Darley add Perfect Power to their stallion roster as Commonwealth hero retired

Commonwealth Cup winner Perfect Power has been retired from racing and will stand at Darley's Dalham Hall Stud next season.

The triple Group 1 winner from the first crop of Ardad won six of his 12 starts for Richard Fahey and Sheikh Rashid Dalmook Al Maktoum including a pair of juvenile Group 1 contests - the Prix Morny and Middle Park Stakes.

He was also successful in the Group 2 Norfolk Stakes at Royal Ascot on just his third start and made a successful seasonal debut in the Group 3 Greenham Stakes at Newbury in April.

Darley's director of stallions, Sam Bullard, emphasised the speed and precocity inherent in Perfect Power as one of his most significant attributes.

"It is a rare opportunity for British breeders to have access to a stallion with such precocity and speed," he said.

"His powers of acceleration are exactly the sort of thing that makes our sport so thrilling. What's more, he's a fantastically muscular colt, and an especially good mover: he is very likely to throw commercial youngstock in his own speedy image."

Perfect Power is one of only four horses in the past five decades to win the Norfolk Stakes and go on to victory in Prix Morny and Middle Park - the others include Johannesburg and Dutch Art.

Perfect Power (left) lands the Commonwealth Cup at Royal AscotCredit: Alex Livesey (Getty Images)

Bred by Tally Ho Stud, who also bred his Flying Childers and Windsor Castle Stakes-winning sire Ardad, he was bought back at 16,000gns as a yearling at Tattersalls October Book Two but impressed at the Goffs UK Breeze-Up Sale the following May where he was purchased by Richard Brown of Blandford Bloodstock for £110,000gns.

Brown had also bought Ardad from Tally Ho Stud at a previous breeze-up sale in Doncaster.

The agent noted the similarities between Ardad and Perfect Power.

"When I saw this fellow at the breeze-ups, I couldn't believe how similar he was: the same strength and power, the same fluent movement and great walk. Above all, the same bombproof, laid-back temperament. If Perfect Power stamps his stock as well as his sire, what a hot property he will be," Brown said.

Although a top-class sprinter, Darley's new recruit has plenty of stamina in his pedigree to back up that raw speed. He is the first foal out of Sagely, a winner at a mile and ten furlongs, by the German 2,000 Guineas winner Frozen Power who is an Oasis Dream half-brother to Finsceal Beo.

His third dam Saga d'Ouilly is a Linamix full-sister to Arc winner and sire Sagamix and the Group 2 Prix de Malleret winner Sage Et Jolie, the dam of Sageburg who was successful in the Prix d'Ispahan.

Saga d'Ouilly is also a half-sister to Sagacity who claimed the Group 1 Criterium de Saint Cloud at two and was third in the Arc at three to Sakhee.

She is also a half-sister to Sagalina, dam of Group 1 Prix Saint-Alary winner Sagawara, and to Newsells Park Stud's outstanding broodmare Shastye who foaled the Group 1 winners and full-brothers Japan and Mogul, Group 2 winner and Group 1-placed Secret Gesture and the Group 3 winner Sir Isaac Newton.

A fee for Perfect Power will be announced at a later date.

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