'He should be a strong addition to the Irish stallion ranks' - new chapter for Twilight Son at Annshoon Stud

Group 1-winning sprinter Twilight Son will continue his stallion career in Ireland following his purchase by Michael Shefflin and Yousef Arhim, and will stand at Shefflin's Annshoon Stud in County Kilkenny.

The 12-year-old son of Kyllachy, who won Haydock's Sprint Cup and the Diamond Jubilee at Royal Ascot, will be available at a fee of €5,000.

"He should be a strong addition to the Irish stallion ranks," said Shefflin. "He's a proven, commercial stallion who is at an affordable level for breeders."

From his time at Cheveley Park Stud, Twilight Son has sired three Group winners, seven horses who have been successful at Listed level and Twilight Calls, the Group 1 King's Stand and Group 2 Temple Stakes runner-up.

Twilight Son's best performers are the multiple Group 3 winner Aria Importante, Twilight Jet, who was a Group 3 winner at two and three for Michael O'Callaghan, and Twilight Spinner. She was successful in the Group 3 Athasi Stakes for Joseph O'Brien, having previously won the Listed Cecil Frail Stakes when trained by David O'Meara.

With a healthy number of yearlings and foals on the ground, and promising performers on the track this season, Shefflin believes there is more to come for Twilight Son.

He added: "This year alone he's sired three Listed winners and there are 52 two-year-olds to run for him next year, so he's got plenty going for him."

Those Listed winners include Cheveley Park's homebred filly Vetiver, who won the Queen Charlotte Fillies' Stakes in July for Andrew Balding, having struck in the Eternal Stakes and been third in the Group 3 Sceptre Fillies' Stakes last season.

His three-year-old daughter Beautiful Diamond added the Land O'Burns Fillies' Stakes to her victory in last year's Harry Rosebery Stakes and the filly, who is trained by Karl Burke for Sheikh Rashid Dalmook Al Maktoum, has been placed in the Queen Mary, Sapphire and Palace House Stakes.

Twilight Son's newest stakes winner is another Cheveley Park homebred filly, Sunfall, who was recently successful in the October Stakes at Ascot. The three-year-old is out of the Dark Angel mare Volition, as is Twilight Son's Listed-placed Ingabelle Stakes third Highly Desirable, while Beautiful Diamond has Dark Angel's son Lethal Force as her broodmare sire.

That line, along with the Danehill and Invincible Spirit ones, has been particularly fruitful for Twilight Son, who was trained by Henry Candy to win six of his ten starts. 

He was also second to Muhaarar in the Group 1 British Champions Sprint Stakes and that stallion is the sire of Twilight Son's half-brother Run To Freedom, who won twice at Listed level and was runner-up to Shaquille in the July Cup and to Kinross in the British Champions Sprint for Candy.

Another half-brother, Music Master, won the Group 3 Hackwood Stakes and was third in the Sprint Cup, while half-sister Spring Fling was successful in the Listed Land O'Burns Fillies' Stakes.

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