Major Orby update by Alcohol Free at Newmarket as freshman sires fly

While this coming week’s Goffs Orby Sale has suffered changes in terms of calendar and logistics, there was a far more welcome amendment to its catalogue as Juddmonte Cheveley Park Stakes winner Alcohol Free provided a Group 1 update.

A third individual top-level winner for stallion No Nay Never, the filly is already a graduate of the auction house’s November Foal Sale, having been picked up for €40,000 by Jeff Smith’s Littleton Stud. She was bred and offered by the Gaffney family’s Churchtown House Stud in County Cork.

Alcohol Free’s dam Plying passed through the same Goffs ring just two days after her daughter, changing hands for only €21,000 when bought by Jossestown Farm. She has also produced the Camelot-sired Alexander James, a nine-furlong Listed scorer on soft ground at Chantilly in 2019.

Knockatrina Stud has the honouring of selling her latest Starspangledbanner yearling as lot 337.

The other keynote juvenile races on the Rowley Mile represented major milestones for two of the year’s breakout freshman sires.

Supremacy’s victory in the Juddmonte Middle Park Stakes saw Tally Ho’s Mehmas breaking his Group 1 duck in one of his nearest possible opportunities while New Bay claimed his first at Pattern level when New Mandate emerged an emphatic scorer of the Juddmonte Royal Lodge.

Bought by Clive Cox for £65,000 at the Goffs UK Premier Yearling Sale, the trainer would certainly have recognised Supremacy’s pedigree as he landed the Vintage Stakes with Xtension, the dam’s half-brother, while superstar sprinter Harry Angel is also on his page.

Supremacy was providing a major milestone for sire MehmasCredit: Edward Whitaker

Owenstown Stud will be offering a half-brother to Supremacy at the forthcoming Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale. He is from the first crop of another Tally Ho resident in the shape of Group-winning Cotai Glory.

Mehmas now has a commanding lead in terms of both prize-money and numbers in first-season sire rankings, having also fielded Middle Park third Minzaal, the Gimcrack winner, and leading contender Method, whose saddle slipped. Mehmas actually concluded his track career in the very same race four years ago, finishing third to The Last Lion.

New Bay is the latest sire sensation to burst from Ballylinch Stud, producing nine individual winners to date, and Ralph Beckett’s representative New Mandate was already the stallion’s first stakes winner when landing the Listed Flying Scotsman at Doncaster.

Although a maiden Group 1 would not be out of the question, unfortunately the Classics are as the youngster was gelded prior to his first outing and this might embolden his trainer to aim for a Breeders’ Cup challenge.

New Mandate, who was secured by Alex Elliott for €35,000 as a yearling but now under different ownership, is a member of the Prix du Jockey Club winner’s first crop, conceived at €20,000.

Few days of Group-race action fail to feature Galileo, who has now sired the Alan Smurfit Memorial Beresford Stakes at the Curragh in five of the last six years. High Definition, who clicked into top gear just in time, is a full-brother to last year’s hero Innisfree, bred through trainer Aidan O’Brien’s Whisperview Trading Ltd.

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