Camelot shows Bluestocking class as green shoots emerge for Frankel

Bluestocking became Camelot's 12th individual Group or Grade 1 winner in Saturday's Cairn Community Games Pretty Polly Stakes, with the prospect of more to come for a stallion who made his own mark on this big racing weekend.

Winner of the Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby back in 2012, and already the sire of a winner of the same race with Latrobe (2018), Camelot has one of the market leaders once again in the Epsom third Los Angeles.

Bluestocking was helping Coolmore's Camelot get over the line in the Pretty Polly, having gone close in the past with daughters Santa Barbara and Athena. Juddmonte was justified in keeping the homebred filly in training at four with Ralph Beckett and she was returning to the Curragh after a commendable third in last year's Irish Oaks.

Already a winner at Group 2 level in the Middleton Stakes, she is a daughter of Emulous, the Dansili mare who was around in Camelot's era and took the 2011 Matron Stakes for Dermot Weld. Emulous is a sister of black-type winners First Sitting and Daring Diva, the latter the ancestress of Juddmonte's top US performer and new stallion Mandaloun.

Frankel flying again

It has been noted that Frankel has been a little quieter than the norm and the Juddmonte giant is currently filling a Europa Conference League slot rather than topping the sires’ championship again.

This might change sooner rather than later. Bedtime Story is the sport’s latest sensation after her jaw-dropping performance in the Chesham Stakes and he sired a one-two through Lake Victoria and Red Letter in what was thought to be a hot fillies’ maiden at the Curragh on Friday. 

Just as Bedtime Story is out of top-class sprinter Mecca’s Angel, Lake Victoria was bred from Commonwealth Cup winner Quiet Reflection, demonstrating the respect Coolmore has for Frankel by sending two of their pricier broodmare purchases to him.

Lake Victoria led home a one-two for Frankel on FridayCredit: Patrick McCann

He has two in the Irish Derby, for all that commentators' confusion Euphoric and The Euphrates look a bit short of Los Angeles among the Ballydoyle squad, and Sunday’s Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud presents a better opportunity for Frankel to get a first European Group 1 on the board in 2024. 

The hardy Outbox is joined by the Aga Khan's promising Zarir, who is out of the great Zarkava's Group-winning half-sister Zarshana, making him a cousin of the 2017 winner and smart stallion Zarak. The Prix Ganay runner-up should enjoy the return to a longer trip and has been given some big entries by trainer Francis Graffard, but it's Camelot again in opposition, with his son Sevenna's Knight on a good run for Andre Fabre.

On the charge

Caravaggio had looked a little like an unwanted pet, shunted around various homes as he began his stallion career.

He was at Coolmore Stud in Ireland before a brief spell at the division in Kentucky and headed off to Asia in late 2022, with juvenile champion Tenebrism to show from his first two crops, after an agreement was made with the JBBA Shizunai Stallion Station.

Porta Fortuna has been flying high for the early Caravaggio cropsCredit: Edward Whitaker

Coolmore isn’t exactly stuck for sons of Scat Daddy with No Nay Never et al, for all that Caravaggio was a particularly good one on the track. His Porta Fortuna built on smart juvenile displays with her win in the Coronation Stakes and the strikingly dappled stallion supplies one of the most interesting runners in the Prix Eugene Adam, Grey Charger.

It’s early days, of course, for both father and son but Saeed Suhail’s colt, bought from a Sir Robert Ogden dispersal for 58,000gns, has done nothing wrong so far and landed a Lingfield maiden with real swagger. His full-sister Maltese Falcon won the Grade 3 La Jolla Handicap over an extended mile at Del Mar and if Grey Charger can see off a field of interesting three-year-olds at ten furlongs, then his Japanese base sure has a versatile sire on its hands.

Fairytale start for Newtown Anner

Maurice Regan, the New York-based construction boss, has been back in his Irish homeland this week and brought his good friend John Velazquez with him. 

The 52-year-old hall-of-famer had his first ride in Ireland aboard De Janeiro at Naas on Wednesday in Regan’s blue and buff silks and when the owner was interviewed on Racing TV, he said he'd love Velazquez to have a winner and mentioned he was aboard Thor’s Hammer, a progressive son of the red-hot Night Of Thunder, on Sunday's Curragh card.

John Velazquez has been having his first rides in Ireland through his good friend Maurice Regan, owner of Newtown Anner StudCredit: Patrick McCann

The owner of Newtown Anner Stud's visit has already been worthwhile as his own stallion popped up with uncanny timing. Not everyone would have realised that Beckford was even a sire, let alone that he would produce a rocket two-year-old with his first runner from just a handful of foals, but Newtown Anner homebred Beckman had clearly been injected with some precocity. 

The rookie sire broke into the big time when landing the Railway Stakes on this weekend exactly seven years ago and was himself a fairytale for the smallest of small breeders in Joyce Wallsgrove, the friendly stable manager at Newmarket racecourse who bought his dam Whirly Dancer for 9,500gns. It seems his story isn’t over yet.

Who's who

Breeding from proven mares is the way the racehorse should flourish. Along with those smart progeny out of Mecca’s Angel and Quiet Reflection, there might be another out of a personal favourite on the way.

Who's Glen heads to Wolverhampton and should have come on a lot from his eyecatching debut at Southwell in January. George Strawbridge's homebred Gleneagles gelding is the first foal from Who's Steph, a likeable Group-winning mare trained across three seasons by Ger Lyons.

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