‘You can’t do any more than what he’s done’
Yulong delighted with the flying start made by their in-demand first-season sire Lucky Vega
Their mare Via Sistina (Fastnet Rock) may have grabbed the headlines on Saturday, but Yulong Stud is ebullient over the start to racetrack representation made by another British import in their relatively unsung stallion Lucky Vega (Lope De Vega).
Via Sistina carried the green and white silks – increasingly ubiquitous amid the Yulong revolution – to victory in Saturday’s Champions Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m), her fourth top-tier success of the spring and her fifth in Australia since being bought by Zhang Yuesheng’s growing empire for 2.7 million guineas at the Tattersalls December Mares Sale in 2023.
But a few races earlier, Darby Racing’s Within The Law (Lucky Vega) (pictured below) got her sire off the the perfect start – a stakes winner with his first Australian runner – by romping to a 1.3-length success in the Inglis Banner (RL, 1000m).
It followed Lucky Vega’s first runner anywhere also scoring, when the colt Vega For Luck took a 950-metre maiden at Tauranga on October 5 before a third at Ellerslie, setting out his stall for the $1m Karaka Millions (RL, 1200m) on January 25.
Lucky Vega’s instant success echoed – in fact slightly exceeded – that 12 months earlier of his Yulong barnmate Alabama Express (Redoute’s Choice), whose first runner Karavas scored at Murray Bridge before his second, Shangri La Express, took Randwick’s prestigious Kirkham Plate (1000m).
And with more bookings coming for the son of Lope De Vega (Shamardal) since Saturday, with breeders keen to pounce while his service fee remains only $16,500, Yulong is delighted with the early strides made by a stallion they purchased as a yearling in Ireland.
there’s been a lot of positive feedback about his two-year-olds that we haven’t seen yet. Let’s hope we can see some more of them perform on the track soon
“It’s early days of course, but you can’t do any more than what he’s done,” Yulong CEO Sam Fairgray told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“A winner both in Australia and New Zealand, and first stakes winner as well, so you couldn’t wish for a better start.
“You hope he can keep it going of course, but there’s been a lot of positive feedback about his two-year-olds that we haven’t seen yet. Let’s hope we can see some more of them perform on the track soon.”
Yulong has made a splash with some British purchases in recent years, headed by Via Sistina, Alcohol Free (No Nay Never) and another offspring of Lope De Vega, Place Du Carrousel. But it’s not just mares Zhang’s enterprise has been buying from the region.
They purchased Lucky Vega at Goff’s Orby Yearling Sale in Ireland in October 2019 for 175,000 euros, around $A284,000 at the time, via bloodstock agent Michael Donohoe.
“Michael picked him out as a yearling. He liked him physically, he was a good moving horse, so we purchased him and gave him to Jessica Harrington to train,” Fairgray said.
The colt also boasted outcross potential if Yulong could bring him to Australia as a stallion, being Danehill-free and out of an unraced mare who was from Danzig’s second most famous sireline, being by Cape Cross (Green Desert).
“The key to it is being able to introduce some new blood, and that’s what he’s done,” Fairgray said.
“His sire, Lope De Vega, stood here in Australia and had done very well, with five Group 1 winners here,” he added, in reference to the likes of Santa Ana Lane, Vega Magic and Gytrash.
“Lope De Vega’s no longer coming back here to stand, so to be able to try to bring some of that blood back to keep it all going was attractive.
“When you’re buying colts in Australia you’re generally buying them out of similar bloodlines, whereas if you can find horses in the northern hemisphere that you think are going to work in Australia as well, that’s attractive. And if they become good racehorses, it becomes a double bonus.”
Lucky Vega also hails from a female family which has been subsequently proven to work in Australia. He and three-time Group 1 winner Militarize (Dundeel) share a second dam in the French-bred Satwa Queen (Muhtathir).
Like his offspring so far, Lucky Vega was an instant success on the track. He won an 18-runner maiden on debut, then ran second at Group 2 level at the Curragh before returning to that same track to land the Phoenix Stakes (Gr 1, 6f) in August 2020.
He was placed three more times at G1 level, including a second in his Swan song in Royal Ascot’s St James’s Palace Stakes (Gr 1, 1m) in 2021 before starting his stud career, first at Yulong but also shuttling under arrangement to Ireland’s National Stud.
“He was a very good two-year-old himself and trained on at three,” Fairgray said. “He could’ve achieved a lot more on the track but we were setting up the farm here and acquiring stallions was something we wanted to do, so we retired him and got him to stud here.”
In Australia, Lucky Vega covered books of 119, 168 and 91 mares in his first three seasons, at fertility rates of 79 per cent, 83 per cent and 72 per cent.
From a first crop of 84 live foals – 29 of whom are so far named – the reports from trainers have been strong, Fairgray said.
“When he arrived here, one thing that was quite evident was he’s actually very typical of the Australian type,” Fairgray said. “He’s not a big horse, but he’s got a great physique, a nice head, a big hindquarter and shoulder, and he’s passed that on to his progeny. As yearlings they’ve been well received, and he leaves an attractive type.
“The interesting thing is a lot of trainers have said the same thing as they’ve said about the Alabama Express stock – that they’ve all got fantastic brains and they’re easy horses to work with, which is a positive sign.”
Fairgray said Lucky Vega, whose first northern hemisphere offspring will race in the new year, was on track for an increased book this spring of more than 120 mares.
“He was already well supported off the back of the types he was leaving,” he said, “and in the last few weeks, bookings have been filtering in where people have obviously been hearing trainers have a good one and they like them, and so on, and so people are happy to send a mare to him.
“We’ve had a couple of people book in since Saturday. I think people want to take the opportunity while he’s still at a reasonable fee to get into them, because if he continues on like this with the rest of his crop, next year he’ll be in high demand, hence his service fee would probably go up.”
Lucky Vega, who’s on the fifth rung among Yulong’s eight stallions fee-wise, will continue to shuttle for the foreseeable future to the Irish National Stud, where he enjoys patronage from among Yulong’s band of some 50 broodmares who board at various farms in the country.
“We’ve got plenty of nice foals and yearlings by him up in Europe,” Fairgray said. “Hopefully he can do a similar things up there. It’d be great for him to be going well in both hemispheres.”
Lucky Vega had 48 first crop yearlings sold in Australia this year, averaging $42,000. Melbourne’s Inglis Premier sale offered the most, with 13 lots. Magic Millions Gold Coast sold four and Inglis Easter one, with each selling one of his top-priced lots for the year, at $160,000.
The Yulong-bred, Bjorn Baker-trained Within The Law was bought by Darby Racing for just $30,000, as one of the sire’s five lots at Inglis Classic.
Within The Law hails from the rich family of Denise’s Joy (Seventh Hussar), as the first foal out of the placed seven-year-old mare Contract Signed (Dundeel).
Third dam So Gorgeous (Brief Truce) won five stakes races including the VRC Ascot Vale Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m), which has since become the Coolmore Stud Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m).
