Charyn books his ticket to Sumbe with roaring Queen Anne success

The satisfaction of a Group 1 victory at Royal Ascot was foremost in the mind of owner Nurlan Bizakov, who has the added excitement of knowing he has secured a future member of his Sumbe breeding operation.

Charyn, the handsome grey son of Dark Angel, struck at the top level in the opening Queen Anne Stakes with the authority to suggest there could be plenty more to come before he is eventually retired to Haras de Montfort et Preaux, the Normandy stud which the Kazakhstani businessman purchased five years ago. 

The team already has a bright and quite young roster of stallions headed by the globetrotting Mishriff plus recent additions Belbek and Angel Bleu.

"Now I think he’s booked his box in my stud," said Bizakov, having watched with family in the paddock as Charyn enjoyed a trouble-free passage under Silvestre de Sousa to come two and a quarter lengths clear of Docklands.

"He'll have a stall between Belbek and Mishriff. To have a Royal Ascot Group 1 winner, obviously I’ve been dreaming about it but I never thought I’d get it."

The Roger Varian-trained Charyn, who is now four, has an eligible profile as a Group winner as a two-year-old in the Criterium de Maisons-Laffitte and was third this day last year in the St James’s Palace Stakes. He won the Sandown Mile in the spring and was recently second in the Lockinge.

Charyn is not a homebred and was bought for 250,000gns from breeders Grangemore Stud at Book 2 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale.

Charyn had a clear margin over Docklands by the postCredit: Patrick McCann

His full-brother Wings Of War won the Group 2 Mill Reef Stakes as a juvenile and is now in Hong Kong. Guy O'Callaghan from the Kildare farm bought their dam, stakes-placed and speedily bred Kodiac mare Futoon, for 100,000gns at the end of her racing career in 2017 and sold another full-sister, now named Shinara, to Sumbe for an upgraded 850,000gns at Book 1 last year. Unsurprisingly, she returned to the eminence grise and has a yearling filly.

"'I think it must be hay fever, I had dampness in my eye," joked Tony Fry, Sumbe’s general manager.

"I’m chuffed for everyone – Silvestre, Roger and the boss. I think the ground makes no difference; the soft ground slows others down but it makes no difference to him. I said to the boss before, 'If he wins on this ground I think he’s a superstar'. 

"He seemed to win easy. Silvestre just got off and the boss said, 'What do you think?' And he said, 'He’s a star'." 

The week is already going to be a winner for the operation, which has two runners on Friday with new Tattersalls Online purchase Hot Darling in the Albany Stakes and Markakol in the Palace of Holyrood House Stakes.

"Anything you buy, you hope they’re going to be a good horse and the chances are, normally, they’re not," said Fry. 

"You buy and breed them and you always hope, you always have dreams. Sometimes the dreams come to fruition, but normally they don’t. These days are special."

This was the 17th individual winner of a Group or Grade 1 and among an impressive 102 at stakes level for Yeomanstown Stud’s hero Dark Angel, among them being Angel Bleu through his triumphs in the Criterium International and Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere. 

The year has already seen Mad Cool break through in Japan in the Takamatsunomiya Kinen and he is right at the front end in a very tight table to be leading British and Irish sire.

Fry said the operation was relaxed about Charyn's immediate future.

"He can be a stallion if and when we decide, but we’ll enjoy this day," he said. "You then talk about staying a mile and two, we’ll just see."

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