Value Sires Part III: Commercial Selection Box

01/06/2025 12:44 PM

For this third part in our series on value sires in Europe, we are approaching the level where the word value perhaps becomes more meaningful in that we are dealing with stallions in the €10,000 to €19,999 fee bracket. 

In this mid range, some sires are passing through, either on their way up as popularity and commercial demand soars, or dropping in fee during the sometimes notoriously difficult years in a stallion's career. Notably that often comes in the third and fourth seasons at stud when they are no longer shiny and new but have not yet had runners to affect reputations, either positively or negatively. 

New on Parade

Let's deal first with some new arrivals. As has been discussed in these pages already, the British Flat stallion ranks have only three new names for the 2025 season, and two of those fall within this price bracket.

Few studs can bask in the reflected glory of establishing one of the modern wonders of the stallion scene in quite the way Cheveley Park Stud can in regard to its homebred hero Pivotal (GB). From £6,000 in 1997 to a high of £85,000 a decade later, the son of Polar Falcon provides a perfect reminder of how top-class stallions do not always enter stud at an elite fee. 

This year, Cheveley Park has welcomed Vandeek (GB) to its roster and indeed his sire Havana Grey (GB) looks very much to be following that example of his fellow Group 1-winning sprinter Pivotal. Havana Grey started at £8,000 and was as low as £6,000 though this third and fourth seasons. Then came his first runners, of which the G1 Middle Park Stakes and G1 Prix Morny winner Vandeek was the standout performer. He now becomes one of two young sons of Havana Grey at stud, along with the Irish National Stud's Shouldvebeenaring (GB), and starts out at almost double the opening fee of Havana Grey himself at £15,000.

Vandeek had created a bit of a stir even before he made it to the racecourse, when topping the Tattersalls Craven Breeze-up Sale of two years ago. He was bought by Anthony Stroud on behalf of KHK Racing for 625,000gns after reportedly clocking the fastest breeze. Thereafter he proved that that eye-catching spin up the Rowley Mile was no fluke, remaining unbeaten through his four juvenile starts for Simon and Ed Crisford, including the G2 Richmond Stakes prior to his Group 1 triumphs. It was disappointing to see him race only twice at three, but he added third-place finishes in the G2 Sandy Lane Stakes and G1 July Cup before his retirement. 

Vandeek's dam is the non-winner Mosa Mine (GB) (Exceed And Excel {Aus}) but there are a couple of other stallions not too far away in his pedigree. Granddam Baldemosa (Fr) won over a mile and is a Lead On Time half-sister to the classy Balbonella (Fr) (Gay Mecene), winner of the Prix Robert Papin when it was still a Group 1 and later fourth in Miesque's Poule d'Essai des Pouliches during a career which stretched to nine wins in France and America. At stud she produced the champion sprinter and notable stallion Anabaa, as well as Key Of Luck. 

Joining Vandeek in Newmarket is Bradsell (GB), who represents another branch of Bahrain's Al Khalifa family in Shaikh Nasser's Victorious Racing. Being pitched in at £10,000 seems a fair starting point for this clearly tough sprinter who twice bounced back from injury to add to his admirable record on the track.

It was only last year that the National Stud launched new stallion Mutasaabeq (GB), who, by September, had been sold to stand in India. Bradsell will undoubtedly prove more popular, though his own sire Tasleet (GB) was, similarly, dispatched to India for the 2024 breeding season after five years at Shadwell's Nunnery Stud. 

Out of the Listed-winning Archipenko mare Russian Punch (GB), Bradsell is his family's star performer by a wide margin but a star he undoubtedly was on the track. Announcing his presence with a nine-length win at York on debut, earning a TDN Rising Star in the process, he went on to win the G2 Coventry Stakes before sustaining a fracture when finishing fourth in the G1 Phoenix Stakes. By the following June he had won at Royal Ascot for the second time, claiming the first of three Group 1 triumphs in the King's Stand Stakes. Returning at four after ten months off the track, he won another three times, including the Nunthorpe and the Flying Five. 

There is a strong case to be made for Henry Longfellow (Ire) at his opening fee at Coolmore of €15,000. For a start, he was an unbeaten Group 1 winner at two, and only a neck separated him (from Rosallion) in attempting to land his second Group 1 in the St James's Palace Stakes. Admittedly, his three-year-old season did not pick up from there, despite another placed finish in the G1 Prix du Moulin, but let's not forget his pedigree.

His dam is the sensational Minding (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), winner of the Oaks, 1,000 Guineas, Pretty Polly, Nassau and Queen Elizabeth II Stakes, and at two the Fillies' Mile and Moyglare Stud Stakes. Lo and behold, that seven-time Group 1 winner is now a Group 1 producer at the first attempt, thanks in part to Henry Longfellow's sire Dubawi (Ire), whose sons at stud include Night Of Thunder (Ire) and Too Darn Hot (GB). 

There there is the July Cup winner Mill Stream (Ire), who joins the champion sire Dark Angel (Ire) at Yeomanstown Stud at €12,500. A sprinter from the Galileo line (think Havana Grey), in this case a son of the versatile and well-bred miler Gleneagles (Ire), Mill Stream's speedy dam-line includes his own half-brother, G2 Richmond Stakes winner Asymmetric (Ire) (Showcasing {GB}), and the G2 Flying Childers winner Wunders Dream (Ire), who is a half-sister to his granddam.

