POWER has made an impressive start at stud in Europe with his first crop, and his 2017 fee of €8,000 is looking to be good value as time goes on. His four stakes winners in that crop include Group 3 winners Peace Envoy and Pleaseletmewin, while Biz Power and Cristal Fizz have added listed race successes to the tally.

Now his first crop of juveniles ‘down under’ have hit the track running and last weekend he notched up his first group stakes winner in that group when the New Zealand-bred Gift Of Power captured the Group 2 Wakefield Challenge Stakes over five and a half furlongs at Trentham. His victory followed a prior success in the Listed Wellesley Stakes at the same track over five furlongs.

Gift Of Power descends from one of the most outstanding mares at stud ever, the Pieces Of Eight mare Eight Carat. Though she failed to even manage to be placed in three seasons racing, she went on to become that rarest of beings, a producer of five stakes winners, all Group 1 winners. The other mare to achieve this feat is Hasili, the great Juddmonte matriarch.

The year 1987 was notable as two of Eight Carat’s offspring won at the highest level. The Sir Tristram colt Kaapstad won the Sires’ Produce Stakes in Australia as a three-year-old and he was later to become a champion sire. That same season his five-year-old half-sister Our Diamond Lover won the Group 1 Railway Handicap in New Zealand and that daughter of Sticks And Stones is the third dam of Gift Of Power.

In the meanwhile, Our Diamond Lover bred the Group 1 winners Tristalove (by Sir Tristram and a dual champion racemare) and the Australian Derby winner Don Eduardo (by Zabeel). She is the grandam of Group 1 winners Viking ruler (by Danehill) and Viscount (by Quest For Fame and the champion three-year-old colt in Australia). In addition to being the third dam of Gift Of Power she holds the same position in the pedigree of the Quest For Fame colt and Group 1 winner De Beers.

Following that landmark year of 1987, Eight Carat went on to produce champion racehorse Mouawad (by Sir Tristram’s son Zabeel), the Horse of the Year, multiple champion, Triple Crown winner and Group 1 sire Octagonal (by Zabeel) and the Group 1 winning Marquise, a daughter of Gold And Ivory and dam of the Group 1 winning Zabeel mare Shower Of Roses.

As if all of this was not enough, a daughter of Eight Carat was the unraced Cotehele House, by a stallion called My Swanee who was once managed by my late father when he stood at Waterloo House Stud in Mallow. Cotehele House bred the multiple Group 1 winner and champion Danewin (by Danehill), as well as his full-brother Commands, was grandam of the Group 1 winner Emerald Dream and is third dam of Darley stallion Shooting To Win.

Breeders, stallion masters and readers are invited to contact Leo Powell at leopowell@theirishfield.ie with news and updates for the column, and to visit our website www.theirishfield.ie for daily breeding news