THE Juddmonte homebred Expert Eye made a winning debut in mid-June 2017 at Newbury over six and a half furlongs, won the seven-furlong Vintage Stakes at Goodwood six weeks later, and then had a potential challenge for Group 1 glory in Ireland scuppered when he had a dirty scope.

Instead, Sir Michael Stoute sent him to take on a strong Aidan O’Brien assault on the Group 1 Dewhurst Stakes, but all did not go to plan. The son of Acclamation (Royal Applause) got very warm in the preliminaries when he was very buzzed up. In the race he attempted to go toe-to-toe with the eventual winner, U S Navy Flag, his rider failing to get him any cover. His challenge quickly fizzled out.

Andrea Atzeni afterwards reported that the colt ran too free and stopped quickly, while a subsequent veterinary examination found that Expert Eye finished lame on his right hind. In his second season he won a pair of Group 3 races in England, including the Jersey Stakes at Royal Ascot, and placed in both the Group 1 Sussex Stakes (runner-up to Lightning Spear) and the Group 1 Prix du Moulin de Longchamp.

However, his season was to end gloriously at Churchill Downs. The stage was the Breeders’ Cup Mile and he won this Grade 1 turf contest in a big field, with Group/Grade 1 winners aplenty from Europe and the USA.

In the immediate aftermath of the race he was spoken of as a leading Queen Anne Stakes fancy for 2019, but at Royal Ascot time that year Expert Eye was finishing off his first season at stud, and he was busy, resulting in some 97 foals in his first crop.

Now he has his first winner, over five furlongs, and this is the Juddmonte-owned Sunny Orange. Unusually though, the winner was bred elsewhere, at Derek and Gay Veitch’s Ringfort Stud, and was bought for 70,000gns as a foal. He is the second offspring of his dam, Orangey Red, a daughter of Lawman (Invincible Spirit). Lawman is the maternal grandsire of none other than Battaash. Orangey Red is a mare who will mean a great deal to the Veitch family.

Ringfort Stud

Purchased at three for just €9,000 by Ringfort Stud as a two-time three-year-old winner for owner-breeder Moyglare Stud, Orangey Red moved from Dermot Weld to Bill Farrell. She raced on for another season, earning some €25,000 in prizemoney with victories at Listowel and Fairyhouse. On both occasions Pat Smullen was in the saddle, and this much-missed man was a great personal friend of Gay and Derek. There is a Tamayuz (Nayef) yearling colt out of Orangey Red, born on St Patrick’s Day last year, and a colt foal by Fastnet Rock (Danehill). In the next few days Orangey Red is due to be covered at Ballylinch Stud by Waldgeist (Galileo).

As you might expect, being a Moyglare-bred, Orangey Red has some very smart relations. She is among six winners for Triple Try (Sadler’s Wells), a dual winner and a full-sister to Dance Design (Sadler’s Wells) who won the Group 1 Irish Oaks and the Group 2 (as it was then) Tattersalls Gold Cup. She sold for a record 2,500,000gns as a four-year-old. She beat the record of 1,700,000gns set just a year earlier.

Satish Sanan

Padua Stables was listed as the buyer, the racing name for Satish Sanan. His representative at the auction, veterinary surgeon Warren Evans, made the opening bid of 500,000gns and duelled all the way to a new record of 1,800,000gns with Hubie de Burgh representing Derrinstown Stud. John Ferguson then took over but Evans was not to be denied.

Triple Try is the dam of the Listed 2000 Guineas Trial Stakes winner Go For Goal (Verglas) and the group-placed Unwritten Rule (Dalakhani). Her dam Elegance In Design (Habitat), an own-sister to the Group 2 Coronation Stakes winner Chalon (Habitat), won a listed race at the Phoenix Park. Chalon went on to produce the Group 1 Prix Ganay and Group 1 Prix d’Ispahan winner Creator (Mill Reef).

The fourth dam of Sunny Orange is the Phoenix Stakes winner and Queen Mary Stakes runner-up Areola (Kythnos). In addition to Chalon and Elegance In Design, she bred the Group 3 winner Executive Perk (Lord Gayle), a successful National Hunt sire.