For the best part of two decades, British bloodstock has benefitted greatly from the presence of Oasis Dream, whether through his own capabilities as a sire or via his sons and daughters.
Now aged 24, Oasis Dream is one of those rare horses to have operated at a high level throughout his life. He has been a wonderful servant for Juddmonte Farms, which bred him out of its Dancing Brave mare Hope and has stood him for the past 20 years at its Banstead Manor Stud in Newmarket. During that time, he has supplied 18 Group/Grade 1 winners among 138 stakes scorers and stood for a peak of £85,000, all of which makes his 2024 fee of £15,000 look good value, particularly for those breeders looking to start off a young mare.
That’s especially true when it’s considered that Oasis Dream’s current two-year-old crop includes one of the most promising youngsters of the season so far in Aomori City, who followed up a placing in the July Stakes at Newmarket with a comfortable win in the Vintage Stakes at Goodwood. The colt, bred in France by Haras de Saint Pair and Ecurie Peregrine out of the Shamardal mare Setsuko, is one of five winners so far from Oasis Dream’s 18th crop, conceived when the stallion was 21-years-old.
Such a long and successful career means that there are no shortage of sons of Oasis Dream at stud. Some have been more effective than others, notably Showcasing whose own position as a sire of sires is currently being emphasised by Tasleet and Mohaather; Tasleet now resides in India, having been sold by Shadwell late last year, but did leave behind a top-notch sprinter in Bradsell, who recently made a winning four-year-old return for Archie Watson in the Prix du Cercle at Deauville, while Mohaather has gone some way to making up for a slow start with his first juveniles by firing in the stakes-winning duo Yah Moh Be There and Big Mojo.
Oasis Dream has long been regarded as a premier broodmare sire
The latter’s win in the Molecomb Stakes, in which he broke the juvenile course record, formed part of extremely productive Qatar Glorious Goodwood meeting for the Oasis Dream clan, one that also promoted his daughters in a particularly good light.
Oasis Dream has long been regarded as a premier broodmare sire. With 15 crops aged four and above working for him, he naturally possesses a wealth of opportunity to excel in that department. However, in return his daughters are rarely far from the action, between them responsible for 108 stakes winners including 15 at Group/Grade 1 level.
The current season has been notably fruitful to the point that Oasis Dream now sits within the top five European broodmare sires. As is often the case, those around him on the list – including the top three Galileo, Shamardal and Dansili – are either dead or retired. Only Invincible Spirit, another long-lived son of Green Desert, sits ahead him in terms of leading active broodmare sires, and narrowly at that.
At the time of writing, Oasis Dream’s high standing was fuelled by the presence of 11 stakes winners, several of them operating at the top table and representative of a wide range of stallions.
Big Evs, one of the highlights of Blue Point’s powerful first crop, was one of the stars of the Goodwood meeting for the second year in a row when narrowly fending off Asfoora to take the King George Stakes. Successful in last year’s Molecomb Stakes, he was bred by Rabbah Bloodstock out of Hana Lina, a daughter of champion two-year-old Queen’s Logic.
Cheveley Park Stud’s Ladyship, a homebred Oasis Dream daughter of its top miler Peeress, is also doing her connections a good turn as the dam of Audience, who proved that his earlier win in the Lockinge Stakes was no fluke with a similarly authoritative win under a penalty in the Lennox Stakes. This son of Iffraaj, who appears to be growing up with time, isn’t the only current stakes winner out of Ladyship since her three-year-old Esquire, by Harry Angel, won the Greenham Stakes at Newbury in April.
Come the end of Goodwood week, Oasis Dream’s influence stretched on into Germany, where he also featured as the damsire of the Preis der Diana heroine Erle. The filly is from the penultimate German crop of Reliable Man, a rare but welcome representative of the Darshaan sire line who now resides permanently in New Zealand at Westbury Stud, and hails from a well-established Gestut Rottgen family that previously tasted Preis der Diana success with her granddam Enora. Judging by the powerful manner with which Erle made all the running to score, it probably wouldn’t be wise to discount her chances should she venture out of Germany in the future for trainer Maxim Pechur.
The list doesn’t end there. Sir Alex Ferguson’s homebred Spirit Dancer, a Frankel gelding who won the lucrative Neom Turf Cup in Saudi Arabia back in February, represents a variation of the Galileo – Oasis Dream cross also responsible for recent Arlington Million hero Nations Pride, top stayer Quickthorn, last year’s Prix de la Foret heroine Kelina, Melbourne Cup hero Twilight Payment, the Group 1-placed Maximal and Group 2 winner Obligate (who is currently in the news as dam of Lead Artist, winner of the Glorious Stakes at Goodwood). Over in the US, meanwhile, Oasis Dream mares have also provided this year’s Grade 1 winners Nations Pride (by Teofilo), Progam Trading (by Lope De Vega) and Whitebeam (by Caravaggio).
