By Elaine Belval
Few stallions are having a better run than the English stallion Kyllachy.
It started on Saturday, March 31, when his four-year-old son Krypton Factor defeated 11 sprinters in the G1 Golden Shaheen in Dubai. Among those this talented sprinter left in the dust were 2011 Golden Shaheen winner Rocket Man, Hong Kong sprinter Lucky Nine (registered as Luck Or Design), and US G1 winner The Factor. Very unusually, Krypton Factor is inbred 3×2 to Polar Falcon, the sire of both Pivotal (sire of Kyllachy) and the gelding’s dam Cool Question. He was bred by Lady Fairhaven but now races under the ownership of his trainer Fawzi Abdulla Nass.
On Sunday, April 1st, Penitent, a six-year-old gelding, won the Doncaster Mile for owner Middleham Park Racing XVII, breeder Cheveley Park Stud and trainer David O’Meara.
On the heels of these wins, two Kyllachy three-year-olds won major preps for classic races:
In France, Dragon Pulse handed European Champion two-year-old Dabirsim his first defeat, in the G3 Prix de Fontainebleau. Dragon Pulse’s next stop is expected to be a rematch with Dabirsim in the May 13 G1 Poule d’Essai des Poulains (French 2000 Guineas). Dragon Pulse is owned by Tan Kai Chab, bred by J.F. Tuthill and Mrs. A.W.F. Whitehead, and trained by Mikel Delzangles. Last season, Dragon Pulse won the G2 Futurity at the Curragh and finished second in the G1 National S. at the same track.
In Italy, Noble Hachy won the G3 Premio Carlo Chiesa. She is owned and bred by Allevamento La Nuova Sbarra SRL and trained by Luigi Riccardi. Her next start is the G3 Premio Regina Elena (Italian 1000 Guineas) on April 29.
Kyllachy is one of 19 G1 winners sired by one of Europe’s best sires, Pivotal. Kyllachy hit his best stride at four, winning the five-furlong G1 Nunthorpe S. at York, one of Europe’s premier sprint races. He also won the five-furlong G2 Temple S. and five-furlong G3 Palace House S. and finished third in the G2 five-furlong King’s Stand S. at Royal Ascot. He was rated an impressive “129” by Timeform at the end of the season. All told, Kyllachy won six of 12 starts, including four of five at age four.
Kyllachy has a modest female family; his dam is the winner Pretty Poppy, a daughter of leading sire Song (winner of the five-furlong King’s Stand S. and Temple S.). But Kyllachy’s sire Pivotal has proven to be one of the best Nureyev-line stallions at stud, and though he stands in England, he has sired US G1 winners Golden Apples and Megahertz.
Kyllachy had his first runners in 2006 and his first crop included the two-year-old SWs Sadeek and Blue Echo. GSWs Mood Music, Tariq, and Arabian Gleam, among others, would follow from that crop. His G1 winner Sole Power duplicated his sire’s victory in the prestigious Nunthorpe S. He has had SWs in the prestigious sprint races in Hong Kong (Dim Sum – registered as Algol), along with the Golden Shaheen. Kyllachy is a brilliant and precocious sire—the average winning distance of his progeny’s stakes wins is a brisk 6.4 furlongs, and although he does have four SWs at eight furlongs, Dragon Pulse is his first Pattern winner at that distance. Almost 40% of his stakes winners had a black-type victory as two-year-olds.
On April 21st, Kyllachy was represented by his first SW as a broodmare sire when the three-year-old Trade Fair filly Moonstone Magic won the Fred Darling S.-G3 in England for owner/breeder Lady Marchwood and trainer Ralph Beckett.
Kyllachy is having a banner 2012. For now, he still stands for £10,000 at Cheveley Park Stud (alongside his sire).