WHAT do Germany, Australia and Scotland have in common. Not much perhaps, but they provide racecourses that saw progeny of two Irish National Stud stallions enjoy notable victories recently.

Phoenix Of Spain (Lope De Vega) sired a pair of Group 3 winners from his first crop, and both were earning their first pieces of blacktype. Soul Of Spain gained his fifth career win, and fourth in Australia, when he won the Newcastle Gold Cup, and this came a few days before Caballo De Mar won for the seventh time, landing the spoils in the Deutsches (German) St Leger.

It was double excitement for the Irish National Stud (INS) as they bred Soul Of Spain, while the German classic winner was also bred in Co Kildare, at Barouche Stud.

Meanwhile, the first crop by Nando Parrado (Kodiac) continues to win with regularity, and show that they possess soundness as well as ability. With 14 individual winners at the time of writing, Nando Parrado has now gained a well-deserved first stakes winner, thanks to the Bernie Cooke-bred Chairmanfourtimes. On his seventh start already, and never out of the money, the Adrian Keatley-trained colt won the Listed Harry Rosebery Stakes at Ayr, by some way his best run.

His trainer likes Chairmanfourtimes a lot. “He was good,” said Keatley. “He’s a proper five-furlong horse – he stayed [the trip] really well. I don’t know how many more runs I’ll give him, but he’ll be a proper horse for next year. He takes everything you give to him.”

Chairmanfourtimes is the fourth offspring and second winner for his unraced dam, a daughter of a former INS sire, Dragon Pulse (Kyllachy). The mare’s first winner was Lovely Spirit (Invincible Spirit), and she was a winner last year at two.

Bernie Cooke sold Chairmanfourtimes as a foal for 15,000gns, but there was no profit when he resold at the Goffs UK Premier Yearling Sale for £15,000. It took a private sale to former jump jockey Tony Ross to offload the colt that day, and he was back at the same venue for their breeze-up sale this year to sell for a profitable £50,000.

Bernie Cooke persevered with Invincible Spirit (Green Desert) for his mare Occupation, who has both a yearling filly, already named Abbeyknockmoy, and a colt foal by the sire who retired from stud duty last year.

One thing about the first-crop runners by Nando Parrado, who won the Group 2 Coventry Stakes and was runner-up in both the Group 1 Prix Morny and Group 1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere at two, is that they are sure to be favourites with trainers. They can take their racing.

Chairmanfourtimes has run seven times, while a trio of the sire’s other winners have faced the starter half a dozen times. The filly Reina Del Sur has won three of her four starts, while the Ger Lyons-trained Howd’yadoit won the valuable Irish EBF Ballyhane Stakes on his fifth outing.

Nebraas

The Chris Waller-trained four-year-old Soul Of Spain has a Group 1 target in sight after winning last Friday’s Group 3 Newcastle Gold Cup over just short of a mile and a half. The progressive gelding gave Waller his seventh win in 11 years in the race, one shy of Gai Waterhouse’s total.

Waller’s representative Zane Jones said that Soul Of Spain continues to improve. “Every time Chris raises the bar, he just seems to jump through it. He’s got plenty of upside, he’s lightly-raced, and he’s continuing to build a good record. We were under no illusions that it was a harder assignment today, but he’s passed with flying colours.”

The gelding is joint-favourite for the Group 1 The Metropolitan on October 4th, and victory there would be a great boost for his sire.

Phoenix Of Spain may not have a Group 1 winner yet, but all of the six blacktype winners in his first two crops have won at pattern level. Haatem won the Group 2 Vintage Stakes and has come closest to getting a top-flight victory, beaten a head by Rosallion in the Group 1 Irish 2000 Guineas, and third in the Newmarket equivalent. The three-year-old Atsila was third to Fallen Angel and Exactly in the recent Group 1 Matron Stakes.

A €50,000 yearling sale at Goffs to Katie Walsh’s Greenhills Farm, Soul Of Spain sold as a breezer at Arqana to Blandford Bloodstock for €160,000. Their Pivotal (Polar Falcon) dam Aimhirgin Lass won twice in the colours of the President of Ireland, Michael D Higgins, and she has four winners now.

Her dam Nebraas (Green Desert) was bought for the INS in 2004. Nebraas is dam of Seeharn (Pivotal), a stakes-winning full-sister to Aimhirgin Lass who sold at the age of four for 950,000gns. Seeharn’s half-sister, dual Group 3 winner Yellow Rosebud (Jeremy), sold to Godolphin for 600,000gns.

Barouche Stud

Barbara Facchino’s Barouche Stud bought the listed-placed Daraliya (Kahyasi) for 57,000gns as a four-year-old, and she did well for the farm, producing eight winners. This is a branch of an Aga Khan family, and while none of Daraliya’s winners were stars, they included a German stakes winner in Circassian (Groom Dancer) and two stakes-placed winners.

Daraliya’s daughter Oberyn (Holy Roman Emperor) won twice for Barbara Facchino on the all-weather at three, and only had two foals, both winners. Caballo De Mar, a €21,000 Goffs foal and €33,000 Tattersalls Ireland yearling, now has winnings of €210,000.