For a snapshot of Acclamation’s legacy as a sire of sires, look no further than the 2024 season. In his veteran son Dark Angel, he has the champion sire elect and one who has achieved the title without the support of a six-figure fee in contrast to those who have gone before in the recent era.
In terms of the two-year-old standings, Acclamation’s younger son Mehmas is unlikely to overhaul Wootton Bassett at the head of the list. However, his tally of eight European stakes scorers among north of 60 two-year-old winners is a considerable achievement in light of the fact the Tally-Ho Stud stallion’s 2022 crop is the product of a €25,000 fee. By comparison, Wootton Bassett stood his first season at Coolmore for €100,000.
Incidentally, both Dark Angel and Mehmas are out of mares by Machiavellian, an extremely well-bred horse who was also the damsire of Zoffany and features twice close up in the pedigree of Lope De Vega.
Mehmas’ current two-year-old crop was bred in the aftermath of the success of his record-breaking first group of juveniles in 2020. That year’s intake of freshman sires were arguably hindered by the effects of Covid, which delayed the season until early June, but once up and running, Mehmas went on to fire in 56 winners including the Middle Park Stakes hero Supremacy and Gimcrack Stakes scorer Minzaal. Four years on and that excellent first crop has come to yield 17 stakes winners overall.
That success prompted a fee rise from €7,500 to €25,000 for the 2021 season. Breeders weren’t deterred, however. There are no fewer than 244 foals in that 2022 crop, meaning he has a wealth of opportunity behind him. Yet he is making the most of it.
Mehmas ends the year with a record-breaking 70 two-year-old winners in Europe. To place that figure into context, only two other stallions, Kodiac and Dark Angel, sired more than 40 in Europe last season.
Not only that, the quality runs high. Scorthy Champ, a brother to the high-class Mehmas pair Malavath and Knight, defeated Henri Matisse to take the National Stakes at the Curragh in September. The following month, Vertical Blue defied her 33/1 starting price to nose out her stablemate Zarigana in the Prix Marcel Boussac at Longchamp while several weeks later, Magnum Force broke new ground for the sire by becoming his first Breeders’ Cup winner in the Juvenile Turf at Del Mar.
Mehmas is no stranger to success in North America as his earlier crops include the Grade 1 winners Going Global, who sold for $2.5 million at the end of her career to Zhang Yuesheng’s Yulong Investments, and Chez Pierre. And therein lies one aspect to Mehmas’ success since while softer ground often holds no fears for his progeny, they also tend to bounce off the firmer conditions often found in North America. His stock are also often pacy individuals on the neater side, making them appealing candidates to nip round the tight American bends.
At the heart of it all, however, is a generally sound attitude and physical toughness, both attributes which also stood Acclamation in good stead during his day. That much has again been evident throughout the season for Mehmas via his group of hardy, talented two-year-old representatives that sit just below Group 1 level.

Vertical Blue and Alexis Pouchin noses out Zarigana to win the Prix Marcel Boussac. Photo – Bill Selwyn
Breeze-up graduate Aesterius has won four of seven starts for Archie Watson including the Group 2 Flying Childers Stakes, Group 3 Prix d’Arenberg and Listed Dragon Stakes. Hugo Palmer has also fared well out of Mehmas this season as the trainer of Make You Smile, who made it two from two in the Group 3 Horris Hill Stakes at Newbury, and The Waco Kid, whose defeat of Diego Ventura led home a Mehmas one-two in the Group 3 Somerville Tattersall Stakes at Newmarket. Diego Ventura also subsequently contributed to a Mehmas quinella in the Listed Doncaster Stakes when chasing home La Bellota, who sold several days later at Tattersals for 425,000gns to Blandford Bloodstock. The filly Star Of Mehmas also won the Listed Harry Rosebery Stakes at Ayr.
It would be easy to view Mehmas primarily as a two-year-old sire, especially given that he didn’t race beyond his juvenile season himself. However, he has plenty of older horses flying the flag as well; look no further than this season’s high-class sprinter Believing, now rising five, alongside the earlier, older Group/Grade 1 winners Chez Pierre, Going Global and Minzaal.
Mehmas’ fee was doubled to €50,000 for 2022 and he will stand for a career high of €70,000, all of which lends confidence that a continued upward trajectory is on the cards. At the same time, the first runners by his son Supremacy, who stands at Yeomanstown Stud, will shortly turn two. He is the first of five sons of Mehmas to stud in Europe ahead of Minzaal and Persian Force, whose first foals were well received at the winter breeding stock sales.
With a number of other sons waiting in the wings for a stud slot when the time comes, safe to say that Mehmas is doing his bit to keep Acclamation’s legacy very much alive.
