NEW Bay continues to enhance his reputation as one of Europe’s most exciting sires.
“His 2025 crop of three-year-old included Group 1 winner Bay City Roller, and produced more group performers than Sea The Stars, Mehmas or Siyouni; a remarkable feat given they were conceived off a modest €20,000 fee.
“There is also much to look forward to from his two-year-olds, including the highly-rated and unexposed Yazin, Bay Of Brilliance and Parade Bay who, among others, have shown classic potential.
“With his best-bred crops now hitting the track, 2026 looks set to be a defining year when he can confirm his place among Europe’s elite proven sires.”
Ballylinch Stud boss John O’Connor is not given to hyperbole, and this was his comment last week when the farm issued their stud fees for the spring. New Bay, who started his career at €20,000, fell in years three and four to €15,000, has gone in one direction since, and 2026 will be his fourth year to command a high of €75,000.
Bred by Johnny Connaughton in Co Westmeath, Bay City Roller’s fourth career win, in the Group 1 Grosser Preis von Bayern, not only enhances yet again the expertise of the colt’s breeder, and the growing reputations of the sire and the three-year-olds’ trainer George Scott, but this is another win at the highest level for the family that descends from Bay City Roller’s third dam, Rahaam (Secreto). He is the eighth Group 1 winner under that mare.
Bright future
Bay City Roller sold for €320,000 to the colourful Clive Washbourn at a yearling in Goffs Orby Book 1, and won first time out, after which he was sold to Victorious Racing/Forever. He went on to remain unbeaten at two, on his third start winning the Group 2 Champagne Stakes at Doncaster.
He was having a frustrating second season, runner-up on four of his first six runs, and three times in Group 2 races. He not only got his head in front in Munich, but won the race by seven lengths. Afterwards, a pleased Scott said that “he has a really bright future, now that we know how to ride him.”
The third and best foal out of Bloomfield (Teofilo), Bay City Roller is a half-brother to the older stakes-placed Botanical (Lope De Vega), a 260,000gns yearling, and the multiple-placed Bloom Vega (Lope De Vega). The latter, retained by Connaughton, placed on half of her runs and was covered for the first time by Space Blues (Dubawi) in the spring.
Named after the family’s hotel business, Bloomfield gets stunning stock. Her two-year-old daughter Blooming Rose (Blue Point) sold for €850,000 at Goffs last year. Move forward a year and that filly’s yearling full-brother was one of a number of high-profile purchases by John Stewart’s Resolute Bloodstock at Goffs, costing the American a cool €675,000.
Sadly, Bloomfield died after producing that colt, but how good it is that Connaughton has one of her daughters.
Race on
A three-year-old maiden winner on her debut at the Curragh, trained by Willie McCreery, Bloomfield was runner-up on her only other starts that year, a listed Oaks trial at Naas and the Group 3 Munster Oaks in Cork. This might have been enough to go to stud with, but connections chose to race on at four. Bloomfield won listed races at Cork and Gowran Park, before finishing second again in a Group 3. She only raced eight time in all.
The Connaughton connection with this family started with an inspired purchase by Johnny’s great friend, Ted Naughton, at the Tattersalls December Sale in 2002. He spent 58,000gns on an unraced three-year-old, Ramona (Desert King), a half-sister to Group 2 King’s Stand Stakes winner Cassandra Go (Indian Ridge) and the Group 3 Coventry Stake winner and Group 1 Irish 2000 Guineas runner-up Verglas (Highest Honor). Look what Cassandra Go alone has done since.
Ramona has played her part in the success story. Eight of her 11 foals raced, and all but one won. Most of these were also sale stars, and Bloomfield’s half-sister Prima Luce (Galileo), who won the Group 3 Athasi Stakes, went on to sell for 825,000gns at the 2011 December Sale.
MRC INTERNATIONAL, a syndicate group with trainer David Marnane, buy some yearlings each year, race them for two seasons, and then they are sold.
The current cast of three-year-olds includes Aviatrice, a well-bought daughter of the Irish National Stud sire Phoenix Of Spain (Lope De Vega) who cost just €17,000 in Book 2 of the Goffs Orby Sale in 2023. Bred by Gerry Callanan’s Nanallac Stud, Aviatrice has been consistent, only twice out of the first four in 11 starts, and she has earned €72,000, more than paying her way. She is catalogued in the upcoming Newmarket December Sale, but what a pity that her latest win did not make it into the catalogue.
That victory came at Dundalk in the Listed Cooley Stakes, and her trainer afterwards stated that her buyer would be welcome to send her back to be trained at four, such is the improvement she is making. She could be a smart racing prospect for another year, or even be aimed at group company while being covered at the same time. She has a Timeform rating after her Dundalk win of 102.
Broodmare prospect
Aviatrice has a lot to offer as a broodmare prospect too. A stakes-winning granddaughter of Lope De Vega (Shamardal), out of a winning daughter of (Invincible Spirit), and she a daughter of a Pivotal (Polar Falcon) mare. Good broodmare sires appear all the way back.
Aviatrice’s dam Virtudes (Invincible Spirit) was a Darley/Godolphin homebred who won a 17-runner six-furlong maiden on the second of four starts at two, the only season she raced. She was snapped up by Callanan for a mere €6,000. Aviatrice is the second of her three foals of racing age to date, and this year Virtudes had an eye-catching covering by Look De Vega (Lope De Vega), a similar cross to the one that yielded Aviatrice.
Every generation of this family throws up some smart performers. Virtudes is one of seven winners from Nashama (Pivotal), two of which earned blacktype. The best, Relentless Voyager (Ulysses), was placed in the Group 2 Derby Italiano, and is now winning in Australia.
Nashama is a half-sister to Group 2 Great Voltigeur Stakes winner Centennial (Dalakhani), but even more significantly, her full-sister, Heavens Peak (Pivotal), bred this year’s Group 2 Greenlands Stakes winner James’s Delight (Invincible Army).