Hello Youzain's 'friends' will find this interesting...........

[Insider 4,520]

Tuesday

Big news on the first-season sire front: there is a new leader in the European rankings by the all-important metric of strike-rate of stakes winners to runners.  Step forward Hello Youmzain, who is enjoying a particularly productive September.  The Haras d’Etreham-based son of Kodiac came into the month with no stakes scorers to his name but he now has two, thanks to Misunderstood maintaining his unbeaten record by making all and being eased down to score by four and a half lengths in the Prix des Chenes at Longchamp on the 12th and Electrolyte edging out Polyvega to take the Prix Eclipse at Chantilly on Sunday. Misunderstood, trained by Mario Baratti for Etreham and Mustapha Bekhti, and Electrolyte, in the care of Archie Watson for Wathnan Racing, feature among 30 runners this season for Hello Youmzain, giving him a table-topping ratio of 6.67 per cent stakes-winners. The sire has leapfrogged the rapidly progressive Mohaather, who has delivered two black-type scorers from 44 runners (4.55 per cent), and the long-time pace-setter Sergei Prokofiev, who is two from 54 (3.7 per cent). Kameko is in fourth place by this measure, with one black-type winner from 34 runners (2.94 per cent), although he can be upgraded a little as that singleton is New Century, who struck at the highest level in the Summer Stakes at Woodbine this month. The son of Kitten’s Joy is the only freshman to have been represented by a Group/Grade 1 winner, and also has Acomb Stakes runner-up Wimbledon Hawkeye on his team. Sands Of Mali, who continues to exceed expectations with his inexpensively bred progeny, remains the only European-based first-season sire to have notched three individual stakes performers, with Ain’t Nobody earning upper-case black type in the Windsor Castle Stakes and Aviation Time and Time For Sandals reaching the places in the Windsor Castle Stakes and Lowther Stakes respectively. Darley sires Blue Point and Too Darn Hot left their rivals in the dust in last year’s European first-season sire race but the operation’s representatives this time around have been rather slower to make their mark.  Earthlight has one stakes winner – Daylight in the Prix de Cabourg – and one stakes-placed horse – Mr Lightside, third in the Molecomb Stakes – from 37 runners, while Pinatubo has no stakes winners but two black-type performers in Vintage Stakes runner-up Wolf Of Badenoch and Ascendant Stakes second Qilin Queen from 32 runners. He also has a Grade 3 third, Cavallo Bay, in the US. There is still plenty of time for the multiple Group 1-winning sons of Shamardal to shine, though. It would be a brave person who writes them off when they have so many well bred offspring to bat for them. Ghaiyyath, Darley’s brilliant world champion son of Dubawi, meanwhile has just two winners and no black-type horses of any kind from 19 runners. His progeny must presumably be more of a work in progress. Man of the moment Hello Youmzain shows that it pays to wait to get a full picture of freshman sire performance. He is by prolific precocity source Kodiac, was a Group 2 winner at two himself and was one of the break-out sires at the breeze-ups, with nine lots selling for six-figure sums, including Electrolyte, who was bought for £220,000 from the Goffs Doncaster fixture in April. However, his two-year-olds weren’t ready to roll quite as quickly as might have been assumed. His first winner didn’t arrive until May 7, when Allee De Bercy scored on debut over five furlongs at Chantilly.  He didn’t have a runner, let alone a winner, in Britain or Ireland until May 10 and he only got off the mark on these shores when Afentiko took a six-furlong Windsor novice stakes on his second start on May 25.  Tellingly, perhaps, the Paul and Oliver Cole-trained colt Afentiko has shown improvement after a long summer break. He won a seven-furlong Kempton nursery by clear water off top weight this month. Electrolyte, who was presumably finely tuned for his breeze at Doncaster in April, didn’t make his racecourse debut until early June, when he scored at Ayr on debut. In mitigation, the March-foaled colt is not from the sharpest family; in fact, he is a half-brother to ten-furlong Listed winner Steel Of Madrid and his dam is a half-sister to Gold Cup victor Rite Of Passage.  He finished a nose second in the Coventry Stakes at Royal Ascot a fortnight later – his sire’s only ambassador at the meeting, nota bene – and after lacklustre efforts in the July Stakes and Vintage Stakes also apparently benefited from a few weeks off, coming back to tough out victory in the Prix Eclipse on his first outing in 53 days.

