Dark Angel (Ire) and The Invincible Army (Ire) may not be the only interesting stallions at Yeomanstown Stud with David O’Callaghan raising his hopes that Shaman (Ire) can marked the milestone at the Goffs this week when some of the Team 2- the winning son of Shamardal’s first pony walked through the ring.
A Shaman foal fetched 22,000 euros at the inaugural Sapphire Tattersalls Ireland sale on Saturday and O’Callaghan reckons the best is yet to come from a stallion, who will have 22 horses make his way through the ring. for the next four days at Goffs.
It was at this sale last year that Yeomanstown got off to a fruitful start with the Invincible Army. The winning foal in Group 3, the first runners to appear on the track next year, collected a respectable €34,350 on average for the 20 ponies sold.
Topping that list was Ballyduane Stud’s foal of the stallion, who was knocked out in front of top judges Peter and Ross Doyle for €85,000. That same pony was later resold in Book 1 at Tattersalls last month for 100,000gns to top player Robson Aguiar.
O’Callaghan is hoping for a similarly quick start to Shaman, and says, “Goffs have always been an exciting purchase for first-season sires – that’s where they make their mark. We’ll know how to get the progeny of the first-season boars for the rest of the year this week. We have some very good Shaman ponies at home and I hope that the same goes for the Goffs ponies. If it does, it will set a good benchmark. I think people will like them.”
He added, “Last year, the Invincible Army had a good semi-final at the Goffs. One after another, they are like beans in a pod. People seem to be enamored with the idea of using the Invincible Army and watching them all the way through this year’s highly anticipated sales. We hope that something similar can happen with Shaman. He has nice horses so hopefully he can roll the ball.”
Shamans were bred and racialized by the Wertheimer family. He has won five times in France for Carlos Laffon-Parias, the highlight being in Group 2 Prix d’Harcourt at ParisLongchamp, where he has Way To Paris (GB) and the next Arc winner sottsass (Fr) behind him.
He also showed enough agility to win over his daughter by more than seven feathers when he debuted as a teenager and won Group 3 and twice finished second at the top level. when he was only three years old.
For those reasons, O’Callaghan says he thinks Shaman, who will stand for €5,000 next season, has been fairly valued and is supporting his success.
“He covered over 100 mares in his first crop. People bought the idea of him. He entered with a small amount, at only €6,000, but he is a very good Shamardal horse and has won Group 2 more than a mile a quarter and many times placed in Group 1.”
O’Callaghan added, “He has an outstanding lineage. He’s just afraid to be a first-rate racehorse and be appropriately priced. Between his physique, his gentleman and lady, and his race track record, there’s no reason why he couldn’t pull through. He checked a lot of boxes without winning Group 1. He had a lot of work to do so he skipped it.
With El Kabeir sold to join the stallion ranks in Italy, Yeomanstown’s strongest four-man roster for 2023 is completed by G1 Middle Park winner S. Supremacy (Ire), the first ponies will come next year. That’s not to say O’Callaghan didn’t try to add to that list.
O’Callaghan explained, “El Kabeir actually went on sale last week. It is very difficult to buy stallions. The reason is not only related to the market but also to the owners of these high-class horses. The way it went this year, Shadwell and Godolphin controlled nearly all of the stallion prospects. On top of that, Aga Khan has Vadeni (Fr) (Churchill {Ire}) and it was a rare year that Coolmore didn’t have any of the top three-year-olds retire. They’ve got Luxembourg (Ire) but he’s training. It was a rare year with nothing in the hands of independence.
He added, “You could say that sometimes we are victims of our own success. It is important to us that there is a strong market for the sale of ponies, but when the majors buy these horses, as Shadwell and Godolphin have done for many years, they are the reapers. reward with stallion. future. They breed a lot and they buy a lot. The big skins have control over all the top horses and they deserve it because of all the investment they put into the game. It just means that fewer and fewer of these potential stallions have the prospect of coming to independent stallions like ours. We’re always looking but there’s nothing on our radar this year.”
One stallion that O’Callaghan hopes can continue for many more years is Dark Angel (Ire), who, at 17, bred his first Classic winner this season thanks to the winner. 1,000 Guineas of the French Mangoustine (Fr).
“God bless him. He’s got quite a few ponies in the next few weeks and we’ll be buying some of them ourselves. Hope they sell well to their breeder. He’s had a great year. He’s been on the list of top five gentlemen in Europe for the past eight years and hopefully he will continue to do so.
“He’s very tough and he’s got two, three and four-year-olds, sprinters, mile runners, ponies and cannons are all good, it doesn’t really matter. He’s just a great gentleman. He’s 17 years old but looks better than ever. He doesn’t take the shuttle and he’s very fertile so he has an easy life. He spends the summer in the fields with his livestock and comes in late October to get ready for the crop.”
Dark Angel will be represented by 21 ponies at Goffs this week while his Invincible, Yeomanstown Stud-based teammate counts 30. Sales begin at 10 a.m. Monday.
