A TOP-CLASS performer, Derrinstown Stud’s Awtaad is quite possibly the best value stallion at stud. He combines exceptional good looks with a fine race record, and he transmits his best qualities to his stock. While he has been doing well with his runners, he was just missing a very good winner, and now he has that too.,

As a racehorse himself, Awtaad (Cape Cross) won five races and was only once out of the first four in nine starts, and he is consistently delivering winners, nine of them at stakes level, from his first three crops. Trained by Kevin Prendergast for his owner-breeder, the late Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum, at two Awtaad won a maiden over seven furlongs at Leopardstown by two lengths.

He reappeared in March, coming home five lengths clear in the Madrid Handicap, carrying 9st 10lbs, before adding the Listed Tetrarch Stakes, also at the Curragh, by two lengths from Blue De Vega. Taking the path trod at the weekend by Paddington, Awtaad then beat the 2000 Guineas winner Galileo Gold by two lengths in the Group 1 Irish 2000 Guineas, with Blue De Vega four lengths in third, ahead of the champion two-year-old, Air Force Blue.

Galileo Gold exacted revenge at Royal Ascot in the Group 1 St James’s Palace Stakes, with Awtaad a close third, five lengths clear of the other runners. He returned to his best in the Group 2 Boomerang Solonaway Stakes over a mile at Leopardstown, winning by a length and a half. Awtaad ended his racing career in the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at Ascot, a creditable fourth to champions Minding and Ribchester.

Cape Cross, the sire of Awtaad, was a champion miler and this son of Green Desert (Danzig) has sired more than 120 blacktype winners, including Sea The Stars and Golden Horn, both of whom completed the Group 1 Epsom Derby and Group 1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe double.

Good outcross

Awtaad’s excellent pedigree makes him a good outcross for most Irish broodmares. Last year his yearlings were in great demand, his colts averaging over €39,000, and his fillies almost €34,000. His best-priced filly was sold by Camas Park Stud to Ollie Sangster brought 120,000gns, while his top two colts sold to Richard Hughes and Peter and Ross Doyle for €90,000 and €87,000 respectively. In December his four-year-old daughter Bellosa realised 300,000gns.

It is little wonder that Awtaad’s stock should be popular, and maybe more people will take notice of them now following the success of his son Anmaat, a member of his first crop, in this week’s Group 1 Prix d’Ispahan. Last year, on Arc weekend at ParisLongchamp, Awtaad had a Group 2 double with Anmaat winning the Prix Dollar and Al Qareem capturing the Prix Chaudenay.

While he seems to reserve his best form for France, Anmaat is also a firm favourite of the Shadwell team, and the best of his five wins in Britain came in a Group 3 at Haydock. He has won seven of his 12 starts, been runner-up four times and third once. He is consistency personified.

Bred by Derek and Gay Veitch at their Ringfort Stud, where they also bred Derrinstown’s new sire for this year, Minzaal, Anmaat was sold as a foal for 140,000gns. He has now won in excess of €500,000.

Seven winners

The Halling (Diesis) mare African Moonlight, Anmaat’s dam, beat one other runner in two outings as a two-year-old. That has been no hindrance to her as a producer, and she has seven winners with her first seven runners.

Her eighth offspring, the three-year-old Spain Moonlight (Invincible Spirit), was placed twice last year, and the ninth, the two-year-old filly Lunar Shine (Kodiac), sold for 300,000gns last year to Manor House Farm.

African Moonlight’s seven winners include Syntax (Haatef), a €12,000 yearling purchase by Johnny Murtagh. He was sold to the USA after finishing fifth on his debut to Gleneagles and runner-up on his second start to Jack Naylor in Roscommon. Syntax won at Grade 3 level stateside and was placed in a couple of Grade 2 races.

African Moonlight will hopefully equal the record of her own dam, the stakes-placed African Peace (Roberto). The latter mare had 11 foals, all of which raced and nine won. She too is the dam of two stakes winners, notably African Moonlight’s full-brother Mkuzi (Halling), successful in the Group 3 Curragh Cup twice.

Fine record

Nine stakes winners in his first two crops is a fine record for Awtaad, and in addition to Anmaat and Al Qareem already mentioned, he is sire of the Group 3 winners Diamil (in Australia) and Create Belief (in Ireland). His listed winners are Bellosa and Primo Bacio in England, Ebeko at Santa Anita in the USA, and Prichi and Calithea in Italy.

Waterford was runner-up in the Group 2 Ajax Stakes in Australia, while Austrian Theory placed in the Group 2 Vintage Stakes at two. Awtaad’s haul of blacktype earners is completed by a pair of stakes-placed winners in Ireland.

CON Marnane never misses a beat, and he delights when the colours of his wife Theresa are carried to success.

This success has been enjoyed many times, and at pattern level, Theresa’s silks have been worn in victory on the likes of Group 1 Racing Post Trophy winner Palace Episode, Group 2 Flying Childers Stakes winner Madame Trop Vite, Group 3 Albany Stakes at Royal Ascot winner Different League, and the Group 3 winning pair of Have A Good Day and Bottle Of Bubbles, successful in France and Italy respectively in the Prix du Cabourg and the Premio Primi Passi.

You may have already noticed a trend here – all those group race successes were in races for two-year-olds. Now, Con and Theresa can add one more, following victory for Givemethebeatboys in the Group 3 Gain Marble Hill Stakes at the Curragh.

Bred by Sonia Rogers and her son Anthony’s Airlie Stud, Givemethebeatboys is unbeaten in two outings, and perhaps Con will need that top hat for a trip to Berkshire later this month.

Con is a man who checks out everything at the sales, and his eye for value is the best in the business. Givemethebeatboys is a son of Rathasker Stud’s Bungle Inthejungle (Exceed And Excel), a sire Con and Theresa had another winner by this week, and out of a winning daughter of Dutch Art (Medicean), Dromana. Sold as a foal for €15,000, the colt was resold for a loss-making €11,000, on both occasions at Goffs.

Not only has Con won his investment back with interest, he has a hugely saleable product.

Shrewd judge

Last year it was the turn of another shrewd judge, Tony O’Callaghan, to invest wisely when he purchased the half-brother to Givemethebeatboys, a Cracksman (Frankel) colt foal, for €48,000 from Airlie. This is a family that keeps on giving, and Peter and Antoinette Kavanagh’s Kildaragh Stud has judiciously invested in it in recent years.

Airlie Stud paid 190,000gns a decade ago for the winning three-year-old filly, Tecla (Whipper). She had five foals for the Rogers family, all winning fillies, and they sold three of them. Kildaragh paid €140,000 as a foal for Malrescia (Acclamation), a full-sister to the French stakes winner Testa.

Mentioned in a past column here as a filly to keep an eye on, Malrescia won twice and was group-placed. Last year the Kavanaghs gave 60,000gns for her winning half-sister, the then three-year-old Cappoquin (Muhaarar).

The fifth winner out of Tecla was, like Dromana, retained by Airlie Stud and, in the care of Henry de Bromhead, Lismore (Zoffany) won the Group 3 Henry II Stakes and was placed in the Group 2 Doncaster Cup. That investment made 10 years ago is now paying dividends, and how.

While Sonia and Anthony Rogers were shaping one branch of this female line with their purchase of Tecla, that mare’s year-older half-sister, Pembina (Dalakhani), was also sold a decade ago, this one at Goffs and for €400,000. Pembina is the dam of the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf winner last year, Meditate (No Nay Never). In fact, Tecla and three of her siblings have produced group winners, and the twice-raced Tonnara (Linamix) is responsible for two Group 1 winners, Ectot (Hurricane Run) and Most Improved (Lawman).

Bungle Inthejungle has now sired four group winners, lead by Winter Power, successful in the Group 1 Nunthorpe Stakes, and Living In The Past, winner of teh Group 2 Lowther Stakes.