YEOMANSTOWN Stud has already had one huge success with a stallion who retired there at the end of his two-year-old career. That was Dark Angel, who has to date sired 24 individual blacktype winners from his first five crops, including the Group 1 sprint stars Lethal Force and Mecca’s Angel.

Now Dark Angel has been joined at Yeomanstown by his most successful two-year-old, the handsome dark grey Gutaifan, who won four of his seven starts in 2015, including the Group 2 Flying Childers Stakes at Doncaster in a new course record time.

Trained by Richard Hannon and a close second on his debut at Goodwood in the first week of June last year, Gutaifan won the Toby Balding Stakes at Salisbury only nine days later, then added the MBNA Stakes at Chester early in July.

Those performances earned him a trip to France, where he completed his hat trick in the Group 2 Prix Robert Papin at Maisons-Laffitte, defeating the subsequent Gimcrack Stakes hero Alaya.

Four weeks later Gutaifan was back in France for the six-furlong Group 1 Prix Morny at Deauville, where he was a very creditable second to the brilliant colt Shalaa.

Returning to five furlongs in the Group 2 Flying Childers Stakes at the Doncaster St Leger meeting, he broke the two-year-old course record when coming home the winner in a time of 58.04 seconds, ahead of Ornate and Log Out Island.

Ranking

In the European Rankings issued in January 2016, headed by Air Force Blue and Shalaa, Gutaifan was assessed as one of the nine best two-year-old colts in Europe in 2015 on a mark of 115. This was higher than the 114 allotted to his sire Dark Angel, when he was a two-year-old in 2007.

Dark Angel won the Group 1 Middle Park Stakes in his sole season in training, before retiring to stud in 2008, and this grey son of Acclamation has already sired winners of around 600 races and over €13,000,000 worldwide. His grey son Lethal Force was the champion older sprinter in Europe in 2013, when he won the Group 1 Darley July Cup and the Group 1 Diamond Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot and he stands at Cheveley Park Stud for £10,000. His first foals were popular at the sales last autumn.

Dark Angel’s daughter Mecca’s Angel was an impressive winner of the Group 1 Nunthorpe Stakes at York. Three more high-class two-year-olds by Dark Angel are Estidhkaar, who won the Group 2 Champagne Stakes and the Group 2 Superlative Stakes, Birchwood who won the Superlative Stakes last year, before running third in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf, and Alhebayeb, winner of the Group 2 TNT July Stakes at Newmarket and another new recruit to stud in 2016.

Gutaifan is a half-brother to six winners, including the stakes-placed Cest Noir Gris, and they are out of the winning Lahib mare Alikhlas, a half-sister to listed scorer Sahool and to the dam of Maraahel, who twice won the Group 2 Hardwicke Stakes at Royal Ascot and was Group 1 placed six times, including finishing second and third in the Juddmonte International Stakes. This is a family packed with stakes winners. Under the third dam Manal are the Cherry Hinton Stakes winner Asfurah and the Diadem Stakes winner and sire Haatef. Manal is an own-sister to Twig Moss and Tip Moss.

Won four races, £182,767, from 5 furlongs to 6 furlongs, at 2 years including, Fly Aer Lingus Flying Childers Stakes, Doncaster, Gr.2, Prix Robert Papin, Maisons-Laffitte, Gr.2, also placed second in Darley Prix Morny, Deauville, Gr.1. Retires to stud in 2016.