A COUPLE of juvenile stakes winners who provided significant catalogue updates for the forthcoming yearling sales were Acklam Express and Fev Rover.

Bred by Robert Ryan, Acklam Express is one of the quartet of stakes winners for first season sire Mehmas (Acclamation). Sold to Jamie Piggott and Nigel Tinkler as a yearling at the Goffs Sportsman’s Sale last year, he has now won three of his four starts, notching an all-important win in the Listed Roses Stakes at York. This was good news for his breeder who has the task of kicking off the Tattersalls Ireland September Yearling Sale, now to be staged at Newmarket, with his Galileo Gold (Paco Boy) half-brother.

Their dam York Express, a daughter of Vale Of York (Invincible Spirit), was placed a few times at two and Robert Ryan bought her for 12,000gns as a three-year-old. Her third offspring is this year’s yearling and both of his older siblings are winners, Acklam Express being preceded by the filly Camayork (Camancho), a winner last year as a juvenile in Italy and twice successful this season. This is the family of champion juvenile and sprinter Dream Ahead (Diktat).

Fev Rover

The Gutaifan (Dark Angel) two-year-old filly Fev Rover was bred at Luke Barry’s Manister House Stud and sold at the Goffs UK Premier Yearling Sale last year for £20,000. She has already won more than three times that amount following her success last weekend in the Group 2 Prix du Calvados at Deauville, adding to a home win in the Listed Star Stakes at Sandown. She is the third foal and third multiple winner for her winning dam Laurelita (High Chaparral).

Bred by the late Maria O’Grady, Laurelita sold as a yearling for 39,000gns and went on to win over seven furlongs as a two-year-old on her second outing. She was therefore something of a bargain when sold on for 11,000gns in a private transaction at the Tattersalls Autumn Sale at three. Three winners with her first three foals is the perfect start at stud and Luke Barry will be assured of plenty of interest in the El Kabeir (Scat Daddy) colt he offers as Lot 240 at the Orby Sale, now scheduled for Doncaster.

Laurelita was among the first group of mares to visit Yeomanstown Stud’s Grade 2 winner El Kabeir, whose own sire Scat Daddy is also responsible for No Nay Never, Justify, Caravaggio, Sioux Nation, Mendelssohn and Lady Aurelia among some 29 Group or Grade 1 winners. Meanwhile, at Manister House, there is a Starspangledbanner (Choisir) half-brother to Fev Rover, foaled this year.

Laurelita is one of seven winners from the juvenile winner Chervil (Dansili), and she is a three-parts sister to Grade 1 winner and Grade 1 producer Light Jig (Danehill). That mare won the Yellow Ribbon Stakes and the best of her three stakes winners is the Hollywood Derby winner Seek Again (Speightstown).