Australia unlikely to see Lope de Vega again but Ballylinch Stud welcome our mares to visit him in Ireland
Ballylinch Stud’s former shuttler Lope de Vega (Shamardal) may have only spent four seasons standing in Australia be he has undoubtedly left some remarkable progeny behind.
From his four crops Down Under, he produced Black Caviar Lightning Stakes (Gr 1, 1000m) winner Gytrash, dual Group 1 scorer Vega Magic and last year’s Champion Sprinter in Australia Santa Ana Lane, who will be looking to defend his crown in today’s T J Smith Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m).
The son of Shamardal (Giant’s Causeway) was twice a Group 1 winner in France before being retired at the end of 2010. He joined the roster at Ballylinch for the 2011 season, standing for a fee of €15,000 (inc GST) in his first two years.
The now 13-year-old shuttled to Australia in his very first year at stud, standing at Patinack Farm for $27,500 (inc GST) and covered a healthy book of 113 mares, producing 90 live foals.
Eoin Fives of Ballylinch Stud said it is unlikely we will see Lope de Vega back at stud in Australia, but he stressed that the sire of ten individual Group 1 winners across four continents will be covering to southern hemisphere time should Australian and New Zealand breeders send their mares to Ireland.
“As his stock is rising in Australia, there has been a growing interest in breeding to him on southern hemisphere time, so he will be made available to Australian breeders from September onwards,” Fives told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“He will cover strictly limited books on southern hemisphere time but there’s benefits to that in that in a southern hemisphere capacity, you’ll see a boutique stallion for the breeders that do breed to him up here and they’ll have the chance to present a premium product at the bloodstock sales in Australia.”
Lope de Vega has already covered a high-quality book of mares on southern hemisphere time which include Group 1 winner Viddora (I Am Invincible), half-sisters to Santa Ana Lane and Melbourne Cup (Gr 1, 3200m) winner Fiorente (Monsun) as well as stakes performers Happy Odyssey (Camacho) and Acqume (Sepoy).
Despite being a French Derby (Gr 1, 2100m) winner, three-quarters of Lope de Vega’s Australian winners are over 1400 metres or less, highlighted by the fact that all three of his southern hemisphere Group 1 winners are sprinters.
“We’ve seen in the mould of his own sire (Shamardal) that he has the versatility to produce top-class sprinters but also Group 1 winners over all distances,” Fives said.
“He’s proven that he can produce a two-year-old Group 1 winner but also horses like Santa Ana Lane that improve throughout their careers as well.
“The other thing about him is that we hear from breeders and consignors that his stock are mentally very strong and his trainers tell us they have a huge appetite for racing and a will to win that seems to stay with them until they get older.
“Another point that has to be made about him and his suitability for Australia is that he’s an excellent fit for the Australian broodmare population.
“He’s totally free of Danzig and Sadler’s Wells blood and Northern Dancer appears in the sixth generation of any of his foals.
“The Danehill cross works especially well and he’s got an amazing record in that he’s got stakes winners by 13 individual Danehill line stallions. The most potent version of the cross is obviously with Fastnet Rock mares, responsible for Santa Ana Lane and Gytrash.”
In Lope de Vega’s four seasons at Patinack Farm, he covered 467 mares and produced 338 live foals. Of those foals, 265 made it to the races and 176 are winners with 17 becoming stakes-winners.
“The main thing with what he covered in Australia was that he never covered huge numbers and he covered his first two seasons at $27,500 and his last two seasons at $22,000 so the quality wouldn’t have been huge and with Santa Ana Lane and Gytrash, they are the best two horses under their first two dams,” Fives continued.
“In Europe he covered his first four seasons for no more than €15,000 and we’re seeing the benefits of him covering better mares now. His current crop of three-year-olds were conceived at €45,000 and he had four stakes-winning two-year-olds last season.
“They’re precocious horses obviously but then you’ve got five horses entered in the Derby and two of them are short enough in the betting. I think as the more expensive crops come through, we’re going to see a lot more high quality horses as you would expect.”
Lope de Vega is also already off the mark as a broodmare sire, landing his first stakes winner last year courtesy of Devil (Siyouni) in the Prix Eclipse (Gr 3, 1200m), as well as nine other individual winners.
While we might not have Lope de Vega available to breeders on the ground down under, his line is available with his 2014 Champion Two-Year-Old Colt in Europe and dual Group 1-winning son Belardo standing alongside Iffraaj (Zafonic) at Haunui Farm in New Zealand.
Belardo’s progeny will be due to hit the track in Europe this year but his first crop of yearlings in the northern hemisphere sold for an average price of AU$62,512 while his first yearlings south of the equator have averaged AU$39,999.
At Book 1 of the New Zealand Bloodstock Karaka Yearling Sale earlier this year, Peter Moody picked up a colt by the son of Lope de Vega out of the unplaced mare Ohio Girl (O’Reilly) for NZ$210,000 while at Book 2 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale last year, two colts sold for 200,000gns and 135,000gns respectively.
When Santa Ana Lane lines-up in the TJ Smith today, he will be vying to join nothing short of an outstanding list of horses to win multiple editions of the prestigious sprint, after none other than Black Caviar (Bel Esprit) and Chautauqua (Encosta De Lago).