JAMES HANLY

Ombudsman (Ire), 2021 c. by Night Of Thunder out of Syndicate, by Dansili

RECENTLY crowned the Connolly’s Red Mills/The Irish Field Flat Breeder of the Year winner, James and Charlotte Hanly are back in the running for a monthly win that would put them in line for a repeat victory.

It took three decades to find a back-to-back winner of the Royal Ascot centrepiece on day two of the meeting, the Group 1 Prince of Wales’s Stakes. John Gosden was involved each time, on this occasion with Ombudsman. It has been well signalled that the five-year-old will join the Darley stallion roster in 2027. This nine-time winner will attempt to double up in the Group 1 Juddmonte International, and add to the tasty total of €5.5 million that he has garnered in prizemoney already. His nine wins have come from 12 runs, and he was second on each occasion he was beaten.

The authority with which Ombudsman won the race was staggering, and he was winning at racing’s elite level for the fourth time, having earlier this year been triumphant in the Dubai Turf in Meydan. What a bargain his 340,000gns yearling purchase price has proven to be. This was a huge return on investment for Hanly, as he bought Ombudsman’s dam, through Anthony Stroud, for 25,000gns as a winning juvenile from Juddmonte, and she later won in his wife Charlotte’s silks.

Syndicate has two stakes-winning full-brothers. The fourth dam of Ombudsman is the Group 1 Prix du Moulin de Longchamp winner All At Sea.

TONY O’CALLAGHAN, Tally-Ho Stud

Venetian Sun (Ire), 2023 f. by Starman out of Johana, by Iffraaj

TONY O’Callaghan is another who is a previous winner of the Connolly’s Red Mills/The Irish Field Flat Breeder of the Year. He is in the running this time for a monthly award for Venetian Stun.

The opening day of Royal Ascot has three top-level races, Friday has two, while the others have one each. A pair of three-year-old fillies stole the show on Royal Ascot’s penultimate day, one of them, Venetian Sun, building on her juvenile success at the same meeting last year to land the Group 1 Commonwealth Cup for owners Tony Bloom and Ian McAleavy. She has the imprint of Tally-Ho Stud all over her.

For starters, they stand her sire Starman. They purchased her dam as a foal for €35,000, and took a loss when reselling her as a yearling for 22,000gns. She won three times in England before moving to France. She won again and twice placed in listed company. Venetian Sun is her third foal and winner, the others include her listed-placed two-year-old winner Sir Yoshi (Mehmas).

When Venetian Sun was offered for sale as a yearling, she sold for 240,000gns. Now she is a dual Group 1 winner, also claiming the Prix Morny at two, and she placed in the Moyglare Stud Stakes.

Those updates helped when Tally-Ho sold her Kodiac half-sister in Book 1 last year, where she sold for 625,000gns to Henry Lascelles. She is named Festive Moment. Johana has a yearling filly by Cotai Glory and a colt foal by Big Evs.

PETER BRANT & JOHN MAGNIER

White Birch and Coolmore

Benvenuto Cellini (Ire), 2023 c. by Frankel out of Newspaperofrecord, by Lope De Vega

THE most recent of 42 Group/Grade 1 winners for Frankel is the Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby hero Benvenuto Cellini. Officially declared a non-runner at Epsom, Benvenuto Cellini has outstanding stallion prospect written all over him, and he is continuing a sire line that is simply one of the greatest in the history of the thoroughbred. Galileo, Sadler’s Wells, Northern Dancer, Nearctic, the great Federico Tesio-bred Nearco, and Pharos. This win was also the first Group 1 winner out of one of Lope De Vega’s daughters.

She is Newspaperofrecord who sold as a yearling for 200,000gns, went to Chad Brown in the USA and was a Grade 1 winner at two and again at four, capturing the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf and Just A Game Stakes.

Newspaperofrecord is now owned by Coolmore and Peter Brant’s White Birch Farm, having been sold by Allen Belshaw, who races at Times of Wigan, for 1,800,000gns.

Her first foal is Giselle (Frankel). She won two of her five starts, a maiden at two and a listed race at three, was third to dual Group 1 winner Whirl in the Group 3 Silken Glider Stakes, and was not seen again after running fifth in the Oaks last year. As useful as she was, her full-brother is so much superior.

MICHAEL O’LEARY, Gigginstown House Stud

Mission Central (Ire), 2023 c. by No Nay Never out of Thar She Blows, by Zoffany

MISSION Central’s win in the competitive Group 1 King Charles III Stakes was a triumph for Michael O’Leary’s Gigginstown House Stud where he was bred.

O’Leary’s brother Eddie and Mags O’Toole bought the three-year-old gelding’s dam Thar She Blows carrying the Group 1 winner for 400,000gns, and immediately cashed in when getting 625,000gns for Mission Central as a yearling. Jamie Osborne spent 48,000gns on Thar She Blows as a yearling, but she never ran.

She did however benefit from the fact that her year-younger full-sister Prosperous Voyage emerged as a Group 1 winner of the Falmouth Stakes at Newmarket, having run second in both the Group 1 Fillies’ Mile and Group 1 1000 Guineas. Hence her appreciation in value. Thar She Blows has a yearling colt by Kingman, and a filly foal, a full-sister to Mission Central.

Back in foal to No Nay Never, Eddie O’Leary said after Mission Central’s win that That She Blows “will be married to No Nay Never for as long as he is around”!

The first four dams of Mission Central have all now produced a Group or Grand 1 winner. In addition to the subject horse and Prosperous Voyage, his third dam bred the dual Grade 1 US winner Senure, while fourth dam Monroe’s 14 winners were headed by dual champion Xaar.