Runners to Come

The first crop of Mehmas (Ire) included the Group 1 winners Supremacy (Ire), who has his first runners this year and whose fee places him in the next chapter of value sires, and Shadwell's Minzaal (Ire). The latter remained in training as a four-year-old and therefore will have his first yearlings appearing at the sales later this year. His 45 weanlings sold last year averaged approximately €65,700, which was more than four times his initial fee of €15,000. Now, the Derrinstown Stud stallion has been trimmed to €12,500. Of course, using him this year means that resultant offspring will be eligible for sales after his first runners have appeared so, yes, there is risk involved for those breeding commercially, but that doesn't change the fact that he was a consistent performer across three seasons, only finishing out of the first three twice in 11 starts, with his wins including the G1 Sprint Cup and G2 Gimcrack Stakes. 

At the same stage in his stud career is the durable and classy Stradivarius (Ire), who has remained at £10,000 in his first three seasons. He is unlikely to have winners as early as Minzaal or some of the other more precocious types among his intake, but it will be a surprise if he doesn't have a decent smattering of juvenile winners by the end of 2026 with the promise of plenty more to come as his runners mature. He remains an intriguing prospect as a stallion, and a deserved star attraction for the National Stud.

Mishriff (GB) should have been a stud contemporary of the two above but was forced to miss his first covering season with a foot injury. Hence, he only started out last year at €17,500 and has now been trimmed to €16,000 at Sumbe. If his first foals are as good looking as he is, the Prix du Jockey Club and Juddmonte International winner from the family of Kodiac (GB) and Invincible Spirit (Ire) will be off to a good start.

The fee for Native Trail (GB) exactly mirrors that of Mishriff to date. A burly son of Oasis Dream (GB), the European champion two-year-old of 2021 became a Classic winner in the Irish 2,000 Guineas. While Native Trail is at Darley's Kildangan Stud, over at Dalham Hall Stud the operation has Triple Time (Ire), who remains at his opening fee of £10,000. This looked good value a year ago and it bears repeating here. Triple Time, a Group 1-winning miler and son of Frankel (GB), is from a family which has barely been out of the news in recent seasons. His decorated dam Reem Three (GB) (Mark Of Esteem {Ire}) has not only produced four group winners herself, but two of her daughters are the dams, respectively, of last season's Group 1 winners Rosallion (Ire) and Inisherin (GB).

Another Group 1-winning son of Frankel at a similar price is Onesto (Ire), who hails from the Juddmonte family which spawned Dansili (GB), Cacique (GB) and Champs Elysees (GB), not to mention their three Group 1-winning sisters. Now at  €12,000 in his second season at Haras d'Etreham, Onesto's Group 1 strike came in the Grand Prix de Paris, and he was a close-up third in the Arc as well as finishing second to Luxembourg (Ire) in the Irish Champion Stakes.

Promising Beginnings

Among the younger sires with runners, two in this tier have particularly caught the eye. Shadwell's Mohaather (GB) was slowly away last year with his first two-year-olds but his season gathered notable momentum to the extent that he was joint-third with Sands Of Mali (Fr) and Hello Youmzain (Fr) on number of winners (21) in Europe. His three stakes winners were led by the G3 Molecomb winner Big Mojo (Ire) and it will be interesting to see how his three-year-olds fare. Mohaather, though lightly raced, was a group winner in each of his three seasons to race, with his greatest success coming in the G1 Sussex Stakes at four. He is back up to £15,000, having been available at €12,500 last year.

France's leading first-season sire of 2023, City Light (Fr), continued to build on that early promise last year, and he was eleventh overall in France's general sires' table with only two crops of racing age. By Siyouni (Fr), he certainly sires plenty of winners. His best to date is the G3 Prix Miesque winner Mimos (Fr) among his eight black-type performers from 164 foals in total from his first two crops. Even at his raised fee €10,000 (from €7,000 in his first five seasons), City Light remains good value and is definitely a stallion to keep an eye on.

Proven Quality

In the 'been there, done that' sector of this fee bracket one could make a case for a number of names, particularly for owner-breeders. Yes, some of these stallions are getting longer in the tooth, but Oasis Dream (GB) at £15,000 and Iffraaj (GB) at £10,000 both stand out as value selections, as does the 2014 Derby, Irish Derby and Juddmonte International winner Australia (GB). There are few better-bred and -performed stallions available at €10,000. Golden Horn (GB), too, while more generally aimed at the National Hunt market these days, keeps coming up with decent Flat performers and was responsible for a third of the runners in last year's Gold Cup at Royal Ascot. 

He has remained at £10,000, while his Overbury Stud neighbour Ardad (Ire) has been held at his fee of £12,500 for four seasons now. His yearling average for 87 sold last year was just shy of £42,000 and his juvenile runners of this year represent the first year in which he had more than 100 foals in one crop – 153 to be precise.

Cotai Glory (GB) retired to stud in the same year as Ardad and they have each had a standout Group 1 winner in Perfect Power (Ire) and The Platinum Queen (Ire) respectively – in both cases bred by Tally-Ho Stud and trained by Richard Fahey. Cotai Glory's list of stakes winners now runs to 16 and includes last season's unbeaten G2 Mill Reef Stakes winner Powerful Glory (Ire). Guess what: he too was trained by Fahey, though Con Marnane can claim the breeding honours this time. Cotai Glory still warrants plenty of support at Tally-Ho at his highest fee to date of €15,000 (up from €12,500).

Value Sires Podium

Bradsell
The National Stud, £10,000

Admirably tough, this top sprinter should be a decent commercial prospect at this opening fee.

Henry Longfellow
Coolmore, €15,000

The Group 1-winning son of Dubawi and Minding will surely not be overlooked at this enticing introductory fee.

Triple Time
Darley, £10,000

Good value last year, he remains so this time around, with his family credentials having been further enhanced in the interim. 

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