Success of Infinite Spirit and daughters shows gold mine of large studs' culls

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In his latest despatch he takes a look at the second-generation mark being made by Infinite Spirit – subscribers can get more great insight from Martin every Monday to Friday.

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Infinite Spirit was quite a good racemare, and later a pretty useful broodmare, but it’s probably fair to say she didn’t do enough in either discipline to etch her name into the memory of racing fans and breeders.

However, she has managed to wield a great deal of influence on the 2021 Flat season, featuring as maternal granddam of both Saturday’s Sun Chariot Stakes heroine Saffron Beach and leading first-season sire Cotai Glory.

Infinite Spirit was bred by Sheikh Mohammed’s Darley operation in Kentucky, and was foaled in 1999. She hailed from the second crop of Maria’s Mon, the sire of Kentucky Derby heroes Monarchos and Super Saver, and a broodmare sire of note in Europe, where his daughters have been represented by champions Almanzor and Air Force Blue.

Infinite Spirit's dam was Eternal Reve, a daughter of Diesis who won the Listed Prix Yacowlef at two and the Listed Prix du Pont Neuf at three for Lucy Young Boutin, daughter of Overbrook Farm founder William T Young, before her private sale to Sheikh Mohammed.

Eternal Reve justified her purchase by finishing second in the Coronation Stakes, pipped at the post by the sheikh’s other runner Kissing Cousin in a thrilling finish, and later won the Matron Stakes, then a Group 3, and took second in the Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup at Keeneland.

Retired to paddocks, Eternal Reve was mated with some of the leading lights in Kentucky of the age. She produced Royal Hunt Cup winner and Turkish Group 2 runner-up Invisible Man to Elusive Quality and CL Weld Park Stakes third Enrich to Dynaformer, but she certainly seemed to click best with Maria’s Mon.

Her two visits to the son of Wavering Monarch at Pin Oak Stud resulted in Moquette, a Listed winner in France, and Infinite Spirit, who ran fourth in the Oh So Sharp Stakes and second in the Silver Tankard Stakes at two for David Loder. She won the UAE 1,000 Guineas by five lengths for Saeed bin Suroor at three, although five subsequent starts in the US failed to yield a victory.

Infinite Spirit produced eight winners at stud, which is no mean feat, but there were no stars among them. Her best runner, Huntdown, ran third to Bushranger in the Middle Park Stakes but his sole success came in a Newbury maiden, while her most admirable representative, Vainglory, scraped together more than £125,000 in prize-money by winning seven of his 80 starts and finishing placed in 20 others.

It is in the second generation that the mare has really made her mark, though.

Saffron Beach, who became a first Group 1 winner for Ballylinch Stud’s upwardly mobile second-season stallion New Bay at Newmarket on Saturday, was bred by China Horse Club out of Falling Petals, a daughter of Raven’s Pass and Infinite Spirit who won a Lingfield maiden in a light career. The dam was sold, in foal to Exceed And Excel, by Darley for €235,000 at the Goffs November Breeding-Stock Sale of 2016.

Saffron Beach and William Buick win the Kingdom of Bahrain Sun Chariot Stakes at Newmarket on SaturdayCredit: Steve Davies

Falling Petals is also dam of the Exceed And Excel two-year-old colt Eshkaal, who ran third on his second start at Wolverhampton on Tuesday, and a daughter by Australia who goes through the ring early as Lot 15 in Tuesday’s opening session of Tattersalls October Book 1.

China Horse Club has already recouped its outlay on Falling Petals, by selling her first foal Panzertank for 210,000gns, Saffron Beach for 55,000gns and Eshkaal for 120,000gns, and this latest filly at Park Paddocks looks set to maximise their profit.

Continua, an unraced daughter of Elusive Quality and Infinite Spirit foaled in 2007, had a brief but remarkably productive broodmare career.

Purchased by Julia Scott for 45,000gns from another Darley draft at the Tattersalls December Mares’ Sale in 2010, she went on to produce just three foals for Glebe Stud, James Dean and Lady Trenchard before her death from colic in 2013. All were black-type performers.

