MORRISTOWN Lattin Stud stallion Approve (by Oasis Dream) recorded an important first at Sandown last Saturday when his first-crop son Waady won the Group 3 Coral Charge.
Victory in this five-furlong contest was the colt’s fifth win from seven starts, it added to his listed success over the course and distance last month, and it was also striking that it extended his unbeaten record over the minimum distances.
His only defeats are his debut at Newmarket last August, when fifth over six furlongs, and in the Listed Carnarvon Stakes at Newbury in May, also over six, where he finished fourth behind Adaay.
His potential targets include the Group 2 Qatar King George Stakes at Goodwood and the Group 1 Coolmore Nunthorpe Stakes (British Champions Series) at York, and that latter pair are over his apparently preferred trip.
Waady is Approve’s first pattern winner and the stallion’s first crop also includes the Group 2-placed stakes winner Accepted and the stakes-placed pair Disprove and Gull. His second batch of juveniles includes the recent listed placed Italian filly Beauprove.
Waady was bred by Knocklong House Stud, he is a €37,000 graduate of the Tattersalls Ireland September Yearling Sale in Fairyhouse and he made 240,000gns when re-offered at the Tattersalls Craven Breeze-Up Sale in April 2014, a handsome profit.
His pattern success now opens the possibility of an eventual stallion career, something that his most famous relation was tragically denied.
The John Gosden-trained bay is out of Anne Bonney (by Jade Robbery), a placed mare who is also responsible for the multiple Italian scorer Rasalgethi (by Indian Haven), and she is out of a placed mare called Sanchez (by Wolfhound), who is the dam of several winners on other continents.
That might not sound particularly exciting, but the third dam is the Group 1 Moyglare Stud Stakes heroine Flamenco Wave (by Desert Wine) and that makes Sanchez a half-sister to three Group 1 stars, among others of note.
Starborough (by Soviet Star) won the Group 1 St James’s Palace Stakes and the Group 1 Prix Jean Prat, he was runner-up in the Group 1 Sussex Stakes, and he has sired several stakes and pattern winners.
Aristotle (by Sadler’s Wells) won the Group 1 Racing Post Trophy and was later a top horse in Singapore, and Ballingarry (by Sadler’s Wells) won Group 1 Criterium de Saint-Cloud and the Grade 1 Canadian International Stakes plus three other pattern events.
The races in which that horse was placed included the Group 1 Irish Derby, Group 1 Derby Italiano and Group 1 Irish St Leger.
Their half-sister Spanish Falls (by Belmez) won the Group 3 Prix de Royaumont, their non-winning sibling Kylemore (by Sadler’s Wells) is the dam of the pattern-placed stakes winner Annabelle’s Charm (by Indian Ridge), but it is another sibling, the unraced Leaping Water (by Sure Blade), who gave us the most popular and famous horse in the family.
Her son Grammarian (by Definite Article) won a pair of Grade 2 handicaps in California, where he was also Grade 1-placed, but she is also the dam of St Nicholas Abbey (by Montjeu), the outstanding middle-distance star who lost a long battle to survive after the serious injury that ended his career.
Winner of the Group 1 Racing Post Trophy as a juvenile, he went on to take the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Turf, the Group 1 Dubai Sheema Classic and three runnings of the Group 1 Coronation Cup, and he would have been a very popular new addition to the stallion ranks had fate not intervened.
We do not know yet just how good Waady will be when he hits his peak - he was rated 109 before this latest success - but he is a son of a well-bred and promising young stallion and he comes from a family that is no stranger to producing Group 1 stars. He could be anything.