stakes winner Lost Boys (Night Of Thunder). Bred by Rabbah Bloodstock, they sold him to Alex Elliott for 130,000gns. The three-year-old is on the upgrade and his four wins and two places in six starts has almost won back his purchase price. After foaling Lost Boys, his dam Ocean Wave (Le Havre), a dual winner, sold at Goffs for €10,000, and is in the ownership of Luke Barry’s Manister House Stud, She has a yearling filly by Mehmas (Acclamation).

This victory took Night Of Thunder (Dubawi) to four wins at the meeting, the best of all the sires, but Lost Boys had a very different uniqueness among that quartet. He was the only one not to win a Group 1!