DUAL classic star and Ballylinch Stud resident Lope De Vega (by Shamardal) has made an exciting start to his stallion career, and that potential has been underlined several times recently.
His daughter Royal Razalma won the Group 3 Dubai Cornwallis Stakes at Newmarket on Future Champions Day, just before his son Belardo impressed in his victory in the Group 1 Dubai Dewhurst Stakes on the same card.
Then, at Naas last Sunday, the Ger Lyons-trained colt Endless Drama produced one of the most impressive debut victories of the season, powering home over six furlongs to win by five and a half lengths, looking every inch a future pattern star.
Lope De Vega’s first crop also includes the Group 2 Gran Criterium winner Hero Look and the Group 3 Sirenia Stakes scorer Burnt Sugar, and a string of other promising winners, and he remains one of the most exciting of the current batch of first season sires.
There is some speed in Belardo’s family, including a Group 1 sprint star, but also evidence to suggest that this Roger Varian-trained colt, whom Ballylinch Stud bred, will stay the mile in 2015.
His sire won both the Group 1 Poule d’Essai des Poulains (French 2000 Guineas) and Group 1 Prix du Jockey Club (French Derby), as did his paternal grandsire Shamardal (by Giant’s Causeway), and he is a half-brother to Berling (by Montjeu), who has shown talent from eight to 14 furlongs.
It is possible that grey, who was unplaced in the Group 3 Darley Stakes on the same day his younger sibling starred, gets his stamina from his sire, who is generally noted for getting middle-distance horses and stayers, and that his ability to be a listed scorer at a mile, and pattern winner at nine furlongs may be due to his dam’s influence.
Even if that is the case then that takes nothing away from Belardo’s prospects of staying the mile as, even though we do not know how the Lope De Vegas will fare at the ages of three and beyond, there is no reason to suggest that some, if not many of them will not exhibit similar distance preferences to those he showed.
MAIDEN SUCCESS
His dam Danaskaya (by Danehill) was never asked to go beyond seven furlongs, and she came within a length of winning the Group 1 Moyglare Stud Stakes at that trip, when finishing fourth behind Mail The Desert, but all of her blacktype came at six furlongs, the distance over which she got her maiden success.
She was runner-up in the Group 2 Lowther Stakes, third in the Group 1 Cheveley Park Stakes and in the Listed Blenheim Stakes, all as a juvenile, and then third in the Listed Belgrave Stakes as a three-year-old.
Her three-parts sister Modeeroch (by Mozart) was a triple listed scorer at around seven furlongs, and three times pattern-placed over a mile, and their half-brother Chinese Whisper (by Montjeu) was pattern-placed over eight, nine, and 10 furlongs, and not asked to try further.
The grandam of Belardo is the pattern-placed French 10-furlong stakes winner Majinskaya (by Marignan), daughter of a middle-distance son of Blushing Groom (by Red God) and out of the stakes-placed Makarova (by Nijinsky), a mare whose grand-daughters also include the Group 1 Prix de l’Abbaye heroine Kistena (by Miswaki). Surely a Lope De Vega colt with these relations will stay a mile as a three-year-old, and, indeed, it may be that Belardo will improve with that step up in distance.