Excel’s Beauty, the Exceed And Excel filly being carried by Continua when she was bought, won two races and finished second in the St Hugh's Stakes for Rabbah Bloodstock. She died aged five, leaving one foal: an unraced daughter of New Approach called Making Memories, who produced her first offspring, an Invincible Spirit colt, this year.

Continua’s second foal, the Exceed And Excel colt Cotai Glory, was a dual Group 3 winner and went down by only a neck when second to Profitable in the King’s Stand Stakes. Now based at Tally-Ho Stud, his tally of first-crop two-year-old winners this season is 30 and counting.

He has one lot going under the hammer at Book 1 this week – a half-sister to Listed winner Mehmento, whose dam has produced four winners from four runners, to be sold by Tally-Ho Stud and catalogued as Lot 79. She must be about as close to a safe bet to win a £20,000 Book 1 Bonus as you can get.

Continua’s third and last foal, the Authorized mare Permission, was retained by her breeders and atoned a little for her dam’s early death by winning the James Seymour Stakes on her final start. Her second produce, a filly by hotshot Australian sire Zoustar, is offered by Fittocks Stud as Lot 199 on Wednesday.

The ascent of Infinite Spirit has also benefited breeders who have bought some of her later daughters for small sums in recent years.

Marian Halcombe, her unraced daughter by Bernardini, was bought by Tom Malone for £30,000 at an Ascot sale in 2017, and her first two foals, colts by Galileo Gold and Kodiac, have been sold by Phoenixtown Stud for €15,000 and €40,000, while Spirit Kingdom, her winning daughter by Animal Kingdom, was knocked down to Red Forge Stables for just £24,000 at another Ascot sale in 2019.

The success of Infinite Spirit and her daughters serves as a reminder that no stone should be left unturned when large studs such as Darley cull their herds at the breeding-stock sales.

The lesson is particularly timely, with expected larger drafts from Shadwell set to go on offer this winter as it rationalises numbers. Like Darley, it has invested huge sums in breeding stock and stallion nominations over the years, and you couldn't discount any branch of its key families flourishing abruptly and abundantly.

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Don’t miss this week

Tattersalls October Yearling Sale Book 1

What: the premier auction of its kind in Europe, maybe even the world

When: Tuesday to Thursday; sessions start at 11am

Where: the storied Park Paddocks in Newmarket

What you need to know: Book 1 is the Harrods of thoroughbred shopping, with huge sums regularly paid for the best-bred yearlings from Britain, Ireland and beyond. More than £100 million was spent in total at each of the three renewals leading up to last year’s fixture. All 502 lots in the catalogue are eligible for the £20,000 October Book 1 Bonus.

View catalogue

A fierce number of well-bred yearlings will be taking their turn in the Park Paddocks ring from Tuesday to ThursdayCredit: Laura Green

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A reminder of one of the first big stallion announcements of the autumn: last year’s Richmond Stakes and Middle Park Stakes winner Supremacy, by record-breaking freshman sire Mehmas, has been snapped up by Yeomanstown Stud.

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Pedigree pick

The mating between Galileo and Naples Bay, a Grade 3-winning half-sister to top racehorse and sire Medaglia D’Oro, has come up with two winners with high Racing Post Ratings but no black type from two runners.

Flowering Peach won two races and finished fourth to Enbihaar in the Lillie Langtry Stakes, and Prose won a Galway maiden and ran seventh to Dawn Patrol in the Loughbrown Stakes.

With that in mind we should maybe expect a big run from Sundial, the Aidan O’Brien-trained two-year-old colt by Galileo out of Naples Bay, when he makes his debut in the 1m1f maiden at Tipperary on Monday (2.05).

Listen now

In our latest Top Lot podcast, David Redvers tells us about the first crop of yearlings by Tweenhills stallions Roaring Lion, Zoustar and Lightning Spear going under the hammer this autumn, as well as the art of standing stallions, the history of his stud and other important industry issues.

Listen here

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Good Morning Bloodstock is our latest email newsletter. Martin Stevens, a doyen among bloodstock journalists, provides his take and insight on the biggest stories every morning from Monday to Friday