'He’s very hard to fault' - Mirage Dancer recruited to stand at Castlefield Stud

Mirage Dancer, a Group 1-winning son of champion sire-elect Frankel, has been retired to stand at Ger O’Neill’s Castlefield Stud in County Kilkenny.

The deal to secure the well credentialled stallion prospect for Capital Bloodstock was brokered by Jack Tuohy in Ireland and Sean Larkin and Phil Marshall in Australia.

Mirage Dancer was bred by Juddmonte and is a member of one of the operation’s finest families. He is one of four black-type performers out of Matriarch and Beverly D Stakes heroine Heat Haze, a sibling to fellow Group/Grade 1 winners Banks Hill, Cacique, Champs Elysees and Intercontinental, as well as top sire Dansili, out of blue hen Hasili.

His sire Frankel is set to be crowned champion sire in Britain and Ireland for the first time this year thanks largely to Classic winners Adayar and Hurricane Lane but also Group 1-winning fillies Inspiral and Snow Lantern.

Mirage Dancer did his bit for family honour by carrying Khalid Abdullah’s silks to win a Doncaster maiden on his sole start at two and to finish third in the Hampton Court Stakes and Great Voltigeur Stakes at three.

He added the Glorious Stakes and Tapster Stakes to his tally at four, when he also finished a close second in the Princess of Wales’s Stakes and Dubai Duty Free Legacy Cup, and he scored in the Tapster Stakes again and ran second in the Princess of Wales’s Stakes and Glorious Stakes at five.

Mirage Dancer left Sir Michael Stoute’s Freemason Lodge Stables to join Trent Busuttin and Natalie Young in Australia at the end of that season, and ran a close third in the Caulfield Cup on his first run down under.

Mirage Dancer: winner of the Metropolitan Handicap at RandwickCredit: Mark Evans / Getty Images

He later claimed Group 1 laurels for his new connections when beating the top-class pair Mugatoo and Angel Of Truth to land the prestigious Metropolitan Handicap at Randwick.

Tuohy said: “Mirage Dancer is a very attractive prospect, both on paper and in the flesh. He’s a product of one of the best families in the stud book, being out of a multiple Grade 1-winning mare in Heat Haze, who herself is a half-sister to Group 1-producing stallions Dansili, Cacique and Champs Elysees.

“He stands at 16.3 hands on the button, with bone action and movement that would absolutely blow you away. He’s also a stunning dark bay colour, which is an added bonus. All in all, he’s a very hard horse to fault.”

He continued: "We'd been following Mirage Dancer for quite some time, as we thought the Frankel boom was going to take off in the near future, and it’s done just that. It’s fantastic to have Frankel’s first son in Ireland available to National Hunt breeders, and when sourcing him it was very important to us that he came from a strong female family.

“We feel he is tailor-made for mares from the Monsun and Montjeu lines and, as we know, they're plentiful in the European broodmare ranks. Similar crosses have already produced Oaks winner Anapurna, who’s out of a Montjeu mare, and this year’s St Leger winner Hurricane Lane, who’s out of a Shirocco mare, along with plenty of other black-type performers over a good trip. This should make him very appealing to a variety of breeders.”

Mirage Dancer will stand at Castlefield Stud next year alongside Hunting Horn, a Group 3-winning and Group 1-placed son of Camelot from the immediate family of High Chaparral who proved popular with breeders in his first covering season in 2021.

Fees will be announced later.

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