MASAR is embarking on his second season at Micheal Hickey’s Sunnyhill Stud this spring, and he got a very warm response from breeders during the recent ITM Stallion Trail. Having fallen out of favour with flat breeders during his time at Dalham Hall Stud, National Hunt breeders took to him last year, and he covered almost 70 mares, from a wide range of successful mare owners.

That number deserves to grow, and hopefully will, as news filters through of the quality of his first Irish-conceived crop. Maser (New Approach) was a high-class racehorse who has shown his ability to get winners, and good quality stock, and he has the sort of profile that will ensure he does well as a jumps sire. He has a very good day on Tuesday, and just in time for the start of the covering season, when his son Stencil won a novice chase at Chepstow in the colours of J.P. McManus, and daughter Orestina was a debut bumper winner at Newcastle.

We already knew about Stencil’s ability, and this dual winner over hurdles was runner-up to the smart East India Dock in a Grade 2 juvenile hurdle at Cheltenham. Masar’s stock seem to like that venue, as another of his sons, Robbies Rock, trained by Gavin Cromwell and a three-time winner, was second in the Grade 3 Fred Winter Hurdle at Cheltenham last March.

Special mention

In addition to three blacktype runners over jumps, Masar has seven on the level, and special mention has to be made of Venetian Lace, a likely classic hope for 2026. She ended her first season last year running second to Precise in the Group 1 Fillies’ Mile. A bit like Golden Horn, one feels that having sold him, Masar will now start coming up with more good flat horses, keeping his name in lights.

“The phone hasn’t stopped ringing since the weekend,” were Hickey’s words to me in late May last year after the 2018 Derby winner had just enjoyed a memorable week, with seven flat winners. His oldest crop are now five-year-olds, and the catalyst for that flurry of breeders contacting Sunnyhill was a horse called Jewel Hope, the sire’s first point-to-point runner.

Trained by Cormac Doyle, he had run out a most impressive winner of a nine-runner maiden at Ballindenisk, finishing 25 lengths and more ahead of his rivals. After that win, Jewel Hope sold for £150,000. The versatility shown by Masar’s stock has not gone unnoticed by breeders, and he has sired winners all over the world.

Great Galileo

Frankel (40 Group 1 winners among 171 stakes winners), Teofilo (24 among 120) and New Approach (nine among 62) as among the best stallion sons of the great Galileo (Sadler’s Wells). New Approach added to his classic tally when Mac Swiney won the Group 1 Irish 2000 Guineas, while his first-crop daughter Talent won the Group 1 Oaks, the same season that juvenile champion Dawn Approach secured a Group 1 2000 Guineas victory at Newmarket. Then Masar won the Group 1 Derby.

Dawn Approach proved that a son of New Approach can become a classic sire when Poetic Flare landed the Group 1 2000 Guineas. He is also responsible for the Australian Group 1 winner Paulele.

All of this augurs well for Masar, especially given the powerful family he represents. He is inbred 3x4 to the Group 1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe heroine and phenomenal broodmare Urban Sea (Miswaki), and along with Galileo and Sea The Stars (Cape Cross), he is the third Derby winner in the immediate family. Masar’s Derby victory was memorable, and he ran away with the Group 3 Craven Stakes over a mile before finishing third to Saxon Warrior in the Group 1 2000 Guineas.

Masar was third to September in the Listed Chesham Stakes at Royal Ascot at two, defeated future classic-winning miler Romanised by two lengths to win the Group 3 Solario Stakes, and was third to Happily in the Group 1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere. He is out of the Group 2 UAE Derby and Group 3 UAE Oaks heroine Khawlah (Cape Cross).

Ma Shantou is latest Lavelle star

WHILE he has a way to go to become the star that Paisley Park was, it is credit that connections even mention the name of Ma Shantou (Shantou) in the same breath. Such was the imperious majesty of the seven-year-old’s win in the Grade 2 Cleeve Hurdle at Cheltenham that Ma Shantou’s trainer Emma Lavelle was able to do so. Many will be watching the winner’s progress.

Few will have as much interest as son and father team Michael and Leonard Cave, given that they bred Ma Shantou, and have a two-year-old half-sister by Sumbal (Danehill Dancer). Leonard was joined in the partnership by Nicola FitzGerald, and together they have a yearling half-brother by Diamond Boy (Mansonnien). The dam, Ma Pretention (Great Pretender), visited Poet’s Word (Poet’s Voice) last year.

It was Michael Cave who gave what now seems a paltry €5,000 for Ma Pretention at Arqana after she just turned six. If the mare was anything, she was sound and had raced in France a total of 27 times over hurdles and fences. She showed plenty of promise at three before winning for the first, and only, time over hurdles at Auteuil, and followed this up in a couple of weeks by running second in the Listed Prix de Chambly Hurdle at the same venue. She placed many times, but her form fell away.

Put in foal to Shirocco (Monsun) in his first season at Glenview Stud, the Caves sent Ma Pretention for sale to Tattersalls Ireland, but did not part with her at €26,000. She had a colt the next year, who sold to Matt O’Connor for €12,000, but he was never named. After a barren year to Shantou (Alleged), Ma Pretention was offered in foal to that sire in 2016, and again retained, this time at €21,000. She had a filly subsequently who showed little in five starts, but was recorded as being covered last year by Affinisea (Sea The Stars).

If that was something of a stuttering start, Ma Pretention’s owners stayed loyal to Shantou, and her third foal was a colt, later gelded and named Giacosa. Placed in a bumper for Stuart Crawford, he made his way to France and won three times, including in 2025, and was placed in a Grade 3 hurdle race at Auteuil.

Gerry Hogan

Ma Shantou followed, and he has had a topsy-turvy sales history, but after running third in a Fairyhouse bumper on his debut, sold for £120,000 to Gerry Hogan at Tattersalls Cheltenham. He has won the lion’s share of it back with a bumper win and five successes over hurdles. Last year was a good one for Ma Pretention, as her daughter Bearami Creek (Shantou) won over hurdles, taking to three her number of winners that year alone.

There should be more to come, as Ma Pretention’s four-year-old gelding is named Moon Lit Shadow (Sea Moon), and he was bought by Harry Goff and Matt Gahan at the Goffs Arkle Sale for €42,000.

It is no surprise that Ma Shantou possesses plenty of ability, as his first three dams all won and were placed in blacktype races in France. His third dam, Marie De Pharis (Pas De Seul), won twice and six of her placed runs were in listed hurdle races, three times finishing second. She bred four winners, and best by far was Good Bye Simon (Simon Du Desert). Twenty years ago he was sent by Thierry Doumen to win the Grade 1 juvenile hurdle at Chepstow, and the following summer he won a Grade 1 in France, beating Big Buck’s.