BUYING the only offspring of a mare as a breeding prospect is a bit of a gamble, given that you have no siblings to run for you and boost the family, and no sisters to provide further winners. These considerations were not lost I am sure on Patrick Burns of Newlands House Stud when he spent 30,000gns at the Tattersalls December Sale 22 years ago for the winning mare, Changari (Gulch).

One thing Changari had in her favour was the fact that she was a Juddmonte homebred. She traced back to Mofida (Right Tack), her third dam, and the pedigree page at the time showed that her grandam Dangora (Sovereign Dancer), runner-up in the Group 2 Lowther Stakes and a dual winner from four starts, was a half-sister to the dams of two-time European champion Zafonic (Gone West), Group 1 Eclipse Stakes and Irish Champion Stakes winner Elmaamul (Diesis), and Group 1 Fillies’ Mile and Oaks winner Reams Of Verse (Nureyev).

On the balance of probability, Changari had inherited some of the family’s good genes, and she had a fighting chance of making it by herself. If there was a chink in the armour, it might have been that Changari’s dam Danzari (Arazi), who gained her only win in a listed race in France, was the best of just three winners from Dangora, and a number of the latter’s daughters had gone abroad. They would eventually go on to leave us with stakes winners in Australia and Brazil.

Solid investment

Changari has proven to be a solid investment for Burns, and all but two of her 13 foals were sired by stallions standing at his brother Maurice’s Rathasker Stud. Seven of her progeny won, and her sole stakes winner was Company Asset (Fast Company). She raced 28 times. and on her penultimate run, days before she was due to sell at Newmarket, won a listed race at Doncaster, after which Ted Voute paid 135,000gns for her.

Twice Changari had stock by Dandy Man (Mozart), one of which won and the other raced without placing. The second of these was Jackie Sparrow and she made her way back into the broodmare band at Newlands House. The better of her two winners is Funny Money Honey (Bungle Inthejungle) who won the Listed Legacy Stakes at Dundal at two, placed in a Group 3, and is now a Tally-Ho Stud broodmare.

Patrick and his wife Ann Marie retained Changari’s daughter Call Of The Jungle (Bungle Inthejungle), a full-sister to the Swedish listed-placed and seven-time winner Lost My Sock, and put her in training with Willie McCreery. After a number of smart placed efforts, she won a maiden at the Curragh on her eighth start. Two of her first three foals are now winners, among them the unbeaten two-year-old Arapaho Gold (Bayside Boy).

First-crop sires

Minzaal and Bayside Boy (New Bay) have one thing in common – they are the only first-crop sires with a stakes winner. Michael Dods paid €42,000 in Book 2 of the Goffs Orby Sale for Arapaho Gold, and the gelding has won his purchase price back with three wins. He was a clearcut winner of both his starts at Thirsk, and showed guts and determination to deny the Charlie Appleby-trained Nabati in the Listed Rose Bowl Stakes at Newbury. Appleby won this race last year with the subsequent Group 1 Middle Park Stakes winner Wise Approach.

Four sires have moved into a clear lead among those with their first runners this year. At the time of writing, Persian Force has 15 winners and two stakes-placed horses, Blackbeard has 11 and a stakes-placed horse, Bayside Boy has 10 winners and two stakes horses, while Minzaal is responsible for eight winners and two stakes performers.

Ballylinch Stud’s golden run of success

IN addition to Bayside Boy getting his first stakes winner, stallions standing at Ballylinch Stud have been having a purple patch when it comes to success.

Bayside Boy’s sire New Bay (Dubawi) is well on course to have his best year, and he notched up another pattern winner after the Charlie Johnston-trained Jennifer Jane, bred by Rathbran House Stud (Mick Flanagan) and Rosetown Bloodstock (David Cox), added Chantilly’s Group 3 Prix Chloe to a six-length listed win at Newmarket in May. She is the sire’s fourth pattern winner of 2026, following Group 1 winner Bay City Roller and Group 2 winners Limestone and Newlook, and he also sired a pair of Royal Ascot scorers. New Bay has just completed his fourth season at a fee of €75,000.

On Sunday, the Grade 2 Nassau Stakes at Woodbine was the feature race and it as won by Vina Arana, a daughter of Make Believe (Makfi). She was bred by Barry Lynch’s Funcheon Bloodstock, and sold as a yearling at the Goffs Sportsman’s Sale for €30,000 to Kevin Ross. She raced initially for Henry de Bromhead, making four starts, and was still a maiden when she placed third, beaten only a length by the winner, in a Group 3 at Leopardstown.

Nina Arana

Since she moved to the USA, Nina Arana has run eight times, winning a maiden at Saratoga, an allowance race at Churchill Downs, and now a Grade 2. She is one of 10 stakes horses this year for Make Believe, and yet he was available to breeders for just €10,000. He is the sire of three Group 1 winners, Mishriff, Royal Supremacy and Sajir.

Eighteen (18) stakes winners this year is the current tally for Ballylinch Stud’s standard-bearer, Lope De Vega (Shamardal). He stood recently for a career-high fee of €200,000, and can you believe that he went to stud for €15,000 as a dual classic winner, and in seasons three and four saw this drop to €12,500? Two days after his son Geryon won the Group 3 Meld Stakes at Leopardstown, his Grade 1-winning son Program Trading landed the Grade 2 United Nations Stakes at Monmouth Park.

(Is it an omen that Bayside Boy stood his first two seasons at €15,000, and his second two for €12,500?)

300 stakes performers

Lope De Vega is five shy of his 300th stakes performer, and three short of his 180th stakes winner. The majority of these, 94, have won at Group/Grade 3 status or better, and 27 have won at the highest level, one more than Sea The Stars who is a year older than him. Both have 9% blacktype winners to foals, the same percentage as that of Night Of Thunder.

The only other stallion at Ballylinch presently is Lope De Vega’s son Look De Vega. Like his sire, he won the Group 1 Prix du Jockey Club-French Derby, and has just completed year two at a fee of €20,000. He attracted 195 mares in his first season last year, almost a third of which were blacktype performers. With books of such quality, he has every chance of following in his father’s hoofprints as a sire, and his first foals will be eyed closely when they appear for sale in the autumn.