WHAT a bargain Method is proving to be. Unbeaten now in two starts, and earning quotes already for the 2021 classics, the colt garnered blacktype at the weekend with his victory for trainer Martyn Meade in the Listed Rose Bowl Stakes over six furlongs at Newbury.

Bred by Michael Phelan at Pipe View Stud, Method is from the first crop of Tally-Ho Stud’s Mehmas, and one of nine winners for that son of Acclamation (Royal Applause) at the time of writing. He can now lay claim to be the stallion’s first stakes winner. Method was sold as a foal for €16,000 and just about got his investors out when he resold for £20,000 to Dermot Farrington as a yearling. He was raised between sales at the Player family’s Whatton Manor Stud.

Method is one of a pair of winners from Darsan (Iffraaj) who took until the age of four to win a race, though she was obviously sound, having raced 22 times! She was bred by Pat O’Callaghan, a brother of Noel, Tony and Gay, and he is forever remembered as the breeder of the Group 1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner Tony Bin. Last year Michael Phelan sold a Belardo (Lope De Vega) half-brother to Method to Peter Cluskey for just €8,000 at the Goffs November Foal Sale.

This is a family that, in general, shows precocity, and Darsan’s two stakes-winning siblings earned their blacktype as juveniles. Bella Tusa (Sri Pekan) won a pair of listed races at that age, while La Vita E Bella (Definite Article) won the Listed Montrose Stakes at Newmarket at two. The latter mare is the grandam of Dutch Connection (Dutch Art) and he won the Group 3 Acomb Stakes and was placed in the Group 1 National Stakes at two, later adding the Group 2 Lennox Stakes and Group 3 Jersey Stakes to his list of wins.

Kevin Blake

As well as being the grandsire of Method, Rathbarry Stud’s Acclamation had his own big race winner at the weekend when his son Ventura Tormenta, bred by Kevin Blake, beat the Royal Ascot winner The Lir Jet to take the honours in the Group 2 Darley Prix Robert Papin. He is the seventh, and best, winner and foal from Midnight Oasis (Oasis Dream). She raced at two and three and suffice to say she herself ran seven times and was in no danger of ever troubling the judge.

Any lack of racing ability is now well forgotten, with a 100% record at stud. Last November Redwall Bloodstock acquired her eighth progeny, a now yearling colt by Starspangledbanner (Choisir) for €40,000, while she has a colt on the ground by Camacho (Danehill). A feature of most of the winners from Midnight Oasis is that they are multiple scorers, headed by eight-time winner George Bowen (Dark Angel), seven-time winner Mutahaddy (Elzaam) and Mr Win (Intikhab), winner of five races. This is a female line that produces winners galore, and Midnight Oasis’ feat in having seven winners to date has still not matched the achievements of her dam and grandam.

Midnight Shift (Night Shift), the dam of Midnight Oasis, bred Group 3-winning sprinter Miss Anabaa (Anabaa) and seven other winners, while the next dam, Old Domesday Book (High Top), produced nine winners, the best of which was the Group 1 July Cup winner Owington (Green Desert). She is also grandam of the Group 1 Phoenix Stakes hero Dick Wittington (Rip Van Winkle).