TWO Coolmore first-season stallions recorded their first stakes winners during the past few days. Australia and War Command are the pair in question and both stallions were very different types of racehorses.

Anything Australia did at two was surely a bonus, as he was bred to be the champion three-year-old that he became. He won the Group 3 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Trial Stakes at Leopardstown from Free Eagle on his third outing at two, but the following year he notched up three Group 1 successes in the Derby at Epsom, the Irish Derby and the Juddmonte International. He is a son of the mighty Galileo (Sadler’s Wells) and the dual Oaks winner, dual Breeders’ Cup Filly And Mare Turf winner and European champion Ouija Board (Cape Cross).

His first stakes winner is Beyond Reason, bred by Paget Bloodstock and sold through Clare Castle Stud near Fethard for 370,000gns as a yearling in Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale. She was purchased by Rabbah Bloodstock but races in the colours of Godolphin and last Saturday she won the Group 3 Prix Six Perfections over seven furlongs at Deauville.

She is the second foal and first winner for her dam No Explaining and that daughter of Azamour (Night Shift) was bred by Eimear Mulhern and the late Patsy Byrne and Brian Grassick. A two-year-old winner at Nottingham when trained by Barney Curley, she continued her racing career in Canada and the USA and gained a deserved stakes victory at Pimlico in the Grade 3 Gallorette Handicap.

War Command, in contrast to Australia, was at his very best at two, his four victories that year including the Group 1 Dewhurst Stakes, the Group 2 Coventry Stakes and the Group 2 Futurity Stakes at the Curragh. His best run at three was to finish fourth in the Group 1 St James’s Palace Stakes to Kingman.

He has been smartly into his stride with his first runners and Victory Command’s success in the Listed Pat Eddery Stakes at Ascot gave him his first stakes winner. Bred by Galway native Joe Higgins, Victory Command was astutely purchased for 6,000gns as a yearling at the Tattersalls December Sale by Mark Johnston and he has now won four races and been placed three times, all of his starts to date. Remember when the same trainer coaxed a Group 1 win on his 10th juvenile start from The Last Lion?

Victory Command is a half-brother to a group-winning two-year-old in Conquest (Invincible Spirit) and his three stakes wins included the Group 2 Gimcrack Stakes. Their dam Aguinaga (Machiavellian) was bought as a foal by Brian Grassick and as a winning three-year-old by the agent’s good friend David Burns on behalf of Joe Higgins.

Aguinaga is a half-sister to the Group 1 winning sprinter Iktamal (Danzig Connection), the dual Group 2 winner First Magnitude (Arazi) and the Grade 2 Arkansas Derby winner and sire Rockamundo (Key To The Mint). Their dam Crystal Cup was a daughter of the Triple Crown winning Nijinsky (Northern Dancer).