First runners for new sires on Sunday with Darley's Space Blues doubly represented

The European Flat season kicks off on Sunday with the first two-year-old races of 2025 taking place in France and Ireland, and Darley's Breeders' Cup Mile winner Space Blues has runners in both contests.

Lyon Parilly has the distinction of hosting the opening juvenile contest of the year by 34 minutes and among the ten runners in the Prix du Premier Pas (1.06pm local time/12.06pm GMT) are daughters of the triple Group 1 winner and of the European champion three-year-old St Mark's Basilica.

Both fillies race for Dream With Me Stable and were bred by the legendary horseman Jean-Pierre-Joseph Dubois, whose most recent high-profile success is the triumph of homebred Sparkling Plenty in the Prix de Diane last June.

Amelia is trained by Jean Baudron and is the first foal out of the Adlerflug mare Americana, who was placed three times at Listed level in Germany, while St Mark's Basilica is the sire of Fragrance, from the family of Kingman.

Trained by Patrice Cottier, the filly was offered by Haras du Montaigu at Arqana's August Yearling Sale but failed to find a buyer at €30,000. An early February foal, she is a half-sister to last season's Listed Prix Marchand D'Or third Grand Scoop, by No Nay Never.

Their dam Frisella is a winning Frankel half-sister to the Musidora third Ricetta and their dam Panzanella is a Dansili full-sister to the Group 3 Tercentenary Stakes winner and sire Remote, and a half-sister to Juddmonte's excellent stallion Kingman. 

Third dam Zenda was victorious in the Poule d'Essai des Pouliches and is a half-sister to the wonderful Oasis Dream. Fragrance is inbred 3x3 to Galileo, broodmare sire of the Poule d'Essai des Pouliches, Prix du Jockey Club, Eclipse and Irish Champion Stakes victor and has three lines of Danehill.

Space Blues is represented by his son Power Blue in the Castle Star at Capital Stud Irish EBF Maiden at the Curragh (1.40pm). Owned by the LNA Racing Syndicate, Power Blue is one of three runners in the race for Adrian Murray, who sent out Arizona Blaze to win last year's renewal. 

That colt went on to win the Group 3 Marble Hill Stakes and is a son of champion 2024 first-season sire Sergei Prokofiev, and Murray will also saddle the debut runner by Mickley Stud's Ubettabelieveit on Sunday.

St Mark's Basilica's first runner Fragrance prior to the Arqana August Yearling SaleCredit: Christian Pubert/Arqana

Power Blue was bred by Finanaza Locale Consulting and went through the sales ring twice, first as a foal at Goffs, where he made €30,000 to BLTB from Oak Lodge and Springfield House Stud, and second at the Goffs UK Premier Yearling Sale, when bought by Drumloose Stables from Manister House Stud for £44,000.

He is the first foal out of Visions, a Listed-placed daughter of Worthadd, which makes him inbred 2x3 to Dubawi.

Leblon Beach is Murray's colt by the precocious Ubettabelieveit, successful in the Group 2 Flying Childers and Listed National Stakes for Nigel Tinkler. The son of Kodiac stands for £5,000 at Mickley Stud, co-breeders of his first runner along with Tim and Miranda Johnson.

Racing in the colours of Capital Thoroughbreds Syndicate, Leblon Beach is a half-brother to three winners out of the winning Dark Angel mare Dora's Sister and was picked up for just £5,000 by Robson de Aguiar from Analytic Stables at Goffs Premier. He had been a 12,000gns purchase by the vendor from Mickley Stud as a foal.

Lucky Vega has made a blistering start to his stallion career in Australia, where he stands at his owner Yulong Investments' farm in Victoria. His first southern hemisphere crop includes the Group 2 Sweet Embrace Stakes winner Within The Law, who was also successful at Listed level.

His first northern hemisphere runner is Josh Halley's Zaltan, who was bred by the Irish National Stud, where the Group 1 Phoenix Stakes winner stands in Europe.

Zaltan is out of Lethal Promise, who won the Polonia and Blenheim Stakes (both Listed) for her owner-breeder the Irish National Stud and is a daughter of Invincible Spirit. Stone Farm went to €37,000 at the Tattersalls Ireland September Yearling Sale to secure Zlatan.

Supremacy, the Group 1 Middle Park Stakes winner from the first crop of Mehmas, is unsurprisingly among the sires to have a runner on the season's first day. Ray Cody saddles Ski Supreme for Michael Phelan and the colt is out of Ski Slope, a Three Valleys half-sister to Listed winner Birch Grove and a half-sister to Magic, the unraced dam of Commonwealth Cup and July Cup winner Shaquille.

Ski Supreme was offered twice by Pipe View Stud: first as a foal at Goffs, where he made €45,000 to MCD Bloodstock, and again at Tattersalls Ireland last September, when he was bought back for €9,000.

He is a grandson of the Flying Five Stakes winner Danehurst, who was placed in the Diamond Jubilee Stakes and July Cup.

Read this next:

'He's my bet' - Marine Nationale's unorthodox breeder throwing in his lot with an out-of-the-box sire