CHELTENHAM 2021 is very much on the cards for the Michael Winters-trained Chatham Street Lad after the eight-year-old son of Beneficial (Top Ville) routed the opposition in the Grade 3 Caspian Caviar Gold Cup at Cheltenham on Saturday.

The gelding was bred by Patrick Magee and sold as a three-year-old at the Goffs Land Rover Sale to Mick Winters for €30,000. His six career successes to date are divided equally between victories over hurdles and fences, and his earnings are now about €135,000.

Chatham Street Lad is the only winner to date from Heart’s Delight (Broken Hearted). She won a point-to-point at five, but it must be said her form was relatively indifferent until she sprang something of a surprise and won a chase over two miles and six furlongs at Tramore, beating the odds-on favourite.

She was one of two racecourse winners from Josie’s Turn (Kambalda), the other being Numbercruncher (Beneficial), successful in three chases and twice as many point-to-points. Josie’s Turn was a half-sister to listed Tralee hurdle winner Kouron (Pauper) and their dam Little Chance (Master Owen) was a full-sister to the Hennessy Cognac Gold Cup winner Broadheath.

Beneficial stood for most of his career at Sean Kinsella’s Knockhouse Stud. He died there in 2013, at the age of 23, having covered 30 mares in the first two months of that season. Winner of the Group 2 King Edward VII Stakes at Royal Ascot, he was one of the most successful stallions of the last couple of decades and his Grade 1 winners include Annacotty, Abbyssial, More Of That, Orpheus Valley, Mount Benbulben, Benefficient, Realt Mor, Realt Dubh and Cooldine.

Kidd’s loyalty pays dividends

HAVING his first run in a blacktype race, Storm Control added further glory to an already illustrious family when he won again at Cheltenham, this time capturing the Grade 3 Unibet Chase. He was bred by John Kidd and is the second blacktype winner for his Monsun (Konigsstuhl) sire September Storm, joining dual listed winner Mia’s Storm.

September Storm won a listed race in Germany at three, a Derby trial, and he died this year at the age of 18. Never hugely supported at stud, he nonetheless showed plenty of ability as a stallion and Storm Control, one of his best runners, is evidence of this. Standing at Knockhouse Stud in recent years, he was based previously at Kidd’s Ballyash Stud.

Storm Control is a full-brother to Atlantic Storm, a six-time winner, including in 2020, over hurdles and fences, and they are two of the trio of winners out of the unraced Double Dream (Double Eclipse). The third winner is the listed hurdle winning mare Tagrita (King’s Theatre).

Double Dream had one outstanding sibling, the Grade 3 Scottish Grand National winner Grey Abbey (Nestor). While that may be the best remembered of his four hurdle and 11 chase victories, he was successful four times at Grade 2 level, namely the Charlie Hall Chase, the Champion Novice Chase at Ayr, the Betfair Bowl at Aintree and the Pillar Property Chase at Cheltenham.

The third remove of the family yielded four more blacktype National Hunt winners. They included Grade 2 winning chasers Calgary Bay (Taipan) and The Grey Monk (Roselier) and the Grade 2 winning hurdler Princess Casilia (Croghan Hill).

Don’t be Ambivalent about the new King

ONE of the new boys in town next spring when the covering season begins is King Of Change, and this Group 1 winning miler will stand at Derrinstown Stud for the very attractive fee of just €7,000. Winner or second in all of his six career starts, he won the QIPCO Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at Ascot and chased home Magna Grecia in the Group 1 QIPCO 2000 Guineas. When winning at Ascot he had no fewer than eight Group 1 winners behind him.

Now comes the news that among the high-quality mares already booked to him is the Group 1 Pretty Polly Stakes and Group 2 Middleton Stakes winner Ambivalent, a daughter of the Derby winner Authorized (Montjeu). Owned by Ali Saeed Belhabb, Ambivalent is a half-sister to the Group 1 placed Al Waffi (Fairy King) and to the dam of Group 1 Prix de l’Abbaye winner and European champion sprinter Total Gallery (Namid).

Ambivalent, who has a Dubawi (Dubai Millennium) filly foal and a yearling colt by Invincible Spirit (Green Desert), was covered by Sea The Stars (Cape Cross) in 2020. She is already the dam of two winners with her first two runners. Her first foal is the Group 2 Prix Hocquart hero Al Hilalee (Dubawi), while her two-year-old, Teona (Sea The Stars), won and was placed second this year on her only starts. She is trained by Roger Varian.

A rare 2020 offering at Goffs

WHAT is unique about Opal Heart, the three-year-old daughter of Invincible Spirit (Green Desert) who is part of the draft from Jacqueline Norris’ Jockey Hall Stud at Goffs on Monday?

Well, quite incredibly, she will have the distinction of being the only mare to be offered for sale at public auction this year in foal to Sea The Stars (Cape Cross).

Yes, you read that correctly. In spite of being very busy at Gilltown Stud and covering more than 200 mares, just one of them will have come under the hammer when Opal Heart strides into the sale ring in Kill. Sire of 14 Group 1 winners, and due to cover at a fee of €150,000 next year, Sea The Stars is also a major sales sire, and in three of the last four years his yearling average, for some 180 yearlings sold, was in excess of €225,000.

Opal Heart is a daughter of Group 2 Prix de Royallieu winner Sea Of Heartbreak (Rock of Gibraltar) and that mare’s stakes-winning half-sister Persefona (Montjeu) added further blacktype to the family this year when she bred the listed winner Pessemona (War Command).

Sea The Stars also features as a sire among the foals Norris is selling this weekend. The stallion’s daughter out of Sindjara (Include) has had two siblings to race and both are winners in 2020.

This is a great female family of the Aga Khan Studs, and as her name might suggest, Sindjara can boast of having the brilliant Sinndar (Grand Lodge) as a relative.