Stallion career beckons for Irish import Endless Drama after breakthrough win

Endless Drama’s victory in the Apollo Stakes at Randwick on February 17 has made him a very appealing stallion prospect.

A distant third behind famous stablemate Winx and Hartnell in last year’s Apollo, Irish-bred Endless Drama was a well-deserved if narrow winner this time, overpowering the high-class mare Global Glamour close to home, with Comin’ Through close up in third in a race run in 1:22.46.

It was Endless Drama’s first win in Australia and first stakes success after a series of earlier stakes placings in Ireland, Britain and Australia and set the seal on his racing credentials for a stud career. From the viewpoint of breeders, this horse has the dream combination of exceptional good looks, pedigree and performance to earn him a place at a leading farm in either Australia or New Zealand.

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Rated the champion older miler in Ireland in 2016, Endless Drama has on his CV a second placing to Gleneagles in the 2015 Irish 2,000 Guineas plus another Group 1 placing in the 2016 Lockinge Stakes at Newbury, but he fractured a hock when last in the 2017 Doncaster Mile at Randwick.

It took some months for Endless Drama to recover from this serious injury but a first-up third in the Carrington Stakes in late January put the writing on the wall for a peak performance last Saturday, his potential finally realised for patient owner Sheikh Fahad Al Thani’s Qatar Bloodstock Limited, who acquired the handsome horse after his impressive maiden victory at Naas in Ireland at his only start at two.

Endless Drama is the 32nd stakes winner for his sire Lope De Vega, now permanently based in Ireland, but who shuttled to the now closed Patinack Farm in the Hunter Valley for four seasons from 2011 to 2014, where he left 338 living foals but only five black-type winners to date. Two of the five, though, were Group One winners Vega Magic and Santa Ana Lane, while the others are smart juvenile filly French Fern, who won the Reisling Slipper Trial Stakes at Randwick, and Listed winners Lope De Capio and Man Of His Word.

Lope De Vega looked an ideal stallion to suit Australian conditions as the winner of the 2010 French Classic double, the Poule d’Essai des Poulains and the Prix du Jockey Club, boasting an intriguing pedigree featuring a powerful 3 x 3 double of the influential Machiavellian.

Endless Drama’s dam Desert Drama was a Listed winner in France but her production record is mixed as only four of her ten foals to race have been winners, her next best produce being Histoire, who recorded five wins in France.

Desert Drama's dam Tycoon’s Drama won the Laurel Selima Stakes as a two-year-old in the US, while her dam Drama captured one of Ireland’s top sprints, the Greenlands Stakes at the Curragh before becoming a noted producer, her descendants including Grade 1 winner King’s Drama and Nightime, winner of the Irish 1,000 Guineas.

Further back in this family studded with black-type winners are such stars as Foxy Ferdie in Canada, New Girlfriend and Wazn, winner of the Australia Day Cup and the Wyong Gold Cup, while Endless Drama’s fifth dam Kingsworthy is remembered as the dam of stakes-winning sire Typhoon.

All in all, Endless Drama has a female pedigree of great depth which adds to his appeal as a future sire.

The construction of Endless Drama’s pedigree is very good with four lines of Northern Dancer supplemented by three crosses of champion Sir Ivor, plus more distant duplications of such key names as Never Bend, Bold Ruler, Princequillo, Petition and others in a well balanced mix.

Mares by Danehill-line sires, especially Redoute’s Choice, should be very well suited to Endless Drama.

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