AFTER defeating two of the season’s top juveniles in a Group 2 event in Ireland as a two-year-old, Dragon Pulse trained on to add a group race at Longchamp in the following season, defeating the previously unbeaten French champion Dabirsim. This handsome chesnut horse by champion sprinter Kyllachy is standing his third season in 2015 at the Irish National Stud at a very attractive fee and last autumn his first foals made prices up to €95,000 at the sales.

Never out of the first two in his two-year-old campaign when trained by Jessica Harrington, Dragon Pulse ran second on his debut, then opened his winning account in the six-furlong Glenvale Stud Stakes at Leopardstown in July. A month later, he showed an excellent turn of foot in the Group 2 Galileo EBF Futurity Stakes at The Curragh, this time over seven furlongs, coming home a length and three-quarters clear of Parish Hall, who next time out went to Newmarket to win the Group 1 Dewhurst Stakes, with Power in second place.

By then Dragon Pulse had already raced against Power, in the Group 1 Goffs National Stakes over seven furlongs at the Curragh. Power got first run, but Dragon Pulse put up a tremendous fight and narrowed the gap to be a close second, beaten only half a length, with the subsequent Group 2 Beresford Stakes hero David Livingston third and the recent Solario Stakes winner Talwar unplaced in the field of eight.

In the world rankings, Dragon Pulse was rated one of the top 10 two-year-olds in Europe in 2011, on 116, which was only 3lb below the champion Camelot and only 1lb below Parish Hall and Power. This was the highest juvenile rating ever achieved by any son of Kyllachy.

As a three-year-old Dragon Pulse went to France to be trained by Mikel Delzangles and on his reappearance he scored in the Group 3 Prix de Fontainebleau over a mile at Longchamp, inflicting a first defeat on Dabirsim, who had been the champion juvenile in France in 2011 after victories in the Group 1 Prix Morny and the Group 1 Prix Jean Luc Lagardere Grand Criterium. Out of the first three in a tight finish to the Group 1 French 2000 Guineas and in the Group 1 St James’s Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot, Dragon Pulse did not race again and was retired to the Irish National Stud.

His sire Kyllachy, a son of Pivotal, was the champion older sprinter in Europe in 2002, when his wins included the Group 1 Nunthorpe Stakes and Group 2 Temple Stakes. In his first nine seasons, he has sired the winners of over 1,200 races and more than £16,000,000 in prize money worldwide, with 21 of those successful in black type events. He has a dual Nunthorpe Stakes and King’s Stand Stakes hero to his credit with Sole Power, while his son Krypton Factor scored in the Group 1 Golden Shaheen Stakes in Dubai.

Dragon Pulse is the second foal of his winning dam Poetical, who was also second in the listed Silken Glider Stakes and third in the Group 3 Concorde Stakes. She is a half-sister to three winners and her dam is a half-sister to nine winners, among them the Group 1 Middle Park Stakes star Hayil. This is an American family, which produced the dual Grade 1 hero Wild Rush.

There are 70 registered foals from Dragon Pulse’s first crop and 28 of those were sold by Tattersalls and Goffs in 2014, at the excellent average price of €27,019, which was over four times his stud fee. Yeomanstown Stud paid €95,000 at Goffs in November for the filly-foal out of Silver Arrow and other good prices there for Dragon Pulse foals were €50,000, €46,000 and €43,000. Best at Tattersalls was 50,000 guineas for the colt out of Belle Watling, bought by agent Jamie Railton.

DRAGON PULSE (IRE)

Race record: Winner of 3 races, £128,411, in Ireland and France, at 2 and 3 years, 6-8 furlongs, inc. Galileo EBF Futurity Stakes, Curragh, Gr.2, and Prix de Fontainebleau, Longchamp, Gr.3; second in Goffs National Stakes, Curragh, Gr.1.

Stud record: Retired to stud in 2013. His first crop are yearlings in 2015.

Stands at: Irish National Stud, Tully, Kildare, Co Kildare, Ireland. Enquiries to John Osborne on (353) 045 521251. Email: stud@irish-national-stud.ie Web: www.irish-national-stud.ie

Fee: €6,000 (October 1st)

IRISH NATIONAL

STUD

ORIGINALLY named the Tully Stud and founded in 1900 by Colonel Hall Walker (later Lord Wavertree), in 1916 it became the British National Stud, before evolving into the Irish National Stud in 1943. The property is also the home of the world famous Japanese Gardens and the Irish Horse Museum.

In the 1920s, the champion sire Blandford stood here and nowadays the stud stands nine high-class stallions, including the successful sires Invincible Spirit, Big Bad Bob and Lord Shanakill. Elusive Pimpernel has his first two-year-olds running in 2015, while Dragon Pulse and Famous Name now have their first yearlings and Worthadd is expecting his first foals. They are joined in 2015 by newcomers Gale Force Ten and Palavicini, both of them group winners at distances around a mile.

There are usually about 20 broodmares owned by the Irish National Stud and recent stars which they have produced include champion Desert King, winner of the Irish 2000 Guineas and Irish Derby, Irish St Leger victress Voleuse De Coeurs, Yellow Rosebud, Pale Mimosa and U.S. Grade 1 victor Daytona.