ADRIAN MURRAY has set the bar very high for himself and Robson Aguiar. They have saddled the winner of the first two-year-old race of the year in Ireland for three years in succession, in the silks of Kia Joorabchian’s Amo Racing, and have come within a neck of winning a Group 1 with all three.
Bucanero Fuerte won in 2023, Arizona Blaze last year, and Power Blue back in March. The former was supposed to be standing his first season at Tally-Ho Stud at a fee of €12,500, having gone on to become a Group 1 winner of the Keeneland Phoenix Stakes, but he returned to racing and played his part in making last Saturday a memorable one for Joorabchian and his team, victorious for the third time this year when taking the Group 3 Phoenix Sprint Stakes
Arizona Blaze became a Group 3 winner at two, went down by half a length to Magnum Force in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint in November, and this year got even closer to a big race win when beaten a neck by Time For Sandals in the Group 1 Commonwealth Cup at Royal Ascot. Last month, he was back to winning ways in the Group 2 Sapphire Stakes at the Curragh, and will likely chase Group 1 glory again in the Nunthorpe Stakes.
Near perfect
Power Blue gave his sire, Darley’s Kildangan Stud-based Space Blues (Dubawi), a near perfect start to his stud career when he ran out an impressive winner of the opening juvenile race of this season in Ireland, the Castle Star at Capital Stud Irish EBF Maiden at the Curragh. He has danced every dance in five starts since, running second to Albert Einstein in the Group 3 Marble Hill Stakes, third to Lady Iman and True Love in the Listed Flier Stakes, third to True Love and Puerto Rico in the Group 2 Railway Stakes, fifth to Gstaad in the Group 2 Coventry Stakes, and now beating True Love in the Group 1 Keeneland Phoenix Stakes. The race time is the fastest in more than two decades.
Bred by Finanza Locale Consulting, Power Blue is the first foal out of Visions, a group-placed, dual winner in Italy by Worthaad, and he, like Space Blues, is a son of Dubawi (Dubai Millennium). Visions’ yearling colt, New Again, is by Starman (Dutch Art). Power Blue sold as a foal from Oak Lodge and Springfield House Stud at Goffs for €30,000, purchased by the Blind Leading The Blind syndicate, and went to Luke Barry’s Manister House Stud. The syndicate includes dual Royal Ascot Group 1-winning trainer Harry Eustace.
Reoffered at Goffs UK in the Premier Yearling Sale, the colt realised £44,000, signed for by Simon Kavanagh’s and Aisling Noone’s Drumloose Stables in Mullingar who were buying with Rodrigo Goncalves.
Enjoyed success
Most of the female side of this family has enjoyed success in Italy, though there is a Grade 2 winner in the fourth generation, Golan Way (Golan). However, his victory was gained in a novices’ hurdle at Cheltenham.
The only other blacktype winners in four removes, until now, have been Power Blue’s grandam Charming Woman (Invincible Spirit), and her half-brother Men’s Magazine (Dr Devious). Both of Charming Woman’s wins were in stakes races in Rome, a listed contest and the Group 3 Premio Tudini. Visions is the best of her two winners.
Space Blues’ place on the Darley stallion roster was guaranteed when his racing career ended. He won his sole start at two before going on to add a further 10 wins over three seasons. He won the Group 1 Prix Maurice de Gheest at four, and struck twice at the highest level at five. He defeated Hello Youmzain at Deauville, beat Pearls Galore in the Group 1 Prix de la Foret at ParisLongchamp, and landed the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Mile at Del Mar.
A fine start to his stallion career sees Space Blues on the nine-winner mark as I write, with three stakes performers. His Derek Iceton-bred son Do Or Do Not must be the best maiden two-year-old in training. His four placed in five starts include finishing second in the Group 2 Coventry Stakes and Group 1 July Stakes, and he was third recently in the Group 2 Vintage Stakes.
GOFFS Orby Sale graduate Laurelin gave owners Newstead Stables their first graded stakes win, and was part of an east-west coast Grade 2 double for trainer Graham Motion, when she landed the $500,000 Saratoga Oaks at the weekend. She went into the race with four wins in as many starts, including three stakes wins over a mile.
The race was run on turf, attracted six runners, and four of these carried the IRE suffix. The first three finishers were Irish-bred, Laurelin about whom you will hear more, the Shanahan and Hyde-bred Evershed (Churchill), and the Peter Brant homebred Opulent Restraint (Dubawi).
A daughter of Zarak (Dubawi), Laurelin was stretched on this occasion to 10 furlongs, but it proved to be well within her capabilities. After the race, her rider, Kendrick Carmouche, confidently predicted that “this is a Grade 1 horse – she just keeps getting better.”
Bred in partnership by Mark Dixon and Luke Lillingston’s Mount Coote Estates, Laurelin sold to Form Bloodstock as a yearling for €160,000. She has now earned more than $570,000.
Laurelin has now replaced Maud Gonne Spirit (Intello) as the best of three winners out of Bari (Cape Cross). The three-year-old’s sire Zarak stands at Haras de Bonneval for €80,000, his highest yet, and quite an achievement for a stallion who started out at €12.000, and remained at that fee for four seasons. With two of the best horses of the past two decades as his sire and dam, Dubawi (Dubai Millennium) and Zarkava (Zamindar), Zarak continues to impress as a sire.
Bari, the dam of Laurelin, was bred and raced by Dixon and Lillingston, but did not see a racecourse until the age of four. Lucy Wadham trained her to win once and place second twice, and then it was off to stud.
Jessica Harrington trained her first foal, Olivia Hoare’s Maud Gonne West, and that mare was well tried, winning six times from the age of three to six. Her lengthy racing career was justified when, at the age of six, she earned her only blacktype, in a listed race at Listowel. Intriguingly, Maud Gonne Spirit’s first foal, born this spring, is a son of Zarak.
Versatile sort
The second foal out of Bari is Just Jacob (Charm Spirit), a most versatile sort who won on the flat at three for William Haggas, was subsequently sold, and won two hurdle races and a chase for Gavin Cromwell. Laurelin is the fourth living offspring of Bari - the third, a filly, did not race - and last year Alex Elliott purchased Bari’s yearling colt by Space Blues (Dubawi).
Should Laurelin advance to become a Grade 1 filly, and hopefully she does, she will join others in the family who have done so. Bari’s listed-winning half-sister Brindisi (Dr Fong) is the grandam of Dreamloper (Lope De Vega), winner of both the Group 1 Prix d’Ispahan and Group 1 Prix du Moulin de Longchamp. She sold to Katsumi Yoshida three years ago for $2.7 million.
Laurelin’s third dam Yawl (Rainbow Quest) was a very smart juvenile and won the Group 2 Rockfel Stakes. She was a daughter of the 1980 Group 1 Oaks heroine Bireme (Grundy). A stakes-placed daughter of Yawl gave the family a second Group 1 Oaks winner, thanks to Talent (New Approach), and that filly nearly brought off a classic double, running second in the St Leger.