‘He’s a stallion of the epoch’ - sons of Dubawi run riot once again at Royal Ascot

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Ballylinch Stud's fingerprints were over everything but the colours of Limestone, as the County Kilkenny farm continued a happy association with the Queen's Vase.

Their resident sire New Bay was responsible for the progressive colt, who Ballylinch own in partnership with Al Shaqab and Anthony Ramsden's Valmont, in whose white, blue and pink silks Dylan Browne McMonagle was wearing as Limestone defeated Godolphin's Del Maro in a photo finish.

It was a second success in two days for New Bay and actually in just three Royal Ascot races as he had similarly been on the right side of a head-bob in Tuesday's concluding Copper Horse Stakes through Daiquiri Bay.

"That's his second winner now of the week and Make Believe had a winner [Kizlyar, Ascot Stakes] also so that's not too bad," said John O'Connor, Ballylinch's long-serving managing director.

"The New Bay in that particular race also beat another by Lope De Vega [Gamrai] so it was a relaxed final furlong for me!"

Limestone had gone to Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale and was knocked down to a combination of Valmont and Al Shaqab for 210,000gns with Ballylinch deciding to remain involved. He was already a winner of the Listed Yeats Stakes at Navan before a career-best for Joseph O’Brien in Saturday's step up to a mile and three-quarters.

"We like 'Joc's' [O'Connor] stallions, so that helps," said Ramsden. "We can't afford them all, so Joc takes half!"

Anthony Ramsden (left), Alison Begley and John O’Connor collect the Queen’s VaseCredit: Patrick McCann (racingpost.com/photos)

O'Connor continued: "We also had other lucky partnerships such as Place Du Carrousel [Prix de l'Opera winner] in partnership with Al Shaqab and several other good horses with Valmont. We're happy to do it. Anthony and Valmont have been good supporters, they're very professional, they know what they're doing and they're easy partners to have.

"We really liked this horse as a yearling. He was a lovely quality, good-moving yearling, we've been lucky keeping some of those nice horses. Bayside Boy was another son of New Bay and we did the same thing with him."

Modernstone, a mare by Duke of Marmalade, is not a Ballylinch product. She worked her way up to stakes level in Britain before moving to the US where she landed the Listed Ladies Marathon Stakes at Kentucky Downs. She was bought by celebrity US chef Bobby Flay, who picked her up for $350,000 at the Keeneland Breeding Stock Sale in 2015, before selling her for 1,000,000gns at the Tattersalls December Mare Sale a couple of years later.

Modernstone is a daughter of Post Modern, who was a Nureyev sister to Juddmonte and Sir Henry Cecil’s Oaks winner Reams Of Verse. 

"We bought the mare in the December Sales in Newmarket in foal to Galileo, the resulting foal was Lone Eagle, who was just probably unluckily second [to Hurricane Lane] in the Irish Derby, but she's been a good mare for us and she's still around," O'Connor explained.

Daiquiri Bay beats Gamri in a one-two for Ballylinch stallions in the Copper Horse StakesCredit: Edward Whitaker (racingpost.com/photos)

New Bay is one thriving son of Dubawi at stud in a week that another, Night Of Thunder, has continued to deliver at the very top end.

Following a Group 1 double on the opening day via Ten Bob Tony in the Queen Anne and Bow Echo in the St James's Palace, the current champion British and Irish sire made it three after Ombudsman's stunning defence of the Prince of Wales's Stakes.

The measured O'Connor had the perfect assessment of Dubawi.

"He is a breed-shaper and in some ways he's a breed-shaper that not everybody expected, but he's done it himself and he deserves all the plaudits that he gets," he said. 

"His sons are doing really well. He's a stallion of the epoch really, we're lucky we have some access to him."

Last year's winner of the same race, Carmers, was also bred at Ballylinch on behalf of Fiona Carmichael's Westward Bloodstock and had similarly graduated from the Yeats Stakes. The operation was then responsible for consigning the winner of the next race on the card, the Group 2 Duke of Cambridge Stakes. 

The impressive Blue Point filly Blue Bolt had been sold to Juddmonte for €400,000 through Ballylinch at the Arqana August Yearling Sale in 2023 for her breeder, Brendan Hayes's C-Squared Investments. She’s a half-sister to triple Listed winner Sea Theme, by Sea The Stars, and to Sky Angel, another Listed winner who finished second in the German Guineas.

Victorious and Ryan Moore after the Queen MaryCredit: Edward Whitaker (racingpost.com/photos)

Victorious, who won the opening Queen Mary Stakes, has shown courage to complement her outstanding breeding as she lost the sight in one eye during the summer of her yearling season at Coolmore.

It seems not to matter a jot for the unbeaten daughter of the late Wootton Bassett, who was bred by Georg von Opel’s Westerberg, a close associate of Coolmore, from the family of a modern-day blue hen.

Victorious is one of four winners from as many foals from Heaven On Earth, a maiden winner by Galileo, who has already produced Give Thanks Stakes runner-up Mother Nature (Justify) and another of Dubawi’s many offspring in Sugar Island, who was third in the Oaks to Thundering On.

Heaven On Earth is more significantly out of the 2010 Coronation Stakes winner Lillie Langtry, who had been one of O’Brien’s 98 previous Royal Ascot winners when she claimed the 2010 Coronation Stakes. 

Lillie Langtry has produced the seven-time Group 1 winner Minding, one of Heaven On Earth’s full sisters along with Oaks scorer Tuesday and Irish 1,000 Guineas winner Empress Josephine. Heaven On Earth does not have a reported yearling and last visited Justify again in the US.

Victorious is another example of the potency when Wootton Bassett is crossed with daughters of Galileo, with the filly one of 13 Group winners bred on the cross. 

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