Exciting colt Andesite strikes at York to become a first winner for Darley's Pinatubo

Darley's champion juvenile and promising first-season sire Pinatubo looks to have a smart prospect in the shape of his first winner, Andesite. 

The colt, who took the six-furlong novice contest at York on Thursday, is bred to be decent and precocious. 

A homebred for Clipper Logistics, the April-born colt is out of the Group-placed Turtle Bowl mare Katie's Diamond, making him a half-brother to the team's Queen Mary and Temple Stakes winner Dramatised, by Showcasing. 

The Karl Burke-trained colt is one of 109 first-crop two-year-olds for his sire, who stands at Dalham Hall Stud for £35,000. 

Pinatubo: exciting stallion is off the markCredit: Edward Whitaker

Pinatubo, a son of Shamardal and the Listed-winning Dalakhani mare Lava Flow, was a brilliant and unbeaten juvenile, with a nine-length win in the Curragh's National Stakes supplemented by victories in the Dewhurst, Vintage Stakes and Chesham Stakes. 

In being allotted an official rating of 128 for his exploits in that 2019 campaign, he was rated the best European juvenile since Celtic Swing in 1994, and higher than Frankel 

The Godolphin homebred went on to win a third Group 1, the Prix Jean Prat, as a three-year-old and also placed in the 2,000 Guineas, St James's Palace Stakes and Prix du Moulin. 

Having retired to Dalham Hall for an opening fee of £35,000 in 2021, Pinatubo has been strongly supported in his first few seasons at stud. His first crop as yearlings proved hot property, selling for up to 500,000gns and at an average of £146,000. 

Read more

Buyers Sober as £110,000 prospect headlines at Tattersalls Cheltenham May Sale