COULD we see last weekend’s Group 1 winner Samangan joining the stallion ranks in Ireland next season? He will be an exciting addition wherever he stands, and being a speedy son of Blue Point (Shamardal) he would make huge appeal to Irish breeders.
Samangan crowned a great two days for the Aga Khan Studs at Deauville last weekend. His win in the six-and-a-half-furlong Group 1 Prix Maurice de Gheest was a first win in the race for the green and red silks. Afterwards, Princess Zahra Aga Khan explained: “It was certainly not a thing of the past, as my father didn’t like sprinters. My great grandfather had them and we are adding back some speed so we can protect our classic-distance families as well.”
She added: “Certainly, for the moment, having some sprinters and middle-distance horses is lovely. I thank Francis [Graffard, trainer] and Mickael [Barzalona, jockey], as they had a plan for this and Mickael knew exactly where he wanted to be and who he wanted to follow, and he did exactly that. The horse then showed his turn of foot and that was fantastic.”
The winning trainer provided further insight: “He needed to gain experience and so his races have toughened him up and this victory is the result of that. Today, he was able to produce his effort in a very composed way, without rushing and I am very pleased for the team at home. His next target could be the Prix de la Forêt, provided the ground is not too testing for him.
“He is a Group 1 winner and exceptionally well-bred, so he has earned his place at stud as a stallion. My job is done!”
Samangan is one of the fastest and most precocious colts produced by the Aga Khan Studs since the Group 1-winning two-year-old Siyouni (Pivotal). He ran four times at two last season, winning on three occasions. His final starts saw him clinch victories in the Group 3 Prix Eclipse and the Group 2 Critérium de Maisons-Laffitte. This year he was runner-up in the Group 3 Prix Djebel and a close fourth in the Group 1 Prix Jean Prat, a length behind the winner.
European champion
The seventh foal out of Samadrisa (Oasis Dream), Samangan is her third winner, and the second to have blacktype. His half-sister Simeen (Lope De Vega) is a listed winner. Samadrisa won over 10 furlongs at three, and she is one of eight winners out of Sanariya (Darshaan).
The octet is headed by Sarafina (Refuse To Bend), and that European champion won three Group 1 races, the Prix de Diane-French Oaks, Grand Prix de Paris and the Prix Saint-Alary. Her half-sister, the stakes winner Sanaya (Barathea), failed by half a length to win the Group 1 Prix Saint-Alary.
There is no stopping Blue Point and Samangan joins dual 2026 Group 1 winner Blue Bolt on the roll of honour this season, taking his overall number of top-flight winners to five.
On Saturday at Deauville, two-year-old filly Drazinda (Sioux Nation) picked up her first stakes success in the Listed Prix de la Vallée d’Auge in the colours of Princess Zahra Aga Khan. Enjoying her second win, Drazinda is another speedy juvenile, and is from the immediate family of her owner/breeder’s champion Darjina (Zamindar). On the same card, Canneza edged her sire Siyouni closer to the 100 stakes winners mark (she is number 96) after winning the Listed Prix Isola Bella. Now owned by Gary Johnson, Canneza was sold to Johnny McKeever for €180,000 at last year’s Arqana December Sale by the Aga Khan Studs.
DARLEY stallions had a weekend to remember, and Too Darn Hot (Dubawi) got in on the action when his three-year-old son Glacius stepped up to win his first blacktype race, and this came about in the Grade 1 Saratoga Derby. Owned and bred by Vefa Ibrahim Araci, he is the first stakes winner for his placed dam Predawn (Fastnet Rock) who cost Araci 600,000gns seven years ago.
Trained by Joseph O’Brien, Predawn made a single career start, 12 lengths behind the winner in a Gowran Park maiden at three, but this was some way off the race records of her two successful full-siblings. Shogun (Fastnet Rock) was a €400,000 yearling who won eight races, and was certainly above average. He too ranked a long way behind his full-sister Qualify (Fastnet Rock).
Ballylinch Stud offers a yearling colt by Dark Angel (Acclamation) this weekend out of the Group 1 Oaks winner Qualify at Arqana, and it would no surprise at all were they to get back much or all of the €650,000 they paid for the classic winner carrying the colt. Qualify had bred a Group 3 winner when John O’Connor bought her at Goffs, and last year her son Cualificar (Lope De Vega) won the Group 2 Prix Neil and finished second in the Group 1 Prix du Jockey Club-French Derby.
Qualify’s €650,000 purchase price at the age of 12 was about one-third of her valuation after she won the Oaks, when John Ferguson splashed out 1,600,000gns for her. Her dam Perihelion (Galileo) was second in the Group 2 Park Stakes, but a skip back one generation reveals that this is a hugely successful family, filled with high-class winners.
Highest level
Glacius and Qualify are two from a total of nine winners at the highest level that descend from the Saratoga Derby winner’s fourth dam, Media Luna (Star Appeal). She herself was a smart runner, though she won just a single race. Trained by Paul Kelleway, Media Luna was beaten a neck by Circus Plume in the Group 1 Oaks, having hung badly. She went on to become grandam of Brian Boru (Sadler’s Wells), winner of the Group 1 Racing Post Trophy at two and the St Leger at three, and Flute (Seattle Slew), also a dual top-flight winner of the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks and Alabama Stakes.
The other Group and Grade 1 winners in the family are the Derby winner Workforce (King’s Best), US Ashland Stakes winner Weep No More (Mineshaft), the Prix de Royallieu winner Loving Dream (Gleneagles), and the full-brothers Best Solution (Kodiac) and El Bodegon.
What a year Too Darn Hot is having, with five Group or Grade 1 winners in 2026, led by Title Role and Glacius. It is worth noting that he has the same number of European Group 1 winners as his own sire Dubawi (Dubai Millennium) at the same point in their careers. He is one of only four European sires this century to sire a Group 1-winning three-year-old in each of his first three crops. Too Darn Hot’s first-crop daughter Fallen Angel is a five-time Group 1 winner at two, three and four.
European champion
Too Darn Hot was a European juvenile champion, winner of four races by an accumulated 15 and a half lengths, and these were headlined by victories in the Group 2 Champagne Stakes and the Group 1 Dewhurst Stakes. At three he was placed in the Group 1 Irish 2000 Guineas and Group 1 St James’s Palace Stakes before trouncing Space Blues by three lengths in the Group 1 Prix Jean Prat over seven furlongs. He rounded off his career with a defeat of Circus Maximus in the Group 1 Sussex Stakes.
Too Darn Hot and Fastnet Rock (Danehill) mares mate very well. In addition to Glacius, the cross is also responsible for Group 2 winner and Group 1-placed Simmering, Group 3 winner Tornado Valley, listed winner Jenni The Fox, group-placed Under Focus and Ornithology, and the stakes-placed It’s A Heartbeat and Blazing Sword.