'He impressed then and has progressed from there' - Ballylinch's Waldgeist colt

At a time of year when studs with first-crop yearling sires are eagerly awaiting their progeny heading under the hammer, it is no different for Ballylinch Stud, which will be hoping history repeats itself at Arqana's August Sale this weekend.

Nine years ago Ballylinch sent a colt by its then up-and-coming young sire Lope De Vega to the idyllic Deauville ring. As fate would have it, following his €100,000 sale to Ted Voute, the colt named Belardo would win the Dewhurst a year later in the colours of Prince Faisal, lead the juvenile rankings and later become a Darley stallion. Lope De Vega was up and running.

Eoin Fives, bloodstock and nominations manager for Ballylinch, said: "John [O'Connor, managing director] wanted to put a nice Lope De Vega colt in Arqana for his first crop back in 2013 and it sold pretty well.

"He turned out to be Belardo, who went on to be European champion two-year-old, so we've tried to do the same thing here with one of our best Waldgeist colts and hopefully he sells well here."

In the intervening years Lope De Vega has proven himself one of the best sires in the world, responsible for 15 individual top-flight winners such as Phoenix Of Spain, Lucky Vega and Newspaperofrecord, and Fives is hopeful that the colt Ballylinch offers by the operation's exciting Arc winner Waldgeist can prove an equally fine pathfinder for his sire.

Fives said of the February-born colt (lot 63), the first foal of a half-sister to dual Group 3 winner New Providence: "We bought him here last year for €100,000 from the foal sale and he impressed then and has just progressed from there.

"He's very mature, really athletic and has just got great substance. He's from a very fast family and I think that shows in him as well."

Waldgeist, who conquered Enable in the Arc and as a two-year-old won the Group 1 Criterium de Saint-Cloud - one of eight Group wins in total - is reportedly passing on his class in spades to his progeny.

Fives added: "With the Waldgeists we're seeing very athletic horses who have plenty of strength to go along with that.

"This colt has an exceptional temperament and is very similar to his sire, he just walked off the box here after a 24-hour journey and went straight into his stable to eat up."

In an era where precocity is prized, Fives is hopeful the son of Galileo can deliver on that score with his early stock, while also taking encouragement from other middle-distance sons and grandsons of the late Coolmore phenomenon.

He continued: "He was a Group 1-winning two-year-old and we're definitely seeing mature horses in his stock so far, but it's great to see horses such as Ulysses and Cracksman, who are middle-distance horses, doing well [earlier on]."

The Ballylinch draft for Arqana is no one-horse band either, with the team also offering a Lope De Vega full-sister to multiple black-type scorer Antonia De Vega (189) and the first of the Too Darn Hot progeny into the arena, a filly out of a half-sister to Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf and Fillies' Mile heroine Chriselliam (3).

Fives said: "We're really looking forward to the sale. We always try to send some of our best horses every year to Arqana and we've got a bunch of seven here who are hard to split. They have all got good pedigrees and are top quality physicals as well.

"We've got three Lope De Vegas, an Invincible Spirit, another by a first-crop yearling sire in Too Darn Hot and a Sea The Stars."

On the eve of the European yearling sale season, Fives also reports the build-up and preparation for their consignments over the coming months to have gone smoothly.

He said: "It's been very straightforward, our yearling draft is split between Castlemartin Stud and Ballylinch. Three of them came from Castlemartin and four from Ballylinch and they've all got here without a hitch."

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