IT is in the O’Callaghan DNA. Breeding horses, standing stallions, the family’s range of equine activities runs the entire gamut. What many people will mention first when you say the name is – pinhooking. Now that is an activity that is deeply ingrained.

I was reminded of this when I saw the result of Monday’s Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity. Pinehurst, a son of Twirling Candy (Candy Ride), gave Bob Baffert his 15th win in this race (just for comparison purposes Aidan O’Brien has won the Group 1 Phoenix Stakes 16 times!), and the unbeaten two-time winner was recording his first stakes win.

His sire stands at Lane’s End and the charge this year for using him was $40,000. Two of his six Grade 1 winners have emerged this year, the Preakness Stakes hero Rombauer who was also third in the Grade 1 Belmont Stakes, and now Pinehurst. Bred by Fred Hertrich and John Fielding, Pinehurst sold as a foal for $180,000.

When Peter O’Callaghan of Woods Edge Farm sent him to last year’s Keeneland September Sale he doubled the colt’s value, with a bit left over to pay the keep charges. He sold on this occasion for $385,000.

He is worth a lot more now for connections, and he is another fine example of the skill of Gay and Annette’s son.

Over the next two weeks Peter and his team will oversee the sale of some 50 yearlings at Keeneland. Three of those catalogued were by Twirling Candy, but that group is now down to a single colt.

Can lightning strike twice for the Kildare man? Last year the colt for sale was purchased for $80,000. Surely there is profit to be got.

Keeneland’s bright Light in Turkey

WHAT is it with Calumet Farm breeding good winners, many of them being sold for a pittance? At this time of the year I have often in the past found myself in Istanbul for the international race meeting at Veliefendi. It would have been nice to go this year to see their wonder-filly, Light Of Darkness.

In late May she hit the headlines when she won Turkey’s 1000 Guineas. At the time of that win Keeneland was celebrating the diversity of its buying bench at their major sales, and here was another advertisement for their sales. She sold as a foal for, yes, $1,000 and was purchased by her owner Cem Sevim. After that win she was third in the Oaks, added a local Group 2, travelled to France to run in a Group 3, and now she is back at her beloved Veliefendi and winning for the eighth time in 15 starts.

The Kentucky-bred daughter of Red Rocks (Galileo) can fairly lay claim to be the best runner sired by the 2006 Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Turf winner. In spite of nine crops of racing age, Red Rocks only managed to sire six blacktype winners, a couple of which were chase winners in Italy and Germany.

Trained by Brian Meehan, Red Rocks was one of four Group/Grade 1 winners in the first crop by Galileo (Sadler’s Wells).

“She is the most popular horse in Turkey,” said Sevim at the time of Light Of Darkness’ classic success. The former professional soccer player lives in Washington where he is a developer and has a construction company. “We have a plan to take her to a couple of European tracks for racing, and hopefully to Dubai next year. Of course, my big dream is returning home with her and have a few races in Kentucky. After all, she is from there.”

Charming Legacy

The filly is out of the Grade 2-placed winning Danehill (Danzig) mare Charming Legacy and she is the best of the mare’s seven winners from seven starters. What a fall from grace Charming Legacy has suffered. She sold four times at public auction, for $475,000 in 2009, $250,000 in 2015 to Calumet Farm, $6,000 in 2018 and just $2,000 last year. She is from the immediate family of this year’s Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby winner Rock Your World (Candy Ride), and Grade 2 winner Liam The Charmer (Smart Strike).

Sevim remembers the purchase well. “Moment I see her, I loved her. Honestly, I was ready to pay much more. Back then I couldn’t believe that nobody bid on her and still can’t. I understand more and more how blessed I was.” Sevim owns breeding stock and racehorses in Turkey and the US.

“I think she is Keeneland’s best promoter in Turkey now,” Sevim said. “People are asking left and right about her relatives and all about her. Keeneland will probably see lots of interested buyers this year. It is like a fashion; one goes, the rest follow.”