As for the horse himself, his own midsummer success wasn’t restricted to Aomori City’s Vintage Stakes win. Just days later, he pulled off an international Listed double courtesy of Quinault, a free-running gelding who skipped around Chester to land the Queensferry Stakes for Stuart Williams, and three-year-old Columbus, who broke through at stakes level in the Prix Michel Houyvet at Deauville for Christophe Ferland. Both could yet take higher order for their ever-green sire.
Stockwell legacy continues
When it came to developing Justify into a potential worldwide force, Coolmore left very little to chance, sending him an array of high-performing and well-bred mares before placing a number of the resulting progeny in training at Ballydoyle.
It was a calculated risk. His sire Scat Daddy had been quick to bridge the North American-European divide, supplying the likes of No Nay Never, Caravaggio and Skitter Scatter despite operating early on in Kentucky off a low enough level. But the North American Triple Crown winner Justify was quite a different type of beast to those accomplished European two-year-olds, instead being a sizeable, rugged individual who did all his racing on dirt.
Quite whether Justify is at the stage where his progeny can be labelled as ‘Galileos with more class’, as described following City Of Troy’s Derby victory by Aidan O’Brien, remains open to debate. However, what isn’t questionable is that Coolmore’s strategy of supplying him with a wealth of high-class Sadler’s Wells line mares is paying off handsomely thanks to a growing group of seven stakes winners highlighted by City Of Troy and Opera Singer, both champion two-year-olds of last year who have gone on to taste Group 1 success this season.
Neither has found the path to Group 1 stardom straightforward this season. City Of Troy’s wins in the Derby and Eclipse Stakes followed a dismal showing in the 2,000 Guineas while a spring setback meant that Opera Singer didn’t appear until the Irish 1,000 Guineas in late May, when she ran creditably under the circumstances in third.
Since then, Opera Singer has progressed with her further outings, running second to Porta Fortuna in the Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot before making all under an excellent ride from Ryan Moore on her first try over 1m2f in the Nassau Stakes at Goodwood. There is chat of a crack at the Arc, for which she is priced at around 10/1, but surely there will be other rewards before then.
Although Opera Singer is the highest-rated runner out of her dam Liscanna, this is also a case where Justify owes plenty to the capability of the mare as well.
The exploits of Liscanna and her dam, the Listed winner Lahinch, are readily associated with the Madonna blue and brown silks of John Magnier’s mother Evie Stockwell (right), a successful owner-breeder in her own right. Stockwell passed away in September 2022 aged 96 so sadly didn’t live to see the achievements of her homebred Opera Singer. There is no doubt that she would have taken great enjoyment from Liscanna’s latest star, as she did from her earlier Group 1-winning siblings Hit It A Bomb and Brave Anna.
From a line that goes back to a noted George D. Widener family responsible for his champion two-year-old Evening Out, Lahinch was by far the most expensive Danehill Dancer yearling of her generation when knocked down for Ir200,000gns to Stockwell at the 2000 Goffs Orby Sale. It was a punchy price considering Danehill Dancer stood for Ir4,000gns at the time but as history relates, he was a champion sire in the making and in the case of Lahinch it proved to be money well spent when she became a dual Listed winner in the Entrepreneur Stakes at two and Leopardstown 1,000 Guineas Trial at three.
Lahinch had plenty of pace herself and although latterly the dam of an Oaks runner-up for Stockwell in Ennistymon to Galileo, also produced a rare quick one to Sadler’s Wells in Liscanna, winner of the Group 3 Ballyogan Stakes over 6f. Lahinch also boasted a relatively rare distinction of producing a classy runner, Group 3 winner The Bogberry, by the swiftly exiled Hawk Wing.
Liscanna was utilised as a mate for War Front during the years of Coolmore’s backing of the Claiborne stallion and to great effect as the resulting progeny landed 20 races between them headed by Hit It A Bomb, whose finest moment came in the 2015 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf, and Brave Anna, winner of the 2016 Cheveley Park Stakes.
As that group indicates, Stockwell was keen to maintain a golfing theme when it came to handing names to the Lahinch family.
“We’ve had the Lahinch line a long time and it’s been good to us,” she recalled in an interview with me during Brave Anna’s juvenile campaign. “It can be very difficult to get a name. With Hit It A Bomb I wanted to get the Lahinch connection [Lahinch golf club] in. One day I was playing golf with an American friend. We were playing on an elevated part of the course on the 17th tee and there were people watching. And I remember her announcing that she was going to ‘hit it a bomb!’ It became a joke. It’s a fun name.”
Both Hit It A Bomb and Brave Anna were best at two, a trend that can be associated with War Front. What Justify appears to have done in the case of Opera Singer is added further scope and a dose of stamina. With that in mind, there is the sense that a further rise up the ladder is on the cards to provide a further tribute to Stockwell and her management of the Lahinch line.
