MANDY Pope owns Whisper Hill Farm in the USA and is one of breeding’s and racing’s biggest investors and participants. In 2014, she spent $3,900,000 at the Keeneland November Sale for the Group 3 winner Aloof, a daughter of Galileo (Sadler’s Wells) and Airwave (Air Express).
Regally-bred, and a solid performer at Group 3 level, Aloof was trained by David Wachman to win three times, notably in the latter part of her second season when she was successful in a Lanwades Stud-sponsored Group 3 at Gowran Park. She raced again at four, notching up a career total of 20 starts, but failed to win again. The filly she was carrying at the time of her sale, Flora Sandes (War Front), recouped $900,000 for Pope and won a single race. She died at the age of six.
Next up was another filly, Balon Rose (War Front), and she too was a single race winner, scant reward for the $1.6 million she brought as a yearling. Two Tapit (Pulpit) offspring were next, both minor winners, and it was becoming evident perhaps to Pope that she was not turning out to be the star producer she hoped Aloof would become.
Two years ago, Pope decided to cut her losses, as such, and sold Aloof for $75,000 to Mark McStay’s Avenue Bloodstock. She was carrying a filly by Olympiad (Speightstown), whose fee that year was $35,000, and the now yearling was unsold in September.
Good fortune
Perhaps that is now a piece of good fortune, as Aloof has finally come up with the goods, in the shape of the Chad Brown-trained, Mandy Pope-owned Just Aloof (Justify). A winner on her debut in October, Brown shipped her from New York to tackle the Grade 3 Jimmy Durante Stakes at Del Mar’s closing meet of the year at the weekend, and she won the race in convincing style.
Aloof is a full-sister to two blacktype winners, Keats (Galileo) in Ireland and Australia, and Orator (Galileo) who won a listed race at Nantes. Another full-sister, Fairytale Ending (Galileo) was unraced but is dam of a pair of US stakes winners. However, all of these achievements are as nothing to those of Aloof’s half-sister Meow (Storm Cat). She raced five times, her two victories including a listed race at Naas at two, and she was second in the Group 2 Queen Mary Stakes at Royal Ascot.
Meow has made a lasting impression at stud. She has three stakes winners, all by Galileo, and they are Churchill, Clemmie and Blenheim Palace. Group 1 sire Churchill was European champion at two, and the best miler at three. As a juvenile, he took the honours in both the Group 1 National Stakes and Dewhurst Stakes, and the following year doubled that tally in the 2000 Guineas and the Irish equivalent.
European champion
The next year, Clemmie was also a European champion two-year-old filly after her victory in the Group 1 Cheveley Park Stakes. Her first produce, Unless (Justify), is a stakes winner and Group 3 runner-up.
Airwave herself was the champion juvenile filly at two, after her purchase as a yearling by Henry Candy for 12,000gns at Doncaster. She won the Cheveley Park Stakes 15 years before Clemmie.
Just Aloof’s third dam Kangra Velley (Indian Ridge) had eight winners, two at Group 1 level. They were Airwave and Jwala (Oasis Dream), the latter doing so in the Nunthorpe Stakes. If that was not enough, Kangra Valley is grandam of Dream Of Dreams (Dream Ahead) who won both the Group 1 Diamond Jubilee Stakes and Haydock Park Sprint.
Next year will see Justify (Scat Daddy) stand for $200,000, a drop of $50,000. This is in spite of siring the Group 1 2000 Guineas winner Ruling Court, Group 1 St Leger winner Scandinavia, four other group or graded winners, and at least nine other blacktype winners this year. How do you measure and value success?
NEARLY two years ago I congratulated Castledillon Stud’s Timmy Hillman for spending €53,000 on a colt foal by Gentlewave (Monsun) at the Tattersalls Ireland November National Hunt Sale, as the foal’s half-brother was beginning to look like a potential star on the track.
The colt Hillman acquired was by a stallion who started his stud career in France at Haras du Thenney for eight seasons, moved to Yorton Stud for a couple of seasons, went back to France and Haras du Lion for two years, but returned to Yorton in 2020 and there he is currently based.
Best known as the sire of Grade 2-winning chaser Gentlemansgame and the Kerry National winner Poker Party, Gentlewave won the Group 1 Derby Italiano and was runner-up in the Irish Derby at the Curragh.
The dam of the colt that Hillman purchased is Miss Bailly (Kapgarde), and she won three times over jumps in France, possesses a strong female line, and is certainly making a name for herself at stud. While her first foal didn’t race, the second, Ascending Lark (Great Pretender), was placed twice from just three starts in bumpers, and went on to win all of her six starts over hurdles for Harry Derham, culminating with victory in a listed hurdle race at this year’s Punchestown Festival.
Recent setback
Ascending Lark was due to continue racing, but a recent setback means she will now return to the Lalor’s Carrigeen Bloodstock broodmare team in Tipperary and be covered in the spring. Derham believed that she had much more to offer. That said, even most interest for Hillman surely surrounds the third offspring of Miss Bailly.
This is Romeo Coolio (Kayf Tara) who won his only start in a point-to-point before selling for £420,000 to Aidan O’Ryan and Gordon Elliott. Donnchadh Doyle sent Romeo Coolio out to win on his debut after spending €92,000 to acquire him at the Derby Sale.
After his bumper win for Gordon Elliott, the trainer described Romeo Coolio as “a proper horse and it’s all about the future for him. I think he’s a real good one. Whatever he does this year is a bonus. He’ll go straight to Cheltenham now.”
Off he went and ran second in the Grade 1 Weatherbys Champion Bumper at Cheltenham. When his attention was turned to hurdling, Romeo Coolio was a nine-length winner of the Grade 1 Future Champions Novice Hurdle at Leopardstown and placed at the top table in both Cheltenham and Aintree. Now, he is unbeaten on his first two starts over fences, running out an eight-length winner of the Grade 1 Drinmore Novice Chase at Fairyhouse.
Further enhancing
Romeo Coolio is further enhancing a family that is packed with quality. Gordon Elliott spent €265,000 at the Derby Sale to get his hands on Butchers Bill (Kayf Tara), Romeo Coolio’s half-brother. The less said about him the better!
Other young stock out of Miss Bailly are a four-year-old unraced filly Julio Coolie (Crystal Ocean) and a three-year-old gelding Bailey’s Comet (Passing Glance) who, on his debut two weeks ago, won a bumper in Wincanton.
Miss Bailly is a full-sister to the English listed bumper and hurdle winner Cap Soleil (Kapgarde), and a half-sister to the French listed hurdle winner Prince Picard (Sleeping Car). Cap Soleil’s first foal, the four-year-old My Fault Again (Diamond Boy), sold at the Goffs Arkle Sale in 2024 for €150,000.
Cap Soleil’s half-sister Summer (Lomitas), won 10 races over jumps in France, and is the grandam of Anzadam (Authorized) who was second in that unforgettable Grade 1 Fighting Fifth Hurdle at the weekend.
Cap Soleil’s dam Move Again (Noir Et Oir) won five races, twice over jumps, and did exceptionally well at stud, with all of her five foals winning. Move Again’s only successful sibling was a Group 3 winner on the flat, while their unraced half-sister Move Along (Northern Crystal) bred the Grade 1 Punchestown Festival winner Blood Cotil (Enrique).