Misunderstood, Hello Youmzain’s other standout so far, was another breezer who has shown his hand a little later than might have been expected. Although, again, he is out of Waldjagd, who was Group 2-placed over ten furlongs in Germany and hails from the stout family of Masked Marvel and Waldgeist.  The February-foaled colt won on debut over seven and a half furlongs on good to soft ground at Deauville in late July, and has clearly taken a big leap forward this autumn on the evidence of his demolition job in the Prix des Chenes on soft.  A keen sort who has worn a hood on both starts, he holds an entry in the Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere, but his trainer said after his last race he would rather wait until next year with him, suggesting he thinks the colt has some maturing to do. The idea that Hello Youmzain’s stock might need a little time is reinforced by the sire having such a good month as the Flat turf season rounds the turn into the home straight. Besides Electrolyte and Misunderstood earning Group 3 victories, and Afentiko making a good impression in his nursery success, Beronia got off the mark for George Boughey at the fifth attempt at Ayr on Friday and Beau Gars made it third time lucky for Yann Barberot in a Craon maiden on Sunday. The sire’s most striking new winner in recent weeks, though, was Kullazain, a speedily bred colt who made 150,000gns at the Tattersalls Guineas Breeze-Up Sale but, in a by now familiar tale, only made his first start for James Tate at the end of August, when he finished a distant third at Ripon. He was a different horse on his next outing at Sandown, sauntering to a four and a half-length victory.  “We liked Kullazain at the sales but he was a bit of a baby,” reported Tate after the race. “We've given him time, but we learnt a bit at Ripon and he was impressive here. He'll be better next year.” Perhaps it shouldn’t be a surprise that Hello Youmzain’s two-year-olds require a little patience. After all, he didn’t make his debut until the middle of August in his two-year-old season and his juvenile stakes success came in the Criterium de Maisons-Laffitte in October. He trained on well to win the Sandy Lane Stakes and Haydock Sprint Cup at three and the Diamond Jubilee Stakes at four.  Furthermore, for all that he is by Kodiac and is a sibling to other talented sprinters Hala Hala Athmani, Jehangeer and Zuhoor Baynoona, there are stamina strains on both sides of his pedigree, too.  Kodiac is, of course, out of the Prix de Diane winner Rafha and the dam Spasha is an unraced Shamardal half-sister to Hampton Court Stakes scorer Persian Majesty from the family of middle-distance stars Slip Anchor and Sandmason. Spasha has also produced Deutsches Derby third Royal Youmzain and Grade 2-winning hurdler Saglawy, albeit they are by the far stouter influence Youmzain. More to the point, Hello Youmzain probably didn’t cover the deep concentration of commercial mares in his first season in Normandy at a fee of €25,000 that we are used to British and Irish-based sprinters receiving. Whatever the reason, the stallion’s progeny are evidently worth the wait. If he continues on his upward curve, he should remain close to the top of the European freshman table by the end of the season, and he also ought to take high order among the sophomores in 2025.  His second-crop offerings, two of whom are available at the Tattersalls Ireland September Yearling Sale which starts today, deserve to be in strong demand – especially now that trainers and owners have the advantage of seeing how his runners need to be handled. In truth, though, none of this year's first-season sires deserves to be out in the cold with prospective buyers, as the race to make it as a long-term commercially attractive prospect is still wide open. That might actually be the best thing for the market. Blue Point and Too Darn Hot’s domination of the freshman rankings last year was awesome to behold, and greatly enriched owners of those horses’ stock, but it was disastrous in rendering so many other sires’ second-crop yearlings unsaleable. So here’s to more twists and turns like Hello Youmzain’s recent emergence as proportionally the best source of stakes winners among his peers.

[Dopey 230]

I am a friend….a very early crow on all of this … for all stallions involved…

so much emphasis on a stallion and little on the mare calibre… mares only have 1 foal a year and stallions so many…

However, I do like this stallion for one of my mares.

kodiac has done it from the ground up and is proven himself as a source of speed.

HY a DUAL G1 winner @ 3 and 4 after being a G2 winner at 2

Hello Youmzain’s family / bottom line is made up of shamardal, Sadler’s Wells, Mill Reef, and a German family full of champion horses - slip anchor etc. so plenty to play with…

so seems ok right! 

 

 

[Nerula 1,460]

Keen Follower in HY we wont get going till March. I dont mind