THERE was joy in spades at Boardsmill Stud at the weekend, with firsts for two of their stallions.

Poet’s Word (above) got off the mark with a winner over hurdles from his only National Hunt runner to date, Pacini winning at Fairyhouse on Saturday.

He comes from his first crop, sired in Britain, and numbering just 20 foals. He has nine winners on the flat from 14 runners, with just one of this runners not in the money. Poet’s Word’s first Boardsmill crop are two-year-olds.

Not to be outdone, Sumbal had his first winner on Saturday when Belle won a 12 furlong handicap at Deauville. She is one of just nine three-year-olds from his first crop in France.

His only other three-year-old runner this year is Dear Weaver, who has been placed over hurdles and fences and has earned over €46,000 in prize money. Sumbal has 20 two-year-olds which were conceived at Annshoon Stud, while his first Boardsmill crop are yearlings.

JAPANESE buyers at the breeding stock sales put a huge emphasis on racecourse performance when they are adding to their band of broodmares, and this can lead to them purchasing fillies and mares with a less than obvious pedigree.

Take for example India Mantuana, a daughter of Wilburn (Bernardini). She was sold as a yearling for just $8,000, and her sire, while he stood initially at Spendthrift, has been based in Oklahoma now for some years, where he stands for a fee of just $2,000.

Sold as a two-year-old for $625,000 after being a $75,000 yearling purchase, Wilburn won first time out at three in Santa Anita and went on to win four more races in his only season to race. His two stakes wins included the Grade 2 Indiana Derby when he beat the Preakness winner Shackleford and the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile winner Caleb’s Posse. Ironically, Caleb’s Posse now stands alongside Wilburn and others, but at a fee of just $1,000.

As a racemare India Mantuana won six times, half of these at two, and at four she caused an upset when gaining her sole stakes success in the Grade 3 Red Carpet Handicap at Del Mar. She travelled to Canada for a single start and was stakes-placed there. With career winnings of some $225,000, she was sold in foal for $100,000 to Shadai Farm in January 2020, but lost that foal.

Unbeaten run

Connections left India Mantuana in the USA to be covered by the Grade 1 Belmont Stakes winner Palace Malice (Curlin), and brought her to Japan after she tested in foal. The resulting colt, named Jantar Mantar, is now one of the favourites to be crowned champion juvenile colt after he extended his unbeaten run to three with victory in the Group 1 Asahi Hai Futurity. He previously won the Group 2 Daily Hai Nisai Stakes.

The victory could not have been more timely, as Palace Malice will stand next year in Japan. He will be based at Sheikh Mohammed’s Darley Japan for the 2024 breeding season. Palace Malice entered stud in 2016 at Three Chimneys Farm in Kentucky and remained there through the 2023 breeding season. His stud fee this year was $7,500.

The late Cot Campbell raced Palace Malice after Dogwood purchased him for $200,000 at the 2012 Keeneland sale of two-year-olds in training. He won seven of his 19 career races and $2,691,135. In addition to the Belmont Stakes, he captured the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap and a trio of Grade 2 races. Dogwood campaigned Palace Malice with Three Chimneys during his last two career races.

Great start

It is all happening in Japan for Palace Malice, who would struggle now in the USA in spite of the great start he made at stud. He has sired 180 winners and the earners of almost $16 million and his first crop included his only other top level winner, Structor. That colt won the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf four years ago and is now standing at stud in Japan.

Until the appearance of Jantar Mantar, named after an observatory in Jaipur, his dam India Mantuana was the only graded stakes winner in four generations of the family. That said, the first three dams of the potential juvenile champion are stakes winners. India Mantuana is one of six winners from Speed Wagon (Tomorrows Cat), and the best of her five victories came in a restricted stakes at Canterbury Park.

Speed Wagon’s dam Rajica (El Baba) also won five times, victory in a stakes race at River Downs being the highlight. She has seven offspring who won, while four of her own siblings were successful on the track.

HOLDING an entry in the Group 1 Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby next June, Sheikh Mohammed Obaid Al Maktoum’s two-year-old colt Imperial Sovereign made a recent eye-catching debut on the all-weather at Newcastle, and justified his odd-on starting price.

Given a name that suggests greatness, Imperial Sovereign beat another son of Frankel (Galileo), High Order, owned by King Charles and bred by his mother. The winner is the first foal of his dam Imperial Charm (Dubawi), and though she failed to win a stakes race, she was placed on a number of occasions in pattern company, notably finishing a length and a half behind the winner when third in the Group 1 Prix Saint-Alary. This year Imperial Charm’s second foal was born, a colt by Sea The Stars (Cape Cross).

Frankel has previously worked the oracle with this family, as Imperial Charm’s half-brother is Triple Time (Frankel). He is about to embark on his new career as a stallion at Dalham Hall Stud in the spring, having won half of his eight career starts. Patience was rewarded for connections this year when Triple Time beat Inspiral in the Group 1 Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot.

The family had a late season boost too when Rosaline (New Approach), an unraced sibling to Triple Time and Imperial Charm, bred the Group 1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere winner Rosallion (Blue Point), another homebred for Sheikh Mohammed Obaid. This is very much a stallion’s pedigree, and a fruitful campaign next year for Imperial Sovereign would surely earn him a spot at stud too.

Nine winners

Triple Time is not the only Group 1 winner out of his dam, Reem Three (Mark Of Esteem). His half-sister Ajman Princess (Teofilo) won the Group 1 Prix Jean Romanet seven years ago, having finished runner-up at Royal Ascot in the Group 2 Ribblesdale Stakes. Triple Time and Ajman Princess are among nine winners from the stakes-placed, three-time winner Reem Three, and no fewer than six of them were stakes winners.

Others among that impressive list of blacktype winners are Ostilio (New Approach), a French Group 2 winner, and the Group 3 Ascot winner Cape Byron (Shamardal). Reem Three is a half-sister to the Group 2 Celebration Mile winner Afsare (Dubawi). He was second in Italy in a Group 1, and occupied the same position in the Grade 1 Arlington Million.

The fourth dam of Imperial Sovereign was Donya (Mill Reef), dam of nine winners and the fourth dam of the Group 2 Derby Italiano winner Summer Festival (Poet’s Voice). Imperial Sovereign’s fifth dam was Dunette (Hard To Beat) who died at the age of 22.

Major surprise

In three seasons Dunette won five of her 13 races and twice defeated the great Three Troikas. At three she sprung a major surprise at 50/1 to land the Group 1 Prix de Diane-French Oaks, and she was rated the second-best filly of her generation in Europe in both 1979 and 1980. At stud she produced the Grade 1 Canadian International Stakes winner French Glory (Sadler’s Wells).

Frankel’s record as a stallion hardly needs any explanation here, and next year he holds, with Dubawi, the distinction of being the most expensive stallion in Europe. One statistic that I will leave you with is that in 2013 he is the sire of 19 two-year-old winners, and four of these are stakes winners. He sired Soul Stirring in his first crop, a Group 1 winner as a juvenile in Japan, while this year’s two-year-olds are headed by Ylang Ylang, winner of the Group 1 Fillies’ Mile.