Let’s hope Accon yearlings at BBAG are a sign Flat breeders will give him a chance

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One of the joys that comes with covering sales around Europe is the opportunity to improve and enhance knowledge and understanding of racing and breeding beyond what is familiar. 

Studying the catalogue for BBAG's October Mixed Sale, which takes place tomorrow and Saturday at Iffezheim around the Autumn Festival of Racing, provided a reminder of young stallions at stud in Europe whose sires are extremely familiar to British and Irish readers but who themselves are less well-known.

Six weeks ago a Camelot colt sparked an intense bidding battle between Coolmore and Godolphin at the BBAG Yearling Sale, which resulted in the Godolphin team breaking the German auction record for a yearling, going to €850,000 to secure the son of Preis der Diana winner Diamanta, by Maxios.

Earlier this month, Camelot's progeny provided a tour de force in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe as supplemented Bluestocking made Rossa Ryan's dreams come true, with Irish Derby winner Los Angeles in third and Sevenna's Knight in fifth.

Bluestocking is one of three individual Group 1 winners the gorgeous Camelot has sired this year; with Luxembourg winning at the highest level for the fourth successive season.

At Tattersalls Book 1 last week Amo Racing's splurge included the full-sister to Luxembourg who cost 2,900,000gns, which could distort the figures but his average was 550,000gns, the fifth-best of any stallion represented at the sale. The median price for a Camelot yearling at Book 1 was 350,000gns, which was 40 per cent higher than the figure for the sale as a whole.

Camelot doesn't yet have large representation among the stallion ranks. Irish Derby winner Latrobe stands at Haras de la Tuilerie under the umbrella of Haras d'Etreham's National Hunt division, while Hunting Horn, the Royal Ascot winner out of a half-sister to High Chaparral, is at Capital Stud in Kilkenny. Both of them have two-year-olds this year.

The handsome Camelot at Coolmore

Group 1 winners Luxembourg and Los Angeles will retire at some point, although one would have grave fears that both of those horses will be pigeonholed as National Hunt sires.

It is therefore mildly encouraging to see yearlings by Accon appear in the catalogue for the BBAG Sale.

Accon stands at Gestut Lunzen, which is a young stud between Bremen and Hamburg, where Best Solution is based, and the pair will be joined for the 2025 breeding season by Millowitsch.

The stud is run by Nikolas Schenke and Thomas Witt, who established it in 2015, having worked together at Bernried, which was formerly owned by Gestut Ammerland.

From Camelot's second crop, Accon was bred by Gestut Hof Ittlingen and was sold by Jamie Railton to Holger Renz at the BBAG September Yearling Sale of 2017. Trained initially by Markus Klug, for whom he won the Group 3 Derby Trial at Baden-Baden, he was third in the Deutsches Derby.

He was also second in the Group 3 Fritz Henkel Stiftung-Rennen and ran once at four; switched to the yard of Bohumil Nedorostok, Accon was third in the Group 2 Carl Jaspers-Preis.

Accon is a half-brother to the Group 2 T von Zastrow Stutenpreis winner and Group 1 Preis von Europa runner-up Amorella, by Nathaniel, and to the multiple Listed-placed Accola, by Scalo.

Amorella, pictured with her Kingman filly, is a Group 2-winning half-sister to AcconCredit: Philipp Stauffenberg

Their dam Anaita is a dual winner by Dubawi and her Sea The Stars two-year-old filly cost €410,000 at Arqana in August 2023, when she was purchased by David Redvers. Named Flamme Rouge, she is in training with Andre Fabre.

Anaita has a filly foal by Churchill.

Her dam Aliette is a winning Lando half-sister to the Group 2 winner and Grand Prix de Paris second Axxos.

Lacking the profile of Group 1 winners, Accon has tiny numbers of foals on the ground. His first crop consists of just two juveniles registered with Deutscher Galopp. 

Discreet Devil is a colt out of Discreet Force, and is in training with Nedorostok for owner-breeder Gestut Lunzen, while Lunzen are registered as the breeders of a colt out of La Salina, a daughter of Singspiel and La Colorada.

His second crop numbers eight and two of them are catalogued in this sale, both offered by Gestut Lunzen.

First up is a filly (Lot 63) out of the Listed Grosser Preis des MHWK winner Bebe Cherie, a daughter of Youmzain. Dam of three foals, including the winning three-year-old Millowitsch gelding Blomche, she comes from an Aga Khan family.

Gestut Lunzen offers a filly from the Aga Khan family of Shawanda

Bebe Cherie is out of the Listed Prix Amandine winner Shamaniya, a Doyoun half-sister to Shamawna, who is the dam of Group 1 winners Shawanda and Encke, the controversial winner of the St Leger and thwarter of Camelot's Triple Crown bid. Shamawna is also the second dam of Prix Vermeille and Yorkshire Oaks winner Shareta.

Her paternal half-sister (162) is the first foal out of Schabaula, a placed daughter of the late Pastorius, the Deutsches Derby and Prix Ganay winner by Soldier Hollow.

Accon has eight registered foals in 2024, including a full-brother to Lot 162, both of whom were bred by Renz, whose colours Accon carried. 

The bright bay also covered Bebe Cherie in 2023, but unfortunately her foal was reported last month as having died.

Accon will have to do it the hard way if he is to be a success at stud. It's important for those of us who stubbornly cling to our valuation of middle-distance and staying races on the Flat and yearn to breed and own the winners of Derbys and Arcs that he is given the chance to do so, and, vitally, that the same opportunity will be afforded Los Angeles and Luxembourg.

No pressure Accon.

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Must-read story

“Whatever happens at the Tattersalls December Sale, it would be wonderful if she were to return to Kimpton Down to race on,” said trainer Ralph Beckett as news emerged Irish Oaks heroine You Got To Me would be offered at Park Paddocks.

Pedigree pick

As someone who would happily spend hours admiring beautiful shoes that are beyond my means, a horse by the name of Espadrille will always catch my eye. Sadly, the daughter of Dubawi died last year aged just eight, but she left the wonderfully named Cinderella's Dream behind.

The three-year-old Shamardal filly won the Grade 1 Belmont Oaks, Grade 2 Saratoga Oaks and the Listed UAE 1,000 Guineas this year for Charlie Appleby, and her year-younger Farhh half-sister Blue Laced makes her debut at Chelmsford this afternoon (4.35).

Trained by Charlie Johnston for Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Maktoum, Blue Laced is the third foal of Espadrille, who was fourth in the Listed Pretty Polly Stakes and is a full-sister to German Listed winner Pabouche. 

Their dam, High Heeled, won the Group 3 St Simon Stakes, was third in the Oaks and Coronation Cup, and is a High Chaparral full-sister to Listed winner Bella Estrella, dam of last season's Champagne Stakes winner Iberian, and a half-sister to Faraday Light, dam of Qatar Racing's Irish 1,000 Guineas winner Just The Judge.

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