Scorthy a champ for dam Fidaaha as Mehmas colt lands National Stakes honours

National Stakes winner Scorthy Champ had looked pretty useful when third to Henri Matisse in the Futurity Stakes last month, but the Mehmas colt took his reputation to new heights with Group 1 success back at the Curragh. 

Reversing form with Coolmore's Wootton Bassett half-brother to Cheveley Park Stakes and Prix Jean Prat heroine Tenebrism, Scorthy Champ notably became his sire's fifth individual top-level winner. It was the Tally-Ho Stud resident's first Group/Grade 1 winner outside his first crop, that one producing Haydock Sprint Cup hero Minzaal, Middle Park Stakes victor Supremacy and American stars Going Global and Chez Pierre. 

Mehmas's current two-year-old crop also includes Friday's Group 2 Flying Childers Stakes scorer Aesterius, who added the Doncaster contest to his earlier Group 3 Prix d'Arenberg at Longchamp. Wathnan Racing's colt was a not inconsiderable £380,000 purchase by the team at the Goffs UK Breeze-Up Sale this spring, having sold from the Tattersalls December Foal and Book 2 Yearling sales for 52,000gns and 60,000gns respectively. 

It was a good afternoon at the Curragh for Mehmas with his consistent daughter Believing confirming her Nunthorpe second from last month in the Flying Five Stakes behind Bradsell. That one, a Group 2 winner over course and distance in the Sapphire Stakes in July, has been another flagbearer for her sire this term. 

Mehmas: enjoyed a good afternoon at the CurraghCredit: Zuzanna Lupa

Scorthy Champ was notably providing a deserved Group 1 success for his dam, the New Approach mare Fidaaha. Unplaced in four starts for Dermot Weld and John McConnell, the ten-year-old has fared far better at paddocks. 

Her first foal is the high-class Malavath, a Tally-Ho bred filly who sold for just £29,000 to Star Bloodstock to Star Bloodstock at the 2020 Goffs UK Premier Yearling Sale. She subsequently sold to a partnership that included David Redvers, Everest Racing and Barbara Keller for £120,000 at Arqana's Breeze-Up Sale in Doncaster the following spring. 

Sent into training with Francis Graffard, Malavath broke her maiden on her third start at two before landing the Group 2 Criterium de Maisons-Laffitte and then finishing a half-length second to Pizza Bianca in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf. 

Malavath landed the Group 3 Prix Imprudence on her seasonal comeback at three and was also second to Kinross in the Prix de la Foret that autumn. She then sold to Moyglare for €3,200,000 at Arqana's December Sale that year.

Malavath: high-class sister of Scorthy ChampCredit: Racing Post/Scott Burton

Her second foal was Knight, a 210,000gns Tattersalls Book 2 purchase by Stroud Coleman Bloodstock. He won both his starts at two, including the Group 3 Horris Hill Stakes, and was also second in the Group 2 Celebration Mile and Listed Fortune Stakes. The trio's Cotai Glory half-sister, Anybody But You, has not yet made the track but sold to Ken Condon for €200,000 at the 2022 Goffs Orby Sale. 

Frankel had four of the five runners in the Moyglare Stud Stakes and it was Lake Victoria, a last-time-out scorer of the Group 3 Sweet Solera Stakes, who took top honours. 

The Coolmore homebred was making it three from three and has no doubt lived up to her pedigree, being a daughter of Haydock Sprint Cup and Commonwealth Cup heroine Quiet Reflection, by Showcasing. 

It was a first Group 1 winner for the Whitsbury Manor Stud stalwart as a broodmare sire, his other daughters having produced Group 2 Sandy Lane Stakes winner El Caballo and this year's Listed Windsor Castle Stakes scorer Ain't Nobody. 

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