TRIPLE Group 1 star and prolific champion sire Sadler’s Wells (by Northern Dancer) had a profound effect on the global bloodstock industry. His tally of 294 stakes winners is the second highest of all time and his 73 Group 1 stars include a string of influential stallions.
Every good flat sire also gets some high-class performers under National Hunt rules, and his jumpers feature Cheltenham Gold Cup hero Synchronised and triple Champion Hurdle great Istabraq, but his lasting effect in that sector has been through his stallion sons.
Accordion, Black Sam Bellamy, Court Cave, Gold Well, Kayf Tara, King’s Theatre, Milan, Oscar, Saddler Maker, and Yeats are just a few of his top National Hunt sire sons, and his many flat ones who have hit the Grade 1 target with their jumpers include High Chaparral – sire of the brilliant Altior.
We are also seeing an increasing number of his grandsons and now great-grandsons making their name with flat and National Hunt offspring, ensuring that his influence will be felt for decades to come. There are only a few sons of Sadler’s Wells still in active service and they include The Beeches Stud’s Ask, winner of the Group 1 Coronation Cup and Group 1 Prix Royal-Oak.
His eldest progeny are only six but they include a long and growing list of winners, both under National Hunt rules and in point-to-points, including some multiple winning fillies and mares. They also include the blacktype-placed pair Carnspindle and Ask Nile – the former over hurdles and the latter over fences.
In 2017, Ask’s yearlings made up to €48,000, foals up to €23,000, and point-to-point scorer Clondaw’s Answer made £60,000 at Cheltenham in November. All of this represents a highly promising start for a stallion who looks set to become a leading sire of chasers.
It was always odds-on that Ask would become a successful stallion, and not just because he’s a son of Sadler’s Wells. The best of a string of winners out of Request (by Rainbow Quest), he is a half-brother to stakes winner Bess Of Hardwick (by Dansili) and to the dam of smart sprinter Making Trouble (by Paco Boy).
His grandam, Group 2 Ribblesdale Stakes runner-up Highbrow (by Shirley Heights), is the dam of Group 2 scorer Blueprint (by Generous) and ancestress of Australian Group 1 star Kingdom Of Fife (by Kingmambo).
She is out of Highclere (by Queen’s Hussar), the classic heroine whose descendants include Group 1 sires Nashwan (by Blushing Groom), Unfuwain (by Northern Dancer) and Nayef (by Gulch).
ASK (GB), Bay 2003. Won seven races, £812,085, from 1 mile 2 furlongs to 1 mile 7½ furlongs, 3 to 6 years including, Investec Coronation Cup, Epsom Downs, Gr.1, Prix Royal-Oak, Longchamp, Gr.1, Emirates Airline Yorkshire Cup, York, Gr.2, Bet365 Gordon Richards Stakes, Sandown Park, Gr.3, Blue Square Ormonde Stakes, Chester, Gr.3, Grosvenor Cumberland Lodge Stakes, Ascot, Gr.3, also placed 2nd Pattison Canadian International Stakes, Woodbine, Gr.1, and 3rd King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes, Ascot, Gr.1.
Retired to stud in 2011, and sire of the winners of 21 races, and £144,317 and sire of the winners of 24 races, and £184,908 under N.H. Rules, including Ask Nile (IRE) and Carnspindle (IRE)
Stands at: The Beeches Stud, Lismore, Co Waterford, Ireland.
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