Derby update and easy maiden winner make it a week to savour for Jackson-Stops

What a week it has been for bloodstock consultant Billy Jackson-Stops and his Qatari client Abdulaziz Al Rabban.

On Saturday the stallion they stand at Clongiffen Stud in County Meath, Kuroshio, received a momentous boost when his 'nephew' Anthony Van Dyck landed the Derby; then on Wednesday the two-year-old filly purchased by the partnership last year, Shadn, registered a three and a quarter-length victory on debut in a Kempton maiden.

Jackson-Stops couldn't make it to Epsom to celebrate the Classic update as he was attending a wedding but he might have reason to dust off his top hat now, as the Andrew Balding-trained Shadn has seemingly booked her ticket for Royal Ascot.

“It's a really pleasing result,” he says. “Abdulaziz didn't have a lot of luck with a couple of expensive horses he purchased a couple of years ago, and said he was only going to buy one yearling last year, giving me the chance to buy it. Shadn was the first horse I've ever bought for him.

“I went to all the sales and saw a lot of horses I liked, and got blown out of the water with a few of them, but then Shadn came up at Ascot. She's a lovely filly but I suspect a few people were put off by her older dam, so I like to think we got a bit of value with her.”

Shadn, who hails from the second crop of last year's champion first-season sire No Nay Never, is the 15th foal and seventh winner out of Irish 1,000 Guineas runner-up Amethyst, a Sadler's Wells sister to King Of Kings. She cost £42,000.

Shadn (left): an impressive winner on debut at Kempton on WednesdayCredit: Edward Whitaker

“It'll probably be Ascot next, as that is something the owner would love to do, with the Albany Stakes on the cards,” Jackson-Stops adds. “She was still slightly backward in her coat going into the race and we had thought whatever she'd do she'd improve on, so we were a bit surprised she did it so well.”

After the yearling sales Jackson-Stops went shopping for mates for Kuroshio, an Australian Group 2 winner by Exceed And Excel who was brought back to Europe after his small, sole crop conceived in the northern hemisphere took everyone by surprise last year by yielding a healthy number of winners including Vintage Stakes runner-up Dunkerron, Marygate Stakes second Daphinia and the useful filly Kurious.

“I bought quite a few mares, and I think I got a couple of great touches with some of them – one in particular in Much Promise, a winning Invincible Spirit half-sister to Talent who cost only 5,000gns,” says Jackson-Stops. “She's perfectly nice and had a bit of a pedigree update with another half-sister, King Power, finishing third to Anapurna in the Lingfield Oaks Trial. She's in foal to Kuroshio now.

“There's also a nice mare called Ashwaq [a winning daughter of Sepoy from the Rafha dynasty], who I gave nine grand for and she's in foal to Kuroshio too. We've already been offered 30 grand for the Galileo Gold colt foal she was carrying, so Abdulaziz is really getting into the breeding side in Europe now, which is great.

“On the racing side he still has only two horses in training in Britain, though he has an abundance of horses at home in Qatar.”

Jackson-Stops reports that, thanks to those promising results with his first European crop, Kuroshio has covered around 110 mares this year, including seven from Al Rabban Racing with the owner pledging to support the sire's stock at the sales.

Those numbers are a significant improvement on the 33 mares Kuroshio received, which resulted in 22 foals, when an unknown quantity at Overbury Stud in 2015.

Kuroshio goes on parade at his new home of Clongiffen StudCredit: Patrick McCann

“He's getting quite a lot more quality mares now as well so if he is upgrading his mares, as it seems he is, we should see some exciting results on the track down the line,” says Jackson-Stops.

Explaining how he secured the northern hemisphere breeding rights to Kuroshio – whose Group 3-winning sister Believe'N'Succeed is the dam of Anthony Van Dyck as well as top-class sprinter Bounding – he adds: “I was working at Godolphin in Australia when he was covering in his first season. He didn't get masses of support but I liked him as an individual and thought he had a great pedigree. I took a bit of a shine to him and he stayed in my mind.

“He stood out with his early results up here and when Daphinia finished second in the Marygate last year, we got involved and got the deal done – we were lucky the opportunity came up.”

Any breeders wishing to gain access to this close relation to a Derby winner who has proved he can get a good one in spite of limited chances, even though it is the dying weeks of the Flat breeding season (bearing in mind Anthony Dyck was foaled on May 19), need pay a dowry of only €6,000 to have their mare covered by him at Clongiffen Stud.

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