We were delighted to see our stallions so well represented within the top echelon of the European 2yo Classifications, which were released on Wednesday.
The Tally-Ho-bred Perfect Power was handed a rating of 115 following an outstanding season for Richard Fahey that consisted of wins in the Group 1 Middle Park Stakes, Group 1 Prix Morny and Group 2 Norfolk Stakes. Perfect Power, a son of the Kodiac stallion Ardad (who we also bred and breezed), was bred here at Tally-Ho Stud out of Sagely and breezed by us at the Goffs UK Breeze-Up Sale, where he was bought by Richard Brown of Blandford Bloodstock.
Our Goffs UK Breeze-Up draft also included Twilight Jet, who is rated 110 for Michael O'Callaghan following a successful campaign capped by a win in the Cornwallis Stakes.
Cotai Glory ended 2021 as Europe's leading first-crop sire, his excellent year highlighted by the runaway wins of Kevin Ryan's Atomic Force in the Group 2 Prix Robert Papin and Group 3 Prix du Bois. Bred by David Barry, he was given a rating of 114, narrowly ahead of Galileo Gold's top first-crop sire Ebro River on 113. Trained appropriately by Hugo Palmer on behalf of Al Shaqab Racing - the connections behind Galileo Gold's own Classic career - Ebro River was Galileo Gold's first ever winner and within months had soared to Group 1 success thanks to a victory in the Phoenix Stakes at the Curragh. This tough colt also ran third in the Group 1 National Stakes.
Ebro River was bred by us out of Soft Power and sold in our Tattersalls October Book 2 draft to Charlie Gordon-Watson and Al Shaqab Racing, also the purchasers in the same week of Lusail, who sits on 113 following a season that yielded wins in the Group 2 Gimcrack Stakes and July Stakes. Another bred here at Tally-Ho Stud, he shares his sire Mehmas with the Group 2 Flying Childers Stakes winner Caturra and the Group 2 Criterium de Maisons-Laffitte heroine and Group 1 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf runner-up Malavath - both were also bred here at Tally-Ho Stud and are rated 110.
Not to be outdone is Europe's top 2yo sire of 2021, Kodiac. He sired six stakes-winning 2yos in 2021, one of whom, the Group 1 Criterium de Saint-Cloud hero and Tally-Ho graduate El Bodegon, was awarded a rating of 112. Another son, Straight Answer, sits on 111.