Dwindling line resting on the shoulders of Blame
It wasn’t so long ago that the Hail To Reason sire line was flourishing in the US, particularly through Halo or Roberto. Halo’s best son Sunday Silence, of course, was exported to Japan, where his dominance helped that nation achieve its goal of becoming a player of global significance. Closer to home, various sons such as Devil’s Bag and Southern Halo, sire of More Than Ready, were successful in their own right but it wasn’t enough to keep Devil’s Bag’s line alive and that belonging to More Than Ready is now hanging by a thread.
As such, representatives of the line as a whole are dwindling and unless a son of Deep Impact can be introduced successfully or one of the few More Than Ready horses available becomes successful, then it will become very hard for breeders to access direct Halo blood.
Luckily, the same can’t be said for Europe, where Deep Impact’s Classic-winning son Study Of Man has made such a bright start at Lanwades Stud in Newmarket. Sire of Group 1 winner Kalpana among five first-crop stakes winners, he will by all accounts be deservedly busy at his new fee of £25,000 in 2025.
As far as the Roberto sire line is concerns, matters rest primarily on the shoulders of Claiborne Farm’s Blame. It’s a shame that this line has contracted to such a degree given its propensity for throwing sound, durable horses. For that, the commercial market has to take some responsibility; it’s very capable of producing large, rugged animals, often with a leaning towards turf, little of which suits commercial demands. There can also be a mental toughness to them that is not to everyone’s tastes. For instance, many of the best colts by Dynaformer, one of Roberto’s leading sire sons, had to be gelded to get the best out of them.
The end result is that today there are few Roberto-line representatives left in Kentucky, of which Blame is the most established.
Blame left the racetrack as something of a villain when denying Zenyatta an unbeaten send-off in the 2010 Breeders’ Cup Classic at Churchill Downs. That narrow victory was the culmination of a championship four-year-old campaign that also took in wins in the Stephen Foster Handicap and Whitney Handicap, and made him one of the most desirable new stallions of 2011 when he returned to stand at his birthplace Claiborne Farm at a fee of $35,000.
Truth be told, Blame (pictured) has become a useful rather outstanding stallion. He is very capable of producing a top-notcher, as his record of six Group/Grade 1 winners attests, but they haven’t come with the regularity that might have satisfied those early expectations. His crop numbers fell as low as 34 in 2018, when Claiborne slashed his fee to $12,500, but since then, his popularity has rebounded and his fee has risen back up to $25,000. Today’s market is so brutal that it’s quite possible were Blame in different hands, then he might not be in Kentucky today.
Part of that rebound can be attributed to his place as an affordable proven option. His current stud record consists of 50 stakes winners and he’s an effective influence on both dirt and turf. Various operations have also come to use him as a means of tapping into the Roberto sire line, an aspect that has grown further in importance as he’s become a broodmare sire of note.
As a Grade 1-winning son of Arch from the famous Rough Shod family via Special, Blame has long appealed as a likely candidate to develop into an effective broodmare sire of note, especially in light of the strength of his early books.
Now 19-years-old, he has 29 stakes winners to his credit as a damsire, 17 of whom scored in 2024. They include top Canadian two-year-old And One Time More, a daughter of Omaha Beach who won the Grade 1 Natalma Stakes at Woodbine, and Grade 2 winners Honor D Lady (by Honor Code) and Tiny Temper (by Arrogate).
However, arguably the most important member of the group, Switzerland, resides in Australia where his record for the Coolmore partners and Chris Waller includes a win in the Group 1 Coolmore Stud Stakes. The Snitzel colt, a A$1.5 million Inglis Easter yearling purchase by connections, is out of Grade 3 winner Ms Bad Behaviour, a Blame mare inbred to Kris S sourced by Arrowfield Stud out of the US in 2019. Switzerland, whose wins also include the Group 2 Todman and Roman Consul Stakes, is her first foal.
There’s no doubt that breeders are latching on to Blame’s potential as a broodmare sire. His daughters, for instance, were also responsible for the first two home in the 2022 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile in Forte and Loggins while in Europe, the Exceed And Excel filly Sacred, out of the Blame mare Sacre Caroline, won the Group 2 Hungerford Stakes for Cheveley Park Stud and William Haggas.
Yet it’s not just all about his daughters. Sons of Blame might be thin on the ground in the US but the foresight of Shadai Farm in pursuing his Grade 1-winning son Nadal for stud duty appears to be already paying off. Injury restricted the strapping colt to just four starts for Bob Baffert in the US but he won on each occasion, notably the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn Park.
Installed at 4,000,000yen (£20,200) upon his retirement to Shadai Farm, Nadal is the sire of 32 winners out of his 103-strong first crop and ended the year as Japan’s leading first-crop sire ahead of fellow Shadai stallion Saturnalia. Although none of 32 have so far won black-type, there are a number of promising individuals among the group including Federer, who won his debut by open lengths at Kyoto in October, and Quantum Wave, who is unbeaten in two starts. Once again, it would seem that Japanese breeders are reaping the rewards of patronising this line at the expense of their counterparts